My daycare kids love grapes. They also love raisins. Now, we all know that a raisin is simply a dried up grape, but that probably seems a little puzzling to a toddler. After all, a raisin doesn’t look anything like a grape! To help the hooligans really understand, we conducted one of the easiest science activities ever. We turned grapes into raisins right here at home. The hooligans got to see for themselves, the transformation that takes place as a green, juicy, round grape shrivels up into a dark, dried, wrinkly raisin.
It a pretty cool process.
Even I was rather impressed.
And the best part was how simple it was! You just need a little time and patience. Ok… maybe a lot of time and patience.
Check it out!
Supplies for turning grapes into raisins:
- grapes
- bowl
Seriously! That’s it!
We stared with 5 juicy, ripe grapes.
They actually look like they were a little past their best, don’t they?
They might have been.
Oh well! They were perfect to start our experiment with!
Day 1
For weeks, the two-year old would head straight over to the grapes upon arrival to see if there had been any changes from the previous day.
DAY 10
Of course the changes were hard to detect day-to-day, but it was cool to see those grapes gradually dry up and get smaller and darker as the weeks passed.
Day 21
Flash-forward a couple of months… Sorry for the lack of photos in between days 21 and 64!
As much as the preschool hooligans were checking on our grapes regularly, I got a little lazy about pulling the camera out to document the scientific changes.
But hey, look at this!
Ladies and gentlemen, we have RAISINS!
Day 64
How cool is that?
And there you have it. Grapes to raisins in a mere 2 months, and we watched it happen!
For the record, we didn’t eat our raisins.
They’d been sitting out, uncovered for 2 months.
I can just imagine the amount of dust harboured in each little crease and wrinkle!
If you want to eat your raisins, you may want to use this process to turn your grapes into raisins. You won’t have to worry about your grapes collecting dust with this one!
For more awesome, easy science experiments for kids, check out our:
Expanding Ivory Soap Experiment
Dino Dig – Melting Salt with Ice
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Jackie is a mom, wife, home daycare provider, and the creative spirit behind Happy Hooligans. She specializes in kids’ crafts and activities, easy recipes, and parenting. She began blogging in 2011, and today, Happy Hooligans inspires more than 2 million parents, caregivers and Early Years Professionals all over the globe.
Emma @ P is for Preschooler
That is very cool! My daughter has been asking about how grapes become raisins – now I have a way to show her!
happyhooligans
Awesome, Emma! Perfect timing then!
Felicity McArthur
I think you have amazing patience. I would have swapped the grapes with raisins after 4 days max.
Judy Mastick
Great experiment for kids. But I didn’t see where the recipe was for grapes turned into raisins that you can eat.
happyhooligans
Whoops! Thanks for pointing that out, Judy! I hadn’t even noticed that I’d forgotten to add the link to the post! I’ve added it now, so you can click on it and check out the other method. Thanks again for letting me know I’d overlooked adding the link.
Linda Street
Would putting them in a warm place (eg. airing cupboard) speed the process up a little, do you think?
happyhooligans
It certainly might, Linda, especially if placed in a warm, sunny place.
Jaime
When I was a kid, we used to do this all the time! In our house we had radiators for heat. So, I would put a bowl of grapes on the radiator and watch them turn into raisins. It probably only took a few days. I really can’t remember if we actually ate them, but I remember thinking that the transformation from grape to raisin was amazing! lol your post brought back some good memories.