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baking soda experiments

In our part of California, we don't get any snow. While we try to make at least one trip to Tahoe every winter for a weekend of skiing and sledding, sometimes it's still not enough snow to satisfy my kids. To recreate some of that fun winter magic, we decided to make our own snow! It was a great way to have fun with sensory play.Looking for more crafts to decorate for the holidays? Create awesome decorations and have hands-on fun with a <a href="https://www.kiwico.com/us/store/dp/rainbow-air-dry-clay-project-kit/5612" target="_self">Rainbow Air Dry Clay set </a>from the <a href="https://www.kiwico.com/store" target="_self">KiwiCo Store</a>!

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Pour 1.5 cups of baking soda into the tray.

The ratio of baking soda to shampoo is 6:1.

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Pour a 1/4 cup of shampoo into the same tray. 

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Use your hands to mix these two ingredients! The mixture will soon take on a crumbly, and less sticky, texture, which means your snow is ready for play! For extended fun, add food coloring to create vibrantly colored snow, find small toys to create an arctic habitat in the snow, or build mini snowmen with tiny button accessories!

tray

baking soda

measuring cup

shampoo (preferably white-colored)

Instant Sensory Snow

easy experiment

chemistry

Can you make a balloon inflate without using air? Sure you can! You just need to make carbon dioxide gas, which is easier than you think. When your vinegar and baking soda touch, get ready to watch the bubbly reaction!Want to explore more hands-on science experiments without the hassle of gathering materials? Learn about chemistry and design out-of-this-world bath bombs with <a href="https://www.kiwico.com/us/store/dp/planet-bath-bombs/3702" target="_self">Planet Bath Bombs</a> from the <a href="https://www.kiwico.com/store" target="_self">KiwiCo Store</a>!

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Use one of your funnels to pour vinegar into the bottle. Fill it about 1/3 full. 

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Use your other funnel to pour baking soda into the balloon. Fill it about 1/2 full. A grownup can help with this part if it's tricky for the kids.

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Stretch the opening of the balloon over the opening of the bottle. While you do this, pinch off the balloon opening so that no baking soda escapes into the bottle!

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Lift the balloon up, allowing the baking soda to pour into the bottle. This causes a carbon dioxide gas reaction that makes the balloon inflate. How cool is it to watch the balloon expand?

After the balloon is fully inflated, pull the balloon off and discard it (as balloons are a choking hazard).

balloons (small to medium sized)

plastic bottle (empty)

funnel (2)

vinegar

Magic Inflating Balloons

eruptions

rainbows

science experiment

food science

Turn your kitchen into a chemistry lab with this simple science experiment! You only need three ingredients: baking soda, food coloring, and vinegar.Want to learn more about chemistry without the hassle of gathering materials? Explore 11 fun chemistry experiments with a <a href="https://www.kiwico.com/us/store/dp/chemistry-play-lab-project-kit/3971" target="_self">Chemistry Play Lab</a> from the <a href="https://www.kiwico.com/store" target="_self">KiwiCo Store</a>!

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Cover your baking sheet or pie pan with an even layer of baking soda.

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Squeeze drops of food coloring onto the baking soda.

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Use an eye dropper, pipette, or a straw to drip vinegar on top of each color drop. And voila – chemistry at work! Experiment by adding more color or vinegar. How many bubbly eruptions can you make at once?

When you combine the ingredients, a chemical reaction occurs and results in a bubbling eruption of fizzing color. Acids – like vinegar – and bases – like baking soda – are special kinds of chemicals that tend to react with each other to form something completely new: carbon dioxide gas. So the bubbles you see are filled with carbon dioxide gas which creates all the foamy fizz!

1 cup baking soda

1/2 cup white vinegar

food coloring

baking sheet or pie pan

eye dropper, pipette, or straw

Fizzing Colors

experiment

food experiments

biology

plant science

plants

fall

indoor project

Fall is coming, which means apple season is right around the corner. We love eating apple slices as a healthy snack. Try out this apple experiment with some basic kitchen goods to see how you can keep your slices from browning!Want to explore more kitchen science experiments? Explore the tastier side of learning with <a href="https://www.kiwico.com/us/store/dp/science-of-cooking-bread-butter-project-kit/5463" target="_self">Science of Cooking: Bread &amp; Butter </a>from the <a href="https://www.kiwico.com/store" target="_self">KiwiCo Store</a>!

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Cut the apples into eight slices each. If needed, have an adult assist with this step! 

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Place 2-3 wedges in five separate bowls and cover the apples with each of the liquids: water, baking soda, lemon juice, milk, white vinegar.&nbsp;

Place three spoonfuls of baking soda in water to make a baking soda solution. Make your predictions-- what do you think will happen to each of the apple mixtures? One of these solutions will prevent the apples from oxidizing (or turning brown!). Which solution do you think it is and why? Let the apples sit, and check up on them the next day. Were your guesses correct?

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What's going on? When apples are cut, an enzyme (polyphenol oxidase),  that reacts with oxygen, is released-- causing the apple to turn brown. Lemon juice is full of ascorbic acid, which will react with oxygen before the enzymes in the apple. Lemon juice also is very acidic, about 2.0 pH, and the enzyme in the apple oxidizes in environments between 5.0-7.0 pH. Can you find other acidic ingredients that could prevent apples from browning?

2-3 apples

knife

5 bowls

water

lemon juice

milk

white vinegar

Apple Experiment

quick experiment

Fizz, fizz, zoom! This baking soda experiment boat is easy to build and fun to race.Discover more about the science of pressure with a <a href="https://www.kiwico.com/us/store/dp/store-bottle-rocket-project-kit/4588" target="_self">Bottle Rocket </a>kit from the<a href="https://www.kiwico.com/store" target="_self"> KiwiCo Store</a>! Assemble a launcher, rocket, funnel, and launch mixture to experience some extremely fizzy fun.

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Gather the materials you need to make your vinegar and baking soda-powered boat.

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Carefully cut a small hole in the bottom of the bottle, near to one edge. Note: This is a grownup step. Then, cut a piece of the straw and poke it through the hole. Seal up the hole around the straw with hot glue or packing tape. You want the only path out of the bottle to be down the straw without any other leaks. Safety note: Do NOT try this experiment without the hole for the straw. If there isn’t a way for the gas inside the bottle to escape, the pressure can build up to dangerous levels and cause the bottle to explode.

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Hold the bottle close to level and pour in some vinegar. If you rotate the bottle so the straw is at the top, the vinegar won’t leak out. 

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With the bottle still level, spoon in some baking soda. Hold the bottle steady so the baking soda doesn’t drop into the vinegar. 

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Screw the bottle cap back on. Tip the bottle to combine the vinegar and baking soda. Immediately place it into a tub of water with the straw under the water. Watch your soda bottle boat go!

If you mix baking soda and vinegar, you get a chemical reaction which creates carbon dioxide gas. When this happens inside your bottle boat, the gas only has one way to escape, and that’s out the straw. The gas flying down the straw and out the back pushes the boat forwards. This is the same principle used by airplane jet engines. Hot gases are thrown backward out of the engine, and that propels the airplane forward.

straw

Scissors

craft knife - optional

Baking Soda-Powered Boat

slime

STEM

sensory activity

family activity

Floam (a.k.a. crunchy slime) is a super fun ooey gooey substance that is a mixture of slime and foam beads!

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Gather your materials. You’ll need ½ cup glue, ½ cup shaving cream,  ⅛ cup water, 1 ½ tbsp contact solution, ¼ tsp baking soda, ½ cup foam beads, and liquid colors.

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Pour 1 cup glue, ⅛ cup water, and ¼ tsp baking soda into the bowl. Mix!

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Add 1 ½ tbsp contact solution & mix!

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Use your hands to knead the slime until it is firm. Add more contact solution if it is too sticky.

More contact solution = less sticky and firmer slime!

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Add ½ cup shaving cream and knead until fully incorporated.

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Add ½ cup foam beads! We used a mixture of white & multi-colored beads. Knead until fully incorporated.

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Play with your crunchy slime!

Floam is made of slime and slime is non-Newtonian fluid! This means that it defies the laws of classical physics. How cool is that?! Slime starts with a polymer base, which in our case is glue. A “polymer” is a chemistry term for a substance that’s made of many little chains of molecules– “poly” means “many”, and “mer” means part in Greek. These chains easily slide past each other, which allows polymers to stretch and deform really easily. But when we add our activator, contact solution, it causes a chemical reaction that links some of these polymer chains together. These extra linkages between the chemical chains in the glue make the mixture stiffer. However, these cross-linkages break and deform easily, which is why slime feels more solid than glue, but is still super stretchy.Common activators for slime recipes are contact solution, powdered laundry detergent, and Borax. All of these contain boric acid which causes the chemical reaction!Fun fact: The hagfish is an eel-like fish that can release a chemical that turns the water around it into sticky slime. They do this to protect themselves from predators!

clear glue or white glue

contact lens solution

Shaving Cream

foam beads

Crunchy Slime

Halloween crafts

pumpkin

chemical reactions

backyard science

If you have a ton of rotting pumpkins on your porch, try this to get one last use out of them before you throw them away!&nbsp;Want more spooktacular Halloween fun without the hassle of gathering materials? Explore Halloween science and art projects from the <a href="https://www.kiwico.com/us/store/cp/halloween" target="_blank">KiwiCo Store</a>!

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Gather your materials, put your safety goggles on, and head outside!

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Open up the top of your pumpkin and pour in 1 tablespoon of dish soap. 

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Mix 1 tablespoon of dry yeast and 3 tablespoons of warm water for about 30 seconds to 1 minute. 

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Quickly and carefully pour this mixture into one of the holes in the jack-o’-lantern. Then, watch your pumpkin begin to leak! Keep experimenting! Try doubling the recipe or using a jack-o’-lantern with smaller or bigger holes. 

Different amounts of the ingredients used in this project can change how your leaky pumpkin foams up. Turn this project into an experiment by using more or less yeast, or more or less dish soap. What effect does this change have on your leaky pumpkin’s foam?

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This leaky pumpkin foams up all over the place because of a special organism called yeast. Yeast is a type of fungus, and it’s normally used by people to make bread rise and make drinks ferment. For the leaky pumpkin, we use it to make all the bubbles for the foam. A little bit of warm water is all that’s needed to get the yeast ready to work. Yeast makes a special molecule that reacts with hydrogen peroxide. Hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) is like a molecule of water that has one extra oxygen on it. When the yeast reacts with the hydrogen peroxide, it strips off one of those oxygen atoms and turns the hydrogen peroxide into water. H2O2 becomes H2O + oxygen gas. The yeast does this reaction VERY quickly - one yeast can break apart over a million H2O2 molecules in one second. As all that oxygen gets released by the yeast, it bubbles into the dish soap and makes a thick foam. The speed of the reaction pushes the foam out of the holes in the pumpkin, giving this spooky Halloween tradition an added fright factor!

jack-o'-lantern

hydrogen peroxide (6% or 20 volume)

dry yeast (1 tablespoon)

warm water (3 tablespoons)

dish soap (1 tablespoon)

small cups

tablespoon measure

safety goggles

Halloween

Puking Pumpkin

homemade craft

easy craft

quick craft

cooking for kids

kid-friendly recipes

This recipe for cloud dough is a treat to squish around and smells so good! 

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My daughter LOVES sensory play! Try this quirky-feeling cloud dough by adding one box of baking soda to a bowl. We added it to her designated sensory bin. You can make one too, out of a plastic container that has a tight-fitting or snapping lid.

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Next, pour in one packet of Kool-Aid drink mix. Any color and flavor will do -- pick your favorite! My daughter wanted pink lemonade!

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Give the baking soda and drink mix a good stir.

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Next, slowly add in some water and mix. Be careful not to add too much water or the cloud dough will be runny and too liquid. Add a little water at a time until it feels "mold-able".

21 creative baking soda experiments projects for kids

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