Henry was fascinated by the reactions the colored vinegar made when it hit the baking soda in this activity.
Shh… it was really a science experiment!
This science experiment [that I found at The Adventures of the Smith Family while I was browsing the wonderful play posts of It's Playtime!] was super easy to set up.
Spread out some baking soda on a cookie sheet and color some vinegar!
While I was coloring the vinegar, I let Henry have some experimental play of his own with the baking soda first.
He liked to see the prints his hammer madewhen he hit it.
I suggested dropping a golf ball in the mound of baking soda, hoping to make moon craters.
[He didn't find that as fascinating as the hammer.]
During his experimenting, I simply poured vinegar into three small dishes.
And added a few drops of food coloring to each.
Then I simply handed Henry a few different choices for droppers.
An old medicine syringe, a dropper and a large turkey baster.
I loved seeing what those little fingers were doing as he sucked up and squirted the vinegar in each of the droppers.
We tried to reverse the science experiment by adding baking soda to the vinegar.
Henry wasn’t thrilled with this because it didn’t work nearly as well.
Watching the baking soda fizz as the vinegar hit was exciting! Seeing the colors mix together was pretty neat too. It was fun to see how it progressed throughout the experiment!
Henry continued until every last drop of colored vinegar was used.
Even then he started sucking up vinegar from the cookie sheet to squirt it again!
Even though it looks like there may have been some sensory play going on, I don’t believe a finger even touched the pan! I was amazed that Henry could keep his hands off. I think the designs were made by dragging the dropper through the baking soda. [Sometimes I have to step out for a second... to attend to... ahem, the second child, and I don't always catch these nifty details!]
I think Jenny [of The Adventures of the Smith Family] was right in naming her post “An Eruption of Fun!” – it was right on! I definitely recommend this one.
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About Jamie Reimer
It looks like Henry had a great time! Thanks for the shout out!
Very cool! Love the different eye droppers and colored vinegar!
This is such a cool experiment! I have a little scientist here who would LOVE to do this, and I have vinegar and baking soda in my cupboard, so we might do this today!
This really looks fun, will have to give it a try.
Did this today. Fun and easy! My picky 2 1/2-year-old loved it, thanks!
Kirstie in AZ
What a great experiment – that hammer looks fun!
Thanks for linking up with the Play Academy
Jaime – this is such hands-on science fun – love it!
I featured it on this week's Sunday Showcase!
Bernadette
That's a great activity! Kids LOVE hands-on the best!
Wow! We can't wait to try this in our classroom, especially as the children love anything that involves colour mixing with the primary colours!
We did this today with two no-napping somewhat sick 3 year olds and had a wonderful time. Great idea!
Very interesting. nice pictures and good idea too.
Congratulations.
This kept my two day care kids busy for over 30 min!! Ages 3 & 4.
Here is how we played with my 2,5 years old daughter
http://games.sunflowerevent.com/2012/06/more-baking-soda-and-vinegar.html
I’ve featured this activity in my latest blog post on Larder Crafts for Toddlers. You’re welcome to see it here http://craftulate.blogspot.com/2013/02/30-larder-crafts-for-toddlers.html – please grab a Featured Button if you’d like to. Thanks for the inspiration!
i loved the experiment. i will pass this idea on.
i am 71 years old. i was excited to see the fizz in a jar as the two combined when i was a kid.
i cannot remember how i used to make a moth ball bounce up and down, but i bet it involved vinegar.
i now follow the idea a little differently in the sink drain. i put the baking powder in first, then the vinegar. it is supposed to clean where we don’t want our hands to go. perhaps i will put colored vinegar in the sink. will the bubbles be colored? try it and see.
white vinegar is safer to use to clean with rather than bleach and sterilizes too.
you can go to the heloise@heloise.com site for other uses for vinegar.
thank you for passing your ideas on. grandmother libby and good neighbor