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Turn an empty water bottle and a sock into a gazillion-bubble blower! Then add some drops of food coloring to create rainbow-colored bubble snakes.

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Cut the bottom off of a water bottle. (This is a grownup step.)  Gather some dish soap, a couple tablespoons of water in a small bowl, and a clean sock. 

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My daughter squirted about a tablespoon of soap into the water bowl. 

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Mix away! While my daughter was mixing, we talked about what we thought would happen with this mixture and our bubble bottle. Would it create tiny bubbles? giant bubbles? any bubbles at all? Emma settled on "so so many yummy-smelling bubbles!"

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Next your child may or may not need help placing the sock over the bottom end of the water bottle. (If the sock is not snug fitting you may need to add a rubber-band around it as well) 

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That's all folks! Now it's time to dip the sock end of the bubble bottle in the the soapy mixture and get to making some bubbles!

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Remind your child to blow OUT only. My two-year-old got a taste of bubbles on this day (which she was not so thrilled about), but she quickly focused again on the fun of making so many bubbles. 

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Well, it turns out Emma was right. The bubbles we created were so so many and smelled terrific. The bubble bottle does not make flying bubbles,--they're more like, "Whoops! Wrong soap in the dishwasher kind of bubbles." And they are very fun to make and play with!

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This could be a fun game by making a few bottles and seeing who could blow the longest bubble chain. Hmmm...birthday party idea for sure!

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For more colorful bubble snakes, drop a few colors of food coloring on the sock. You can even add  multiple colors to create rainbow bubbles!

plastic water bottle empty

clean sock

dish soap

water (3 tbs)

small bowl

Bubble Bottle

chemistry

science experiment

eruptions

chemical reactions

experiment

STEM

Learn some cool chemistry with this Elephant Toothpaste science experiment! Get ready to have a blast exploring chemical reactions by whipping up some colorful and bubbly foam so big it looks like an elephant could brush their teeth with it!Want to learn more about chemistry without the hassle of gathering materials? Explore the science of thermochromism with <a href="https://www.kiwico.com/us/store/dp/color-changing-slime-project-kit/2948" target="_self">Color Changing Slime</a> from the <a href="https://www.kiwico.com/store" target="_self">KiwiCo Store</a>!Elephant Toothpaste is a simple and safe experiment that demonstrates the reaction between hydrogen peroxide and yeast. Here's how to do it:

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Gather your materials, put your safety goggles on, and prepare your space for the mess!

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Pour ½ cup of hydrogen peroxide into the bottle.

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Pour in 1 tablespoon of liquid dish soap. Swirl the bottle around to mix it together.

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Add 8-10 drops of food coloring.

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In a separate small bowl, mix 1 tablespoon of dry yeast and the 3 tablespoons of warm water together for about 30 seconds.&nbsp;

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Put the funnel in the bottle and pour in the yeast/water mixture. Watch the elephant toothpaste erupt!

Please don’t touch the foam! You just created an exothermic reaction, which means you’ve made a lot of heat. Even once it’s cooled down, it’s best to not touch the foam in case not all of the hydrogen peroxide has broken down.

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The final result!This experiment is not only fun to watch, but it's also a great way to teach kids about chemical reactions and the importance of safety when working with chemicals. Make sure to wear goggles and gloves, and never ingest hydrogen peroxide.So, what are you waiting for? Gather up your materials and get ready for a foam-tastic time with Elephant Toothpaste!

So, what’s going on here? This elephant toothpaste 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 elephant toothpaste, 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 bottle!

safety goggles

16-oz plastic bottle

small cup

1 tbsp dry yeast

½ cup hydrogen peroxide

3 tbsp warm water

1 tbsp liquid dish soap

food coloring

tray or KiwiCo’s Silicone Mess Mat 

funnel (optional)

Elephant Toothpaste

baking soda experiments

This is a very basic experiment: Watching the reaction of vinegar to baking soda. I thought this would be the perfect activity for little miss V, at age 2.5, to start her first science experiment! I did not have eyedroppers lying around my house for this project so I came up with a tool that is easier for a toddler to use, while providing the means to complete this experiment—balloons as eye droppers!

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Start by gathering your ingredients, then dump out the box of baking soda onto the tray.  This is a fun-filled step to include your little one in—what child doesn't love dumping stuff?!

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Using a funnel, fill a balloon with vinegar up to the stem of the balloon. Drop in food coloring into the balloon.  (Be careful not to fill it too far or you will not be able to tie it off.)

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Next, tie off your balloon. Then repeat these steps for each balloon/color. While I was filling the balloons, V had tremendous fun juggling around the filled ones!

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Next pierce a hole on top of the balloon ball. The hole will make it easy to squirt the vinegar mixture out. I tried first with a pin and the hole was too small for V to push the liquid out, so I ended up using a corn skewer to make a bigger hole.

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Finally, give your child the dyed vinegar-filled balloon. V loved squirting the balloons and watching the vinegar fizz and fizzle.

baking soda (small box)

white distilled vinegar

Balloons

sharp instrument to pierce ballon

funnel

Vinegar and Baking Soda Balloons

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Now that the weather is warming up, my kids have been looking forward to going camping and playing outside! Using some household items, it was easy to make a giant bubble wand and a bubble solution for giant bubbles. The kids loved taking turns trying to see who could make the biggest bubbles. 

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Gather the materials to make your giant bubble wand and bubble solution.

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Start by creating a giant bubble wand. Stick a pushpin into the end of each dowel, but don't push it in all the way. Keep the pin about a 1/8-inch away from the dowel.

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Cut a piece of yarn that's about 4 feet long. Tie one end of the yarn to the exposed, metal part of the pushpin. Push the pin into the dowel to hold the knot.

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Thread the yarn through the washer. Then, tie the other end of the yarn around the pushpin on the second dowel. Push the pin in to hold the knot.

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Cut a shorter piece of yarn that's about 18 inches long. Tie the ends to the longer yarn a few inches away from the dowels. This should create a triangular shape.

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Now create your bubble solution! Mix 1 part dish soap with 9 parts warm water and stir well.

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Using your dowels, dunk the yarn and washer into the solution. 

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Lift them up and carefully hold out the dowels so the triangular shape opens up. Walk the dowels around to see the giant bubble take form!&nbsp;

Try experimenting with your solution, and add glycerin or corn syrup to the mixture. What happens to the bubbles when you change the solution?

dowels (2)

pushpins (2)

yarn

Scissors

washer

soap

water

container (large)

glycerin or corn syrup (optional)

Giant Bubble Wand

egg projects

rocket

explosions

bunny

physics

motion

Where do fizzy tablets get their fizz? After all, when they're in the package, they don't do anything at all. But drop them into a glass of water, and fizzy tablets (like Alka-Seltzer) immediately start fizzing, filling the glass with bubbles. The bubbles are full of carbon dioxide, just like in a glass of soda or fizzy water. You're seeing a chemical reaction in the glass, where compounds in the fizzy table react to make something new — in this case, carbon dioxide (and some other things). You can see this happen in a plain old glass of water, but these jumping Easter eggs are a festive way to have fun with fizzy tablets! in this case, carbon dioxide (and some other things). You can see this happen in a plain old glass of water, but these jumping Easter eggs are a festive way to have fun with fizzy tablets!

These egg rockets should only be launched outside, as they can make a bit of a mess. Make sure that children are wearing safety goggles and are closely supervised. The eggs will fly quite high, and children should be kept far back to avoid the launch area.

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Plan, sketch, and cut out designs for your animal. Consider what kind of shapes you might need to create them. We decided to go with a woodland theme so we created a fox, an owl, and a bunny. We used some circles, triangles and teardrop shapes, to create them.

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Attach your shapes to the egg with glue. We used glue sticks to attach the paper shapes to themselves, but needed hot glue to attach the paper shapes to the Easter eggs. Make sure to ask for grownup help, if needed.

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Now it's time to make your animals come to life! Accessorize with googly eyes, a mouth, and any other features your animal may have. What additional features will your animals have?

Stop! When the eggs are ready, make sure to head outside before launching your eggs. Put on safety goggles, and keep children well back from the launch area.

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To launch, place two fizzy tablets into the bottom half of an egg. Then fill the top half of the egg about halfway with water. Quickly close the egg and step back. After a few seconds, your egg should pop open and fly! The height of the rocket surprised us! While really exciting, make sure to take necessary precautions. We recommend for little ones to wear safety goggles!

Ever made a volcano with baking soda and vinegar? The fizz you get when you drop a fizzy tablet into a glass of water is exactly the same reaction. Fizzy tablets contain sodium bicarbonate (also called baking soda) mixed with citric acid, plus some other stuff. In their solid form, the baking soda and acid can't react, which is why the tablets don't fizz while they're in the package. But when the tablets are dropped in water, the baking soda and citric acid get together and fizz.

When this reaction happens inside of an Easter egg, the walls of the egg trap the gas inside. As the egg is filled with more and more gas, the pressure inside the egg increases. Eventually, the gas inside the egg pushes hard enough to make the egg pop open and launch!

plastic eggs

Construction Paper

wiggly eyes

fizzy tablets

hot glue / hot glue gun

Glue Stick

pencil (optional)

Easter Egg Rocket

sensory activity

game

indoor project

craft

Do you have a little one who loves to get their hands dirty? If so, here is a fun opportunity to experiment with baking soda and vinegar to make a huge fizzy mess!  Watch for the reaction between the acid (vinegar) and base (baking soda) that produces the giant cloud of fizz and foam.

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Mix the flour and baking soda in the tub or bowl. It's safe to use your hands!

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Measure a half cup of vegetable oil and use a straw to add a couple drops of food coloring to the oil. Mix well.  Note: the color will appear a lot darker in the oil than the final color when mixing with the dry ingredients.

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Add the colored oil to the bowl. Use a large spoon to mix the ingredients. Note: the food coloring may leave temporary stains on your hands, so use a mixing tool to avoid unwanted color on your hands.

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Play with the dough to form shapes or a scene! If you like, use cookie cutters or molds to help get you started.

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Fill a spray bottle with vinegar. Spray the dough gently and watch how the vinegar reacts to form fizz!

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11 easy bubbles projects for kids

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