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Tuesday, January 10, 2012

exploration lab:: fizz and color

In exploration lab posts, I plan to share open ended activities that are suited for older children. I see so many great sensory experiences for younger kids all over the web (and many I remember doing with my kids when they were little). I want to highlight the ones that work with older kids too. Sometimes they are the same, and sometimes you can add a little something extra because the kids are older. 

A classic is vinegar and baking soda. My kids have loved this lab since they were really young. We love using muffin tins and baking sheets to pile on the baking soda. Droppers, syringes and straws are great for controlling the amount of vinegar.  We like to color the vinegar and mix colors. Also, we add lots of glitter, colored sand, flowers, plastic animals and by the end, our hands to really feel the fizzing power. 

This is not a science lesson. The material are simply provided and the experiments change each time. If your kids want to know the WHY, you can read here.

Do you play with vinegar and baking soda? Any new ideas that your explorations have led you to?










6 comments:

  1. Great idea! I think my 10-year-old would love to do this today. (Well, he'd probably love to do it most any day.)

    Yesterday, he asked me to set up his easel with poster paints. Big kids still can have fun with "little kid" stuff, huh?

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  2. My kiddos, especially the oldest, love to play with vinegar and baking soda. Often they will gather test tubes and beakers for their experiments. Which reminds me, I think today is a perfect day for experimenting.

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  3. This is a beautiful idea. We have a ceramic volcano we use for vinegar and baking soda, but I love the addition of color and using muffin tins. Just in time for a 3-day weekend! Great photos!

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  4. Fun, fun, fun! I remember loving things like this when I was younger.

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  5. I appreciate your post. I have older and younger kids and while I have done tons of stuff with the little ones it is fun to find stuff out there for the older kids. Thank you!

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  6. Agreed! I teach preschool and brought home some ideas from a conference that I adjusted for my own (older) children. The baking soda and colored vinegar was a big hit and had my 10-, 13-, and 15-year-old mixing and dumping with as much enthusiasm as any 4-year-old.
    Another idea is to invite them to use an unusual painting apparatus - cut large rubber bands and duct tape them to a stick, toilet plunger (clean! LOL), paintbrushes taped onto a helmet - no hands needed, bubble wrap...

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