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As Seen on Reels: New Year's Eve Fizzy Science
- Learning Resources Posted On Dec 27, 2021 | STEM
The Countdown to the New Year Begins! This is a traditional baking soda and vinegar science activity with a creative New Year twist. If your kiddos are curious and love science, they will love this science activity to help them to ring in the new year with a bang! This New Year’s activity is also great for some fine motor play. Here’s what you’ll need:
What you'll need:
- Baking Soda
- Vinegar
- Tray
- Twisty Droppers or Ladle
- Plastic Celebration Glasses
- Optional - food coloring, soap, glitter, etc.
How to put it together:
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Take some cups and fill them with baking soda! *Tip* place the cups on a tray to contain the mess!
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Add glitter/confetti!
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Provide a bowl full of vinegar and mix in dish soap for an extra bubbly reaction.
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Give kiddos Twisty Droppers or a ladle and let them go to town!
What is the science behind it?
This is a great example of simple chemistry, mixtures, and reactions. When you combine baking soda which is a base and vinegar which is an acid, you get gas! This gas is called carbon dioxide and is exactly what gives you the bubbly fizzing fun your kids really love.
Educational Benefits:
Easy Science at Home: Fizzy science experiments for kids require only a few commonly found household ingredients. This science experiment uses baking soda and vinegar to teach children about chemical reactions. As children conduct this science experiment, they also develop a greater understanding of colors while building on their fine motor skills.
Sensory Play: After the experiment is finished, kids can put their hands into the colorful tray and see what it feels like! This is safe to do and can be such a fun sensory experience.
Fine Motor Skills: Fine motor skills toys can help prepare your child for school. Even with the advancements of technology, holding and manipulating a pencil will be a cornerstone of their learning experience.
Twisty Droppers: Irresistible eyedroppers put a fun twist on water play and building fine motor skills! Squeeze the bulb to begin early science exploration, experience cause, and effect and build little hand muscles too!
Melting Snowmen Investigation
Ever wondered what to do with those fun puffy peanuts you get in packages? We were inspired by prekinders.com to set up this melting snowmen activity, but we added an extra STEM twist by using some of our favorite Learning Resources scientific tools and turning it into an investigation.
Materials needed:
- Primary Science® Jumbo Tweezers
- Primary Science® Jumbo Magnifier
- Primary Science® Jumbo Eyedropper
- Biodegradable packing peanuts
- Tray along with one large bowl and three small bowls
- Water
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Permanent markers (we used acrylic paint markers, but Sharpies will also work)
The Set Up
I love using these simple lunch trays from Dollar Tree for little investigations like this. I put out the tools, small bowls (two filled with water), and the large bowl on the tray. This helps to keep the materials neatly organized and gives the child a defined workspace. To turn the packing peanuts into little snowmen I used acrylic paint markers to draw on the eyes, nose, scarf, and buttons. They turned out pretty cute! I then put the snowmen in the third bowl on the tray.
How the Activity Works
I invited my 3 yr old to come and have a look at what was on the tray. Her first reaction was to fuss over how cute and little the snowmen were! She was very intrigued by them. I then asked a very simple question to start the investigation. I asked her whether she thought that adding water to the snowmen would make them melt or not. She went back and forth on her answer, at one point wondering if they might actually float on the water. She finally decided that she thought they would melt.
It was time to find out if she was right. She took her first snowman and put it in the big bowl. She then used the dropper to gradually add water. She got so excited when the snowman began to melt! It started as little holes but soon enough the markings were floating in the water and the snowman was a pile of mush!
I encouraged her to use the magnifying glass to take a closer look at the snowman, and I asked her to describe what she could see. Even though she is only 3, I think it is such a great opportunity to encourage her to develop fundamental scientific language through play activities like this. She was also exploring lots of great sensory vocabulary as well.
She proceeded to add more of the snowmen to the bowl, also adding more and more water each time. She enjoyed using the Jumbo Tweezers to try and pick up parts of the snowmen. She kept apologizing to them each time they fell apart in her grasp!
This was a great activity for working her fine motor skills, as well as her sensory exploration. She was constantly using the tools to transfer the water and pick up the melted snowmen. Strengthening those little hand muscles through hands-on learning like this is such a great way to prepare your child for writing, without them even realizing it.
She spent ages at the end trying to salvage tiny parts of the snowmen, pouring water from bowl to bowl. Transfer activities have always appealed to her, but the added intrigue of the melting snowmen gave this a really fun scientific twist. We are looking forward to doing it again but next time I will ask her to try and draw her own little snowmen as well.
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Holiday Loose Part Bucket Balance!
Looking for a low-prep, low-pressure way for your toddler or preschooler to explore holiday items independently but with a STEM twist? Enter this holiday loose parts bucket balance play invitation!
Materials we used:
- Learning Resources Primary Bucket Balance
- Learning Resources Counting Surprise Party tiny gift boxes
- Hanukkah-related loose parts, including small menorah candles, dreidels, and plastic gelt
Setup:
To create an engaging, open-ended invitation to play, we set up the Bucket Balance with various small loose parts arranged in front of it and hidden inside its storage drawer. We chose a Hanukkah theme for this particular setup, but in the future, we might try other themed loose parts, such as:
- Christmas: jingle bells, small ornaments, mini candy canes, etc.
- Winter: pine cones, acorns, snowflake-shaped beads, Arctic animal figurines, etc.
- Nature: small stones, seashells, tree bark, pinecones, etc.
- Snacktime: Animal crackers, goldfish, carrot sticks, cereal, etc.
- Random: tiny cars, small blocks, wooden beads, -- the sky is the limit! You know your child best -- choose items that will excite and delight!
Play & Learn:
This activity allows young children to freely explore and sort various small parts, including textures, colors, and quantity. Adding in the Bucket Balance invites them to compare these items with new measurement concepts like weight, mass, and volume.
After some free-play, caregivers can lean in and prompt additional curiosity by asking questions about the various loose parts. For instance: How many gelt coins might you need to balance both buckets? Which is heavier, X number of candles or X number of dreidels? Let's count them together and see if our hypothesis is correct!
This is a fun new way to get festive and keep those curious brains active during breaks from preschool! What items would your child enjoy comparing on a Bucket Balance?
About the Author, Sarah Yale: With a background in education, youth development, and restorative justice, Sarah Yale wears many hats, including Mom and Librarian. She endeavors to combine her love of children's books and the great outdoors to plan inclusive, play-based activities that foster curiosity and social-emotional learning. An advocate for literacy development, loose parts, and sensory play, Sarah's activities invite you to lean in, read up, and get messy together! See more of her ideas on Instagram at @staycurious_sadertot.
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Snow Cone Sensory Bin
Snow has to be one of the best and most exciting sensory bases for play. Have you ever thought to scoop some up and bring it inside for a fun hands-on setup? It makes prep a breeze and is sure to engage your little ones. For this activity, we decided to use some snow from the yard to make pretend snow cones. It led to so much sensory exploration and engaging conversation.
Materials needed:
- Primary Science® Jumbo Eyedroppers with Stand
- Primary Science® Jumbo Test Tubes with Stand
- Squeezy Tweezers®
- Handy Scoopers™
- A large bowl of snow
- Water and food coloring
- Selection of small bowls and cups
The Set Up
Grab a big bowl of snow from outside and set it up somewhere a little more warm and cozy. To prepare the colored water simply fill each test tube nearly all the way to the top and add two drops of each color food coloring. My 3 year old chose red, pink, purple, blue, green, and yellow. I asked her to help mix the color in, which she really enjoyed doing. We put the test tubes out along with the snow, droppers, fine motor toys, and bowls and cups. It is also a good idea to have a small towel on hand as it can get a little wet and messy.
How the Activity Works
My daughter has always loved sensory set-ups, and this one didn’t disappoint. She got straight to work scooping up the snow and transferring it to one of the bowls ready to make her first snow cone. She thought it was so fun that the Handy Scoopers and Squeezy Tweezers made perfect little snowballs!
As she added the scoops of snow she used the tools to mash up the snow a little and was constantly talking about what flavors she was going to add. She opted for lots of red for her first one and told me that it was going to be a very strawberry flavor! She used the Jumbo Eyedroppers to squirt the colored water onto the snow. I always love watching as the color spreads across the snow. She kept adding squirts of color until she was happy with her first yummy snow cone.
She enjoyed making many more, using the different sized cups and bowls. We added in some numeracy by counting how many scoops of snow and how many squirts of colored water were needed for each snow cone she made. We even speculated how much each one would cost to buy…her suggestion of $37 seemed a little steep!
After a while, she started to experiment with mixing the colors to make new ‘flavors’. The colors spread through the snow to make new colors which she thought was so cool to watch. She spent lots of time debating what these new flavors would be called!
Throughout this entire activity, she was working her fine motor skills hard, as well as building her sensory confidence. The snow offered such a unique sensory base and there was the added bonus that as time went on the snow started to melt which completely changed the consistency of her creations. By the end of the activity, she was enjoying a slushy rainbow mess… so much sensory fun! Do you ever bring snow inside for play? What are your favorite activities to use it for?
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