There are four glass jars here, with stickers telling what they will have in them. We will put one-half cup of cold water into each one. Now, let's add one teaspoonful of salt
to the jar with the "salt" sticker on it, one teaspoonful of sugar to the sugar jar, one teaspoonful of epsom salts to its' jar, and one teaspoonful of soil to the last one.

We can take turns being stirrers, as they all need stirring. We will stir until the crystals (solid stuff) have dissolved. They will take a lot of stirring, because we are using cold water. (Most things dissolve faster in hot water than in cold water.)

Those who are not stirring can make notes about what they see. It's a good idea to keep track of the time, as well. When we cannot see the solids, that means that they have dissolved. Which one dissolved first?

How about the soil? Soil is not soluble, and it will not ever dissolve. However, it will go into suspension, which means that the tiny particles of soil will float around in
the water for a long time, then will fall down to the bottom.Now, we'll change stirrers, and add to each jar (except the soil jar) another teaspoonful of the solid we already dissolved, stirring after each addition. We'll keep adding to each jar.

After awhile, we might notice that the salt will not dissolve any more. That means that the water is saturated with salt; it cannot hold any more. Does that mean there is something wrong with the water we put into the salt jar? Nope. It means that salt is not as soluble as the other crystals we have used.

We might try to dissolve salt in boiling water, and see if the hot water will take more salt than the cold water.

Let's keep adding crystals to the other jars, until they reach the saturation point. Remember, we have to make notes of all this.

Next time you make Jello (gelatin dessert), you will understand how it works!