My oldest son is recovering from an illness, so he had to stay home from school today. At one point he seemed quite bored of reading books and napping, so I decided to set him up with a little baking soda/vinegar activity. I know when we think of those two things, elaborate volcano creations instantly come to mind, but what I set up for my son possessed the same amount of wonder without all of the work.
I started by mixing a few drops of food coloring to four small bowls of white vinegar...
Next, into a baking dish, I poured a layer of baking soda...
I washed a dropper from an old medicine bottle for my son to use...
That's it! (I told you there was minimal work involved!)
My boy set to work sucking up colored vinegar with the dropper and squeezing it on top of the baking soda. That's when the magic happened! He was quite excited when the materials reacted with a great FIZZZZ!
We chatted a bit about bases, acids, bicarbonate, acetic acid, and carbon dioxide, but mostly we just "ooohed" and "aaahed" as each dropper-full of vinegar met the baking soda. Colors were mixed, "experiments" were performed...
Lots of fun was definitely had. We will be revisiting this activity for sure! I can't wait for my middle son to try it out too. I can just imagine how impressed he will be by the fizzzzzz!
