Vinegar and Baking Soda Reaction Fun (Experiment)

Today we had a few guests over for class, a close friend of mine who also homeschools her kiddos.  We always have a good time when we get the kids together so I decided that we'd do a craft that I've been dying to try from The Mother Huddle blog using classic ingredients, vinegar and baking soda.  I decided (since it was school hours), to make it an educational venture as well.  Like I always say, why knock-out one bird when you can take out two with a single stone...hehehe! 

I followed the directions from the craft mostly just to give this exercise the special twist that makes it magical, but because I used it as a science project, I had to explain what we were doing in a little more detail which took away from the magic a bit.

I used four different food colors, I put a drop into each spoon, then covered the drop with about a half tablespoon of baking soda.  Next, I filled five glasses with 1/4 cup of vinegar and placed my trays out for the kiddos to get ready for the magic to happen.

We went over a print off that I made based on information that I found at Apple-Cider-Vinegar-Benefits.

They learned the chemical make-up of baking soda and vinegar as well as the symbols for each component as represented on the periodic table.

  

After which, the fun began! 

This little guy is who I wanted to keep my eye on just to see his reaction to the bubbling magic.  He did not disappoint me either.  I didn't get a shot with my time delayed not-so-smartphone, but the reaction was priceless just the same. 

His face lit up once the reaction started happening, he even had to take a few steps back (all the way to the refrigerator) and put his hand over his gaping mouth in his amazement.

I really wish I'd gotten the shot:(

I think all of the kiddos enjoyed the activity and perhaps even learned a little about gases and the two reaction that take place when baking soda and vinegar are mixed.

Little man definitely understood the acid base reaction after the experiment and the decomposition reaction that took place.  He actually explained it quite elegantly.

I loved the color twist from the craft, that gave this experiment the extra flare that it needed.  If I had to do it differently, I would have made the preceding lecture much shorter and let them get to the experiment faster and then talked about what happened and explained the symbols.

I gave them each a colored marker based on the color that they had during the experiment, and let them put together the molecular structure of the components that were used in the experiment...they did good!

All in all, I think it turned out well and it was a nice (educational) way to end our school day with our friends.

~Blessings~

Claudea B.