Regular readers of Fun-A-Day know we love the traditional baking soda and vinegar experiment! Engineer, the preschool kiddos, and I also love changing that experiment up in a variety of ways! Today’s concoction was dubbed “super foamy and really bubbly erupting coconuts with funny cups”. Obviously, that’s the name Snoopy, Engineer, and Little Hurricane created together!
coconutty baking soda and vinegar experiment
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The boys and I have been into coconut-scented activities recently, which inspired this little experiment. It smelled delicious, was super bubbly and yielded major results! The boys spent over an hour experimenting and playing the first day, and they’ve asked for it multiple times since then!
Materials we used
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Coconut
Plastic goblets and cups
Baking Soda
Vinegar
Coconut shampoo
Coconut extract
Set up
I placed about 3/4 cup baking soda into some coconut shells and novelty cups. The cups and shells were inside large glass bowls, to catch the inevitable runoff during the experiment. Next to each bowl was a condiment bottle filled with our coconut-vinegar concoction (about 1 1/2 cups of vinegar and 1 tablespoon of shampoo).
The experiment
Immediately, the boys squirted the coconutty vinegar into the coconut shells and the cups. I loved watching their faces as the chemical reaction unfolded! They were expecting the usual baking soda and vinegar reaction. Instead, they saw something a bit different! The shampoo slowed down the “explosion” a little, but it also made it incredibly foamy and bubbly. It produced a huge amount of the foam too. So much so that I hurried to find larger bins for the boys!
On top of the sudsy fun, it smelled delicious! There was no vinegar scent at all – just the tropical scent of coconuts. The reaction captured most of the boys’ attentions, of course, but they approved of the smell too. Engineer mentioned, “I don’t like to eat the coconut, but it smells pretty good!”
I let the kiddos explore the chemical reaction until we ran out of vinegar. They loved creating enough sudsy “explosions” to fill the bowls and bins with bubbles. Then they’d hop over and help me make more coconut vinegar. While we did this, some of the suds deflated a bit – leaving more room to create more soapy fun! Once we ran out of vinegar, the boys enjoyed playing with the bubbles and leftover vinegar. They discovered that swirling the mixture around created more bubbles and more fizzing!
So much learning!
Some things we touched upon with the erupting coconuts:
- Fine motor skills
- Science
- Sensory play
- Observational skills
- Language galore
Have you and the kiddos tried a baking soda and vinegar experiment yet? Are you up for trying out our “exploding” coconuts?
For more science ideas, check out my Science for the Kiddos Pinterest board!
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Ahha, I remember baking soda and vinegar experiments in school. Anyway, awesome experiment!