Fizzy activities are always a hit with my kids. Their faces always light up from the magic. I love that fizzy activities are both educational and fun! Who doesn’t love a fun experiment?
Fizzy Ice Cream Play
Earlier this week we made DIY kinetic sand. I mentioned that after sitting out in the heat, our DIY kinetic sand became a bit of a goopy mess. Instead of throwing it out when the boys were done playing, I decided to turn it into a fun fizzy activity since it was made with a lot of baking soda. As many of you know, when you add vinegar to baking soda, there is a chemical reaction that causes it to fizz.
How We Played
To play, I first got out our Melissa and Doug sand ice cream set. I then scooped some of the DIY kinetic sand into the play ice cream cones. Next, I filled squeeze bottles with vinegar and had my sons squirt the vinegar onto the ice cream cones to make them fizz. To contain the mess, we did this activity outside on our Fun2Play tray.
You can find our DIY Kinetic Sand recipe here.
After my boys finished making all of the ice cream cones fizz, they drove some of their toy cars through all of the fizz.
Basic Vinegar and Baking Soda Experiment
This was the first fizzy activity that we ever tried. My son watched a show that had the soda and mentos explosion experiment on it so I thought it would be fun to make something explode too. We tried out the basic vinegar and baking soda experiment because I had the supplies on hand. It was a lot of fun.
Supplies:
Baking soda, vinegar, jars, large container to contain the mess (this was before we owned our awesome Fun2Play tray), and food coloring (optional)
Directions:
- Mix vinegar and a few drops of food coloring in the jars (we didn’t measure anything).
- Have your child add in the baking soda
- Watch the fun!
Bath Bomb Dinosaur Eggs
This activity uses water instead of vinegar to make the eggs fizz. Hooray for no stinky smell! However, it does take a bit more time to prepare. It has to sit and dry for at least 10 hours. This is a great project to create before bed and to play with the next day!
You also may notice from the pictures that we did this activity back in the prime of my son’s monster obsession.
Supplies:
Citric acid (can be found in the canning section of the grocery store), baking soda, oil (I used olive oil), food coloring, water, small dinosaurs, squeeze bottle
Directions:
- Add ½ cup baking soda to a dish
- Combine ¼ tsp water with a couple drops of food coloring and then mix (use your fingers) it in with the baking soda until the baking soda is evenly colored
- Add in 2 tbsp citric acid and mix
- Add 1 tsp oil and mix
- Squish dough around mini dinosaurs, creating an egg shape (it will be crumbly but if it isn’t sticking you can slowly add ¼ tsp of oil at a time)
- Let dry for at least 10 hours
- For “hatching,” spray the eggs with water from a squeeze bottle
Inspired by: funathomewithkids.com
does the kinetic sand have to be goopy?