Fizzing Colors Experiment
Baking soda experiments are so fun! Plus, they are super easy to set up. The chemical reaction that happens when the vinegar combines with the baking soda will wow your kids! It’s also a great opportunity to throw in some science and sensory words.
You will need:
Baking Soda
Vinegar
4 Sided Activity Tray
Food Coloring
Droppers – You could also use a condiment squeeze bottle
Layer your activity tray with baking soda. Make the layer thick enough that you can’t see the tray underneath. Color your vinegar with food coloring. I had been saving these old playdough containers to hopefully use at some point. They were perfect for holding our colored vinegar.
Take this time to talk about what you think will happen. You can use the scientific method.
1. Ask a question – What will happen when we drop colored vinegar into the baking soda?
2. Do background research – For this, you can just talk about what’s going to happen. Explain that there will be a chemical reaction when the vinegar and baking soda meet. Maybe put together a diagram.
3. Construct a hypothesis – Come up with an answer for your question. This is really just a guess.
4. Test your answer with an experiment – Do the experiment! Talk about each step and observe.
5. Analyze your observations – Did your hypothesis prove correct? What happened?
6. Share your results – Have your babe explain each step of the experiment and what happened. Miss 4 will be telling her aunt and uncle about our experiment at brunch today.
Squeeze some vinegar onto the baking soda and watch the magic happen! Talk about the reaction you see and ask questions. What color is it? What would the fizz feel like? Then touch it! I didn’t let them dig their hands in but we did take a finger and smoosh the fizz down a few times.
Mr. 1 wasn’t very good at squeezing so his vinegar came out in drops. It actually looked really neat.
Miss 4 mixed the colors to see what would happen.
I poured his extra baking soda onto her tray. The baking soda coated the wet vinegar on his tray. It made these soft little pancakes of pastel color that you could mush.
We poured the extra vinegar over the baking soda mountain on her tray and watched it fizz as our grand finale. This was our first fizzy science experiment and it was totally fun!