This is not your typical baking soda and vinegar experiment! There’s magic involved.
You will make colors appear out of nowhere when you add vinegar to baking soda, both of which are white, I might add.
(Get it? Baking soda is white, and vinegar is clear, but we call it white vinegar. I know, it’s not funny when you have to explain it… #momjokefail)
Adding vinegar to baking soda produces a fizzy, bubbly reaction that EVERY kid in America knows as the baking soda volcano.
Who saw baking soda reacting with vinegar and said, “Hey, this looks like lava”?
My volcano looked nothing like the real thing.
Also, I learned NOTHING from making a baking soda volcano.
However, mixing vinegar and baking soda does make a great, first science experiment for toddlers.
It’s cheap, it’s easy, and it’s safer than an exploding volcano.
I can’t believe I haven’t done this baking soda and vinegar science experiment with my two-year-old yet!
RELATED: Amaze Your Kids with Magic Balloons
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How We Did It
Our Volcano-less Baking Soda & Vinegar Experiment
I got out a muffin tin, food coloring, baking soda, and vinegar.
Elena immediately dropped her toys and ran over.
“What are you making something?”
I told her, “We’re going to do an experiment.”
I showed her how I sprinkled a little baking soda into each compartment in the muffin tin.
Then I added a couple drops of food coloring and mixed it with the baking soda already in there. Next, I covered it with another layer of baking soda to hide the colors.
Vinegar went into a little glass cup, and I rounded up some little pipettes (medicine droppers).
I asked her what she thought might happen when we put the vinegar in with the baking soda.
She said, “I don’t know!”
*sigh*
I couldn’t get her to make a prediction (something to work on!), but at least she was excited to find out what would happen!
Elena used the pipettes to add the vinegar to the baking soda. It fizzed and bubbled a bit, which amazed her, but wasn’t quite BIG enough for me.
Although I liked that the pipettes kept the amount of liquid very controlled, I wanted the reaction to be bigger.
So we switched to a measuring spoon.
The colors came out better this time, though my purple was very black 🙁
Probably shouldn’t have used so much food coloring.
(Someday I’ll actually plan activities instead of doing them on the fly! #momgoals)
Anyway, I wanted a bigger, faster, more bubbly reaction, so I pulled out the big guns: the turkey baster!
There it is! A big fizzy color explosion!
Elena’s tiny cup ran out of vinegar pretty quickly once we switched to the turkey baster.
She said, “I need some more vin-gar. I gotta put it in the soda.”
I got her a nice big bowl full of vin-gar.
While there is a secret ingredient that will produce bubblier reaction, I wanted to keep the experiment more simple so that Elena could see how it all works.
Although, she’s only two, so how much does she really care?
What We Learned
This was our first time doing an experiment, so I kept things light and fun and just helped Elena make observations as we did the activity.
Before the main event, I showed her water and vinegar side by side.
She noticed that both looked the same, but the vinegar was stinky.
I had her test out adding water to baking soda in a separate bowl.
She wasn’t impressed.
Then I tried again to get her to make a prediction.
“What do you think will happen when we put vinegar in with the baking soda?”
“I don’t know!”
*sigh*
As we worked with vinegar, I asked my daughter, “What do you think happened here?” every time we saw a big reaction between the vinegar and baking soda.
Her responses at first were “I don’t know,” but as she started getting into it, she said, “I put a little vin-gar in here and it makes bubbles,” and, “I make colors!”
Then I had her name all the colors: green, orange, blue, yellow, red, and (unfortunately) black.
When all bubbles had fizzed out and it was time to clean up, I asked Elena to recap what we did during our experiment.
She answered, “I got the vin-gar and the soda in here and it make all the bubbles and the colors! There’s some red, and some yellow, and green, too!”
So cute.
Sidenote: We used these exact same ingredients to make these really cool magic snowballs! Try it out if you liked this activity and want to take it a step further!
The Chemistry Behind It All
Baking soda and vinegar are chemicals.
The chemical name of baking soda is sodium bicarbonate. Vinegar contains water and acetic acid.
Combining these chemicals causes a chemical reaction.
According to my research, there’s actually two separate reactions going on when you mix vinegar and baking soda.
First, there’s an acid-base reaction. When vinegar (the acid) is added to baking soda (the base), the hydrogen ions in vinegar react with the sodium and bicarbonate ions in baking soda. This reaction forms carbonic acid and sodium acetate.
Second is decomposition. Immediately, the carbonic acid decomposes into water and carbon dioxide.
Smell the liquid after the reaction is complete. Does it still smell like vinegar?
No.
That’s because it’s water! (Mind blown…)
And those little bubbles below are full of carbon dioxide gas created by the decomposition reaction!
Your Turn!
Baking Soda & Vinegar Colors
Supplies
- Baking soda
- Vinegar
- Food coloring
- Muffin tin
- Pipette, measuring spoon, or turkey baster
Instructions
- Sprinkle a little baking soda into each compartment of a muffin tin.
- Add a drop of food coloring or liquid watercolors to the baking soda. Mix it together.
- Sprinkle more baking soda on top to hide the colors.
- Use a pipette, measuring spoon, or turkey baster to add vinegar to each muffin cup of baking soda and watch the colors appear!
I love how easy this chemistry experiment is to set up.
It’s got supplies that you already have in your kitchen, plus the chemicals are safe for kids to be around, though they might not like the smell of vinegar!
Adding the food coloring to the baking soda helped keep the activity fresh, for both of us!
For more baking soda and vinegar fun, try making foamy paint, magic snowballs, or magic balloons next!
Looking for an organized guide of fun, easy activities to do with your toddler that also encourages their growth and development?
I’ve created a 3-month activity planner just for busy parents like you! The plan includes 65 detailed, simple, and stress-free activities including: arts and crafts, sensory play, motor skills, and STEM–all using easy-to-find supplies.
Let me help make planning activities for your toddler easy, so you can skip the stress and get straight to the fun!
