If you’ve ever wondered how to make butter, you’re in the right spot. And if you haven’t done it before, you won’t believe how easy it is. Even with kids!
…which is the true test of how simple something really is.
Making homemade butter became one of our classroom Thanksgiving traditions years ago. It’s inexpensive to make, takes less than twenty minutes, and has a wow factor we never get tired of. We even make this at home whenever we have hot, fresh bread. It’s delicious!
For real.
HOW TO MAKE BUTTER IN A JAR
Technically, you only need one ingredient to make butter… whipping cream. We like ours salted though, so we’ve begun adding a pinch or two of salt to a half cup of cream. Also, the salt acts as an agitator which makes the butter come together a little bit faster. And that’s all you need! Place the cream and salt into a jar or cup with a lid, and shake!
And shake.
And shake.
If you’ve been with me long enough, you know I turn almost everything into a lesson. This one screams science to me… specifically the changing states of matter. I mean, you start out with a liquid and about six minutes later, you have a soft solid. You can stop here and call it “whipped butter” (which is also very good), or keep going until the solid separates from the liquid.
In our classroom, we do this activity in small groups during our week of THANKSGIVING SCIENCE LESSONS. Each group of 3-4 students gets:
- 1/2 cup of heavy whipping cream
- a tiny cup of salt they can “pinch” from
- a plastic cup with a lid
- a stopwatch
- pieces of bread
- a plastic knife
- and the recording sheets for the BUTTER LAB
GIVE IT SOME GUSTO!
Our kids take turns shaking. The more “oomph” they give it, the less time it takes to form into a solid. If your students are gently shaking, encourage them to get into it a little more. Vigorous shaking should lead to whipped butter in about 6-7 minutes. That’s why they need to take turns shaking… it can be tiring for tiny muscles. We use the stopwatches to give each child one minute of shaking before passing it on to the next person.
So what can you expect? After three minutes of shaking, your students should begin to feel and hear that something is changing inside their cup! And in about 6 or 7 minutes, they should hear the absence of any liquid. This is a good time to lift the lid and check. Wait ’til you see their faces! (This stage will look like whipped butter.)
The matter will change again though. After 6-7 more minutes of shaking, the kids will start to hear the sloshing sound of liquid again and feel a firm solid banging around in the jar. They can’t believe how many times the matter has changed and it’s a big science WOW for them… they made butter! (Total time of shaking, about 15 minutes.)
BREAD AND BUTTER TIME!
If you have time, you might also bake fresh bread with them. I usually don’t, so we just bring in sandwich bread so they can sample the fruits of their labor. Although some kids say they prefer “real butter” (store-bought, lol), I’ve never had a kid who didn’t like the fresh butter. It does spark some conversation though about the similarities and differences between our homemade butter and butter they can get at the store.
THANKSGIVING SCIENCE LABS
To elevate this experience a little and tie it to standards, check out this resource to see if it fits your instructional needs. It includes five different SCIENCE LABS that are perfect for the week leading up to the Thanksgiving holiday.
- Shake It Up – The Changing States of Matter
- A Corny Surprise – The Life Cycle of Plants
- Will the Feast Float? – Sinking and Floating
- Pass the Pie – Our Five Senses
- Boat Builders – A Team Engineering Challenge
If you’re going to do the Corny Surprise lab with your class, get your corn cobs early. It will take about 6-7 days to reach the stage shown above.👆 It’s a very simple lab giving children the opportunity to observe the life cycle of plants.
Place your corn cobs in a shallow dish of water and place near a sunny window. Within the week, the kernels (seeds) will begin to sprout. Every time we do this, many of the kernels are pushed off the cob as they began to expand and grow. There are definitely enough to give each student several to take home and plant.
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Happy teaching!
