This week, we're keeping the kids busy with winter-themed experiments. Your kids will love trying out this recipe for cold artificial snow, having fun creating a slush snowman out of homemade slime, or creating a cute storm in a glass of water.
As a bonus, it's the perfect activity for indoor fun when it's too cold to play outside.
The science of winter
Are your little wolves thirsty for knowledge? Do simple and super fun experiments with them to give them a taste for science!
With this experiment, I suggest you bring winter inside with a simple and really fun experiment. You will see, children will love creating their own snowstorms with household items in addition to learning a little more about some simple principles of science. But be careful, you will have to respect the proportions for it to work well.
Material to make a storm in a glass of water
To make your mini storm in a glass of water, you will need:
- A tall transparent jar (a long glass or jarMasson for example)
- Water
- Baby oil
- White paint
- Silver sparkles (optional)
- Effervescent pastilles of the Alka-seltzer type. They contain sodium bicarbonate and citric acid. Two essential ingredients for this homemade experience.
How to make a storm in a glass of water
The proportion for a successful storm is 1/5 water and 4/5 baby oil. So no matter how big your glass is, you have to put in a lot more oil than water to make it work.
- Start by putting your water in the pot. There should be only one bottom.
- Add baby oil. There should be at least 4x more!
- To add magic, put 1 tbsp. soup of paint and silver glitter (sparkles are optional).
- Add pieces of Alka-Seltzer tablets to the glass.
Now watch the storm build up in your glass!
The science behind this activity
When the baking soda and citric acid tablet dissolves in water, it will create a chemical reaction: mini bubbles of gas (also called CO2). These bubbles will cause water and paint to travel through the thick layer of oil, as they are lighter than oil. When the CO2 bubble has exhausted all its gas, the water molecule will return to the bottom, because their mass is greater than that of the oil.
Good experience!
For even more fun experiences, check out this article here.
