2 Science Experiments for Toddlers

My daughter is obsessed with science, she has been since she came out the womb. As the child of immigrants, we were probably going to steer her in that direction eventually but it’s really nice that she got there on her own accord. Every chance she gets she is begging to experiment. Recently on an unseasonably warm day that seemed to be made for toddlers and science outdoors, we made a day of it. The hippie in me has always wanted to homeschool my daughter so I make a habit of turning everything I can into a lesson plan. If we were going to do some toddler science we were also going to do some writing and math and art while we’re at it. Let’s STEAM it up!

So besides the whole nature bath element of outdoor science and the fact that I use any excuse for a picnic, you cant put toddlers anywhere without a mess so you cant expect toddler science to be anything but messy! Yet bring your toddlers outdoors for science fun and you have reduced the need for post-experiment cleanup. You’re welcome, feel free to thank me later for this parent shortcut.

We decided on doing three experiments and created ingredient checklists for each one

Preparing for science with toddlers

Toddler Science Experiment 1

The whole point of doing science as a kid was to see things blow up or erupt so at the top of our list was

Materials

Plastic cup ( we use these reusable ones made from recycled milk jugs)
Spoon (be sure that your spoon is taller than your cup)
Cloth napkin (for wiping up spills)
Water
4-6 Tbs of baking soda at least ( will do 2-3 eruptions)
1 tsp of dish soap (ours was diluted and it still worked)
1/2 oz to 2 oz of Washable Paint, depending on the intensity of the color desired
1 cup (8 oz) of Vinegar to start with per eruption

Directions:

Step One |Put your toddler scientist to work combing the “base ingredients.” If your toddlers are anything like mine they will be chomping at the bits to pour things, so let them, first put the water inside of your cup. The goal is to fill it about 2/3 full, so you can use this opportunity to teach fractions or just scream and wave when its time to stop. The next step of this science experiment is to have your toddler add the baking soda, dish soap, and washable paint. Technically you can use food coloring but using washable paint means you don’t have to worry about any staining on the rocks (or little fingers) that food coloring might cause.

Step Two |Be sure to stir these ingredients together.

OPTIONAL STEP | have toddlers make a mound out of pea gravel or dirt depending on where you are around the base of the cup. Voila, a volcano How easy is that!

Step Three | Pour in the vinegar. Step back and watch for the look of joy on your toddlers’ faces as the magic of science unfolds before them. You can pour the vinegar in about three times before you’ll need to add more baking soda to the solution.

Real Science takeaways for Toddlers:

Congratulate your tiny scientist for facilitating a chemical reaction! By combining an acid (the vinegar) with a base (the baking soda) results in an entirely new substance, called carbon dioxide. A fun way to keep the toddler science going is by explaining that we breath out carbon dioxide. If you happen to be outdoors while doing this take a moment to explain that the trees take in our carbon dioxide.

Base | A substance with many hydroxide ions, such as baking soda, bleach, or soapy water.
Acid | A substance with many hydrogen ions, such as vinegar, orange juice, and stomach acid.
Chemical Reaction

A fun activity to try with kids is to see if they can tell acids apart from bases. Acids usually taste sour; alkaline foods taste bitter.

Toddler Science Experiment 2

Materials

Milk (it’s suggested to use whole or 2% but all we had was soy and it worked just fine)
Plate with edges
Food coloring (red, yellow, green, blue)
Dishwashing soap
Cotton swabs

Directions:

Step One: Allow your toddler scientist to pour milk in to the plate, enough to completely cover the bottom and then allow the milk to settle.

Step Two: Add a few drops of food coloring close to the center of your pool of milk. Allow your toddler to use one two or all four of the colors of food coloring — red, yellow, blue, and green — to the milk.

Optional Step: Predict what will happen when you touch the tip of the cotton swab to the center of the milk. Take a clean cotton swab, devoid of soap. Just touch it with the tip of the cotton swab make sure your toddler doesn’t stir the mixture. Go ahead and try it. Did anything happen?

Step Three: place the other end of the cotton swab into liquid dish soap (we used diluted soap and it still worked just fine). Place the soapy end of the cotton swab in the middle of the milk and hold it there for 10 to 15 seconds.

Now Look at that burst of color! It’s like the 4th of July in a bowl of milk!

Add another drop of soap to the tip of the cotton swab and try it again. Experiment with placing the cotton swab at different places in the milk. Notice that the colors in the milk continue to move even when the cotton swab is removed. What makes the food coloring in the milk move?

Real Science takeaways for Toddlers:

Milk is mainly made of water and the other main ingredient is usually fat. The dish soap bonds, with the fat in the milk. This bond is so strong that the water and food coloring are pushed out. The swirling effect is everything else moving around to make room for the dish soap and fat bond. Picture two people running towards each other in a ball pit, the colored balls will rush out of the way as they make their way toward each other to embrace. As the soap becomes evenly mixed with the milk, the action slows down and eventually stops.

After explaining this, have your pint-sized scientist try adding another drop of soap to see if there’s any more movement. If so, you discovered there are still more fat molecules that haven’t found a partner at the big color dance. Add another drop of soap to start the process again.

Not all milk has the same amount of fat, so if your house is like mine and you have many different types of milk it could be fun to see how differently the colors react in milk with varying fat contents.