Give it a whirl Wednesday: Vinegar and Baking Soda

I don't know about y'all, but I am a HUGE fan of Pinterest.  I could, and often do, spend hours and hours pouring through all the pretty pictures and creative ideas on that site. It is like a gorgeous, interactive magazine that's always ready at my fingertips. It's what I do waiting in line at Starbucks, while feeding the baby at 3am, and sometimes even in the restroom.  I know - TMI, Andrea, T M I.

One of my most active boards is called Bean, where I pin ideas for Annabelle's bedroom and playroom, books I want her to read someday, or activities I want us to try together.  Because we live in hell Arizona, our outdoor play time is pretty limited in the heat of summer, so these activities have become the highlight of our days this month.  We try something new every few days, and repeat the faves in between.  I thought I'd dedicate Wednesdays to showing you what we've tried and loved (I'll spare you lame stuff, but I might sometimes post a total epic fail just for humor's sake.)

Yesterday we tried a little toddler chemistry.  We've all seen, and most of us have made, the classic erupting volcano science fair project. This is a simple variation on that theme of the fizzy reaction between baking soda and vinegar.  Here's what you'll need:

Plus a baking dish or lipped cookie sheet. Fill whichever with about a half-inch of baking soda. Then drop a few drops of food coloring (we used 3 colors) into your cups and fill half-way with vinegar. Add a dropper to each cup - got a six pack of those droppers at Michael's.

Put it all on a towel, or two, take a deep breath, and embrace the coming mess, Mom.  Just show your little one how to use the dropper (23 times) and drop it in the vinegar dish. Enjoy the chemistry magic!

 

And just to keep things real, it looked like this after 40 minutes:
 

 

All in all, a great sensory activity.  We used our color vocabulary, counted drops, took turns, and discussed texture at the end when we were letting it fizz in our hands and playing in the wet soda. For slightly older kids, I can see color mixing and even science journaling about our observations.  Thanks Pinterest for another success.

 

*Here's the site of my original pin: Indulgy.com