How does it become bigger?


An experiment to show that water magnifies things.


  • A page with some printed matter (a newspaper or a flyer) for every group of five children in the class.
  • A piece of clear transparent plastic for each page droplets on text copy, magnifies things
  • A plastic ink dropper for each page
  • A small bowl for each group. The bowl is required to hold some water
  • Enough napkins or mop cloths, incase there is spillage


  1. Divide the class into groups of five and make each group sit in a circle.
  2. In the centre of each group, place the paper and above a section of the printed matter, put the clear plastic sheet
  3. Ask each child to use the dropper or the tip of his / her finger to make a drop on the plastic. It’s best if the drops are on some printed letters.

Some questions to ask the children

  1. What is the shape of the water drops on the plastic?
  2. Do the letters under the drops look bigger or smaller than those which do not have drops on them?

Check it out at home
Does any child have grandparents at home or parents who wear specs? Ask the children to have the parent show them how a newspaper looks when they see it through the spectacle lens (without wearing the spectacles).Tell the children that they should not do this too often or they can spoil their eyes. The water drops act just like the lens in the spectacles and make the letters look bigger.