Cookiemomma's Blog

This Sunday was a pretty boring Sunday at home.  Patience has been sick since Friday, we were busy doing things yesterday, and today was going to be a day devoted to cleaning and writing…lol  (yeah right!)

The kids were pretty stir crazy from having nothing to do and I was going crazy from cleaning up after them.  As soon as I finished mopping, they would walk right over the floors and track them up…ugh  So at this point I threw my hands up and gave in.  Time to entertain the kiddos and why not make it educational.

I am sure that we have all done the volcano experiment with baking soda and vinegar, but I decided to make it fun for the kids.  I put the baking soda in little measuring cups and told them that it was a magic powder…lol  They were so excited to finally have something to do and the thought of making magic was just too much for them.  BTW, they had no idea of the results before hand, I wanted to capture their reactions.

What you need:

• Glass Jars
• Clear Vinegar
• Food coloring
• Glitter (optional)
• Dish washing liquid
• Baking Soda

Steps:

1. Fill the jars about half way with Vinegar
2. Stir in some food coloring
3. Add Glitter (optional…best if it is shaped like stars or bigger size)
4. Squeeze a big squeeze of Dish detergent into the jar and mix well
5. Dump one heaping teaspoon full of baking soda into the jar and WATCH THEIR REACTIONS!!!
   

   PRICELESS

   

This is one of the simplest experiments around and children love to see the reaction caused by this. Although this experiment is not dangerous, adult supervision is recommended. This experiment is not only fun to watch, but children can enjoy learning what actually is taking place during the experiment.

Vinegar is a non-toxic chemical made of water, salt, and something called acetic acid. Normal white vinegar contains five percent acetic acid. This acid, when mixed with sodium bicarbonate causes a fizzing and bubbling reaction. Baking soda is a chemical that contains several ingredients, one of which is sodium bicarbonate. The sodium bicarbonate when mixed with other chemicals, such as acetic acid, causes visible reactions.

Of course my little ones are in second and first grades, so the chemical reaction was a little over their heads, but they were able to grasp that by adding one substance to another you can get many different types of results.  In this experiment the substances mixed together broke one down and made a whole new different product.  Kind of like baking a cake.  I explained that when baking a cake the baking soda is added to make the cakes FLUFFY!

Either way they are both very excited to tell their friends at school what they did today!

~Christie