Mandarin Candles

After our 'festering foam' yesterday, I thought it would be cool to do some more science experiments!
I searched the fruit bowl for a mandarin and found one that I thought would work.

I cut the mandarin in half and we scooped the fruit out. While having a nibble on the fruit, I filled the skins with some oil.

We waited a little bit for the oil to soak up the pith and then we lit it. It took a couple of goes before our candles lit but when they did, they burnt for ages!

So we did the other half. We nibble on the fruit while the oil soaked the pith and then we lit it. This candle worked better because the pith was longer than the first pith.


The children were very good at using there eyes to watch the candles.
What a fun way to introduce science concepts to the children, and we got to have a nibble to!