Do your kids innovators and love creating things?? I think every child loves putting things together or watching something change right before their very eyes like this baking soda and vinegar experiment.
My girls will take any chance they can get to do an easy Science experiment. Check out the baking soda and vinegar experiment we did together. She can’t wait to do more Chemistry for kids activities now! (originally published 3/16, affiliate links present)
Vinegar volcano
This is what you will need:
- 2 cups baking soda
- sometimes called sodium bicarbonate
- 1 cup vinegar
- Empty 2 liter bottle
- Balloons
- Funnel
Baking Soda and Vinegar Reaction
When we sat down to think about what we could create she said she wanted to create some sort of “hot air balloon” using things in the kitchen. I pulled this one out of my hat from my Teaching days.
- It’s an “old school” chemical reaction activity for kids, I had done many times but never thought to do this one with my own kids.
- If you haven’t tried this baking soda and vinegar reaction Science activity with them, try it this week!
Baking Soda and Vinegar Experiment Ratio
Using baking soda bicarbonate, have kids hold a funnel while you pour about 2 cups into a 2 liter bottle.
- Then pour about 1 cup of vinegar using the same funnel and quickly take out.
Immediately put a balloon on top of the 2 liter bottle and watch it inflate!! Kids love learning new things, especially when the learning is paired with something exciting at the end!
Before, during, and after you can explain the Scientific method and reason why this works (because of carbon dioxide) to them. You can of course add food coloring into the bottle as well, but that is messy and a no no for me.
Baking Soda and Vinegar Experiment for Kids
Amounts of baking soda may vary slightly in order to make this work, but generally the amounts above are perfect.
Once you’re done with that, you can follow up with a few others like dish soap experiments too!
If they just cannot get enough, check out the local camps in your area. I have found one where campers make short films, engineer catapults, design video games and more.
- This one was called Galileo Camps and are found in certain cities so check and see if they’re in yours!
- Below is one of the activities they sent to our house before they attended in person.
There they got to build a bristle bot, and create a negative and positive battery plate to light up with little light with just a few items. Now that is fun to see right in front of your very eyes! Great camp for innovative kids like mine and yours!
- Here’s a peek of another fun Science experiment for kids they may do. Did you know you could make ice cream using just baggies at home??
Another fun experiment for kids is to make bread in a bag in the kitchen and Christmas slime too!
Fun! My girls love science experiments!