We had “scientific” fun with secret words written on papers and the mission of the 007 agents (aka kids) was to discover what the secret messages were! Super fun science and literacy activity combined!
To create the secret messages, you will need:
– A lemon
– Bowl
– Earbuds
– Paper
– Knife
The method to make the “secret messages”:
Cut the lemon in half and squeeze the lemon juice out. Then use the ear bud and write a word on the paper then leave it to dry.
The 007 mission
The older “agents” each used a blank piece of paper and a pen. They made turns to look at the secret message and use a gadget (aka flash light) to see if they can discover the word. When they see it, they write it down not showing the other agents the word. When all was done the word was revealed and they see if they are correct and if they spelled it correctly.
The younger kids received the piece of paper with the word/shape on and used the flash light to trace the word/shape and see if they could write it correctly.
Mission accomplished!!
The science behind this activity:
The acid in the lemon juice weakens the paper where the message has been written. When you shine a light on it, it creates a tiny bit of heat and makes the acid “shine”. Cool, right?
Use this secret messages activity to practice spelling sight words, discover phrases or new words etc.
Contributed by N. Joubert
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