We got bored staying at home over the weekends so I did some science experiments with the kids to create some excitement.
It all started when Nic saw 1 of the Hi 5 episodes showing how to make a volcano with some kitchen ingredients. She was all excited and wanted to replicate the activity. So here’s the ingredients
1. Bicarbonate of soda or baking soda
2. Vinegar. You may like to get a cheaper one. I didn’t stock up any so had to use my expensive vinegar 😦
3. Some food colouring
4. Some shallow container to contain the vinegar so you don’t have to pour too much to get overflowing ‘lava’
5. Volcano. I did my in less than a minute with some sand piled up. Didn’t have time to make one with cardboard etc.
Stuff the container into the sand ‘volcano’ . Pour the soda inside the pour the coloured vinegar and watch the bubbling lava flow!
And the kids went wowing for a couple of minutes until they emptied my vinegar, my bicarbonate of soda and my food colouring.
After the first experiment I went on the net to search for other science experiments to do with the kids. I couldn’t find a suitable one. Either the concept was too hard for them at this stage or the experiment didn’t look interesting enough. On the next weekend, I suddenly had an idea so I did this experiment with the kids – Making sinking things float.
First, we constructed our ‘boats’ with our Lego duplo. Nic did her own and I made one extra large one with Nat.
Then find a tub or basin and fill it with water. Dump our boats in and see if it sinks or float. The one I made with Nat floated and the one Nic made sank. So I found 2 empty bottles and tied them to Nic’s boat. And it became unsinkable! Then I tried to explain to them about floating and sinking.
Nic then tried to dump another Lego brick with wheels into the tub. It sank again. So I told her we can make it float by tying a something light to it like a balloon. So I made a plastic bag balloon and tied to her Lego. And the Lego became unsinkable too!
They had a fun time splashing the water and watering the plants with the water afterwards.