Fun explosive experiments might sound dangerous, but it’s the complete opposite! In todays blog post, we explore 4 fun explosive science experiment that can be easily made using two simple ingredients. And of course optional extras to make each experiment unique and exciting!
What you need
To make these 4 unique science experiments you need:
- Bicarbonate Soda
- A safe acidic liquid, such as lemon/lime juice or vinegar (we prepare white vinegar, as it mixes with colours more easily).
Adding these two ingredients create the chemical reaction of a foamy explosion and they are so excited to explore!
The fun!
1. Explosive Emotions
This fun explosion of expressions, is created with only using the addition of food colouring and toilet roll faces.
After cutting out the sections of the face that you want the foam to release from, you add bicarbonate of soda to the bottom of each cardboard roll. You then squirt a small amount of food colouring in each tube.
Then pour some white vinegar in! You could also pour lemon or lime juice or a different type of vinegar! This can be poured on a few times and foam keeps re appearing!
For a fun take on this activity, talk about the colours you could use to represent emotions and also the tears and sick. See what your child comes up with. She/he may want to try adding glitter or using different colours!
2. Volcano Smash
For this fun take on a volcano explosion, you will need some left over playdough! The playdough will get completely ruined, which is why I recommend it being leftover after having a good long play with it!
You then need to get your child/children to make it into a volcano shape!
Now this is the fun part! Add a chopped lemon into the centre, sprinkle the bicarbonate of soda, add the dish soap and some red food colouring. Finally, grab a fork and begin to smash into the centre of the volcano.
You will achieve a foamy red volcanic looking explosion, and your child will have the best fun smashing it with the fork, to make it explode!
3. Fizzy Ice
All you need for this activity is ice ramekins, bicarbonate of soda, water, food colouring and vinegar or liquid lime/lemon juice.
Mix food colouring of choice with water and bicarbonate of soda and freeze in the ramekins. For this experiment, we used little fish shaped moulds.
When they are frozen into ice shapes, place them in a large bowel. This might be an activity that you want to do in the garden to avoid mess, especially if you are doing it with a little toddler.
You can then use water drop tools to add the vinegar / lemon juice.
This helps support fine motor development, by encouraging your child to practice their pincer grip and grasp.
You can also use the ice shapes to paint on paper and create colourful pictures, while allowing your child to experience the cold touch of the ice. They will most likely not want to touch the ice for long, which is a great learning opportunity to start to understand different temperatures.
4. Colour Bomb
Finally, our colour bomb explosion! This activity is so fun and requires the least prep out of all our activities on this list!
Hide food colouring under bicarbonate side, so children can only see the white. Then add vinegar / Lemon juice, either by pouring or with a dropper tool, for additional fine motor development.
Then reveal the explosion of colour! A fun scientific surprise activity for little ones.
The science
By showing the reaction between vinegar and bicarbonate of soda, you show children that when two different components come together, they can change. This is called a chemical reaction!
When working with either vinegar, lime juice or lemon juice, be careful of it going on your child’s skin. Although it shouldn’t pose any serious risk, it can irritate skin! This is why it is best to pour vinegar or use a dropper tool.
Key words
Our key words for this experiment are chemical reaction, explosion, acidic and alkaline.
For another fun way to develop speech and language skills, why not check out our Tatty Ava book. Which is a fun way to support speech and language development, alongside nurturing a love of books!