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Let’s bake some atomic cookies to learn about the parts of an atom! We are using Christian Kids Explore Chemistry by Bright Ideas Press. The book recommends making the cookies 4 inches across so that the electrons fit on your cookie. You can bake the M&M’s into the cookie, or you can do what we did, which is to frost the cookie and then decorate it with the M&M’s to represent the protons, neutrons, and electrons.
Begin by mixing together your favorite cookie dough recipe. You can buy pre-made sugar cookie dough if you want to skip this step. Then place wax paper on the counter, and plop the cookie dough down onto the wax paper. Place another piece of wax paper on top.
Grab the rolling pin and roll out the cookie dough until it is flat. Now remove the wax paper. My daughter shows you how to do this in the video at the bottom of this blog post.
Use a lid or small bowl as a cookie cutter. Make sure the diameter is at least 4 inches, but also keep in mind that the cookies expand a little bit in the oven. Bake the cookies and let them cool.
While you are waiting for the cookies to cool, sort the M&M’s into three bowls:
- red for protons
- blue for neutrons
- brown for electrons
Go ahead and eat the other colors, since you won’t need them anyway.
Now frost the atomic cookies with white icing, smoothing it down with a table knife.
It’s time to decorate the atomic cookies. For the carbon atom, you will want 6 protons, 6 neutrons, and 6 electrons. Place the red protons and blue neutrons in the center of the atomic cookie. Grab some black icing gel and draw 2 rings around the nucleus. These are electron shells. Place 2 brown electrons on the inner shell, and 4 brown electrons on the outer shell. Your atomic cookie is now complete.
Take a look at how we made these atomic cookies:
