Add this frozen fairy tale science activity to your collection of science activities for preschoolers and kindergarten kids!
The frozen science fun works well during your next fairy tale theme, or as part of your science summer camp plans. Of course, you can try it any time of the year since it fits well in a multitude of units.
You can easily tweak the fairy tale baking soda and vinegar activity, too. This allows you to change things up based on your students’ ages and needs, or based on the materials you have on-hand.
Related: Summer Activities for Preschoolers
Science is such a fun thing to explore with kids! Chemical reactions that fizz and foam are among our favorites. Â During a 2014 preschool summer camp, I put together a Frozen-inspired science experiment for the children. It was a hit with the preschoolers, the school-aged assistants, and the teachers!
Over the years, we’ve made this frozen science experiment countless times in one form or another. I love how easy it is to change up based on different fairy tales or other topics!
Fairy Tale Science
Read below for supplies, directions, and tips for the frozen science activity. When we first put this together, many of the students at my school were enamored with Anna and Elsa from the movie Frozen. Those princesses inspired the colors we chose for the frozen fairy tale treasure boxes. You can go in a different direction if you want!
Related: Castle Activities for Preschoolers
We set this activity up during a summer camp focused on all things science. But I’ve gone onto try it during different fairy tale themes, as well.
Supplies for the Fairy Tale Frozen Science
Here are the materials we used for the fairy tale science (I may get commissions for purchases made through links in this post):
- Baking soda
- Water
- Jell-O powder (we used grape and blue raspberry)
- Vinegar
- Silver glitter
- Dish soap
- Condiment bottles
- Ice cube trays
- Sorting trays (ours are from the local Dollar Tree)
- Craft jewels
Please keep in mind that you don’t have to use the exact same extra items we did! Change things up as you see fit. You can incorporate liquid watercolors or food coloring, for example, to make the “royal treasure chests” even more colorful.
Fairy Tale Science Directions
Once you have your materials ready, it’s time to make the frozen treasure boxes. Here’s what to do:
- First, mix 3 cups of baking soda with 1 3-oz. packet of Jell-O powder.
- Then add 1 cup of water and stir completely.
- Add glitter, if using, and mix more.
- Place the mixture into ice cube trays.
- Next, add some craft jewels, if you’re using them.
- Put the trays into the freezer.
Related: Dragon Calendar Numbers
Leave the ice cube trays in the freezer overnight, or at least a few hours. This ensures everything is fully frozen through before the fairy tale science begins! While you wait, you can assemble the liquid for the squeeze bottles:
- Fill the bottles up most of the way with vinegar.
- Then add a large squirt of clear, unscented dish soap to the bottle.
- Finally, make sure the bottle top is securely shut.
Once everything is prepared, remove the frozen cubes and place them on trays or in bins. Place some of the filled condiment bottles nearby. Then let the children explore the fairy tale science fun. Encourage them to go searching for the royal family’s missing jewels!
How the Kids Played
We placed various royal treasure chests into sorting trays I’d purchased from my local Dollar Tree. We put condiment bottles filled with a special concoction next to the trays, then invited the kids over. The kids were told they needed to use the special concoctions in the bottles to retrieve the royal treasure. They jumped right in!
As they squirted the frozen treasure boxes, the kids were delighted to see foaming and fizzing! Lots of sparkles escaped during the process as well, adding to their delight! Some children focused on melting the cubes all the way down with just the liquid. We all enjoyed the delicious, fruity scent and the bright colors of the fairy tale science.
Other children decided to grab chunks of partially-melted treasure and pile them up. From there, they enjoyed the sensory aspect of running their hands through it all. Then they got back to creating foaming and fizzing reactions.
The sparkle on the bottom right of the picture was NOT edited in! There was just so much glitter on a very sunny day that the sidewalk ended up very sparkly!
Most of the children loved the experiment itself, and they just didn’t bother collecting the royal treasures afterwards. A few were into collecting the “jewels”, though! Mainly, it was all about the experience for the children. They loved it so much that we did this experiment the next day too.
Would your students get a kick out of this fairy tale science activity? They might interact with the fizzing treasure chests differently than mine, and that’s perfectly okay!
More Baking Soda and Vinegar Experiments for Kids
Baking soda and vinegar experiments are seemingly very simple, right? But there are so many variations on the science fun. Here are a few more to try after you’ve done the fairy tale science activity:
Fairy Tale Lesson Plans
Let my sister site, Preschool Teacher 101, save you a ton of time with our fully-developed early childhood resources. We have lesson plans, dramatic play sets, teacher guides, circle time songs, and so much more. Click on the image below for our fairy tale lesson plans:
Be sure to check out The Pack from Preschool Teacher 101, our membership for preschool and kindergarten teachers. Our members get access to our materials at a steep discount.
Originally published July 2014
jUST THOUGHT YOU MIGHT WANT TO KNOW THAT SOME SCHOOL DISTRICTS HAVE A HAZARDOUS MATERIALS LIST AND GLITTER IS ON MOST OF THEM. if THE GLITTER IS MADE OUT OF SOME TYPE OF METAL, PIECES OF IT CAN GET IN KIDS’ EYES AND CUT THE SCLERA OR LENS. yOU MAY WANT TO SUGGEST SOMETHING ELSE THAT IS NON METALLIC, BUT SPARKLY.
No worries – just leave the glitter out of the “recipe”. It would still be foamy and fizzy and lots of fun! Additionally, many glitters are no longer made of metal . . . many are plastic and there are some out now that are biodegradable! Only you know what’s best for your kiddos and your school, though.
LOVE!! I can’t wait to start this year off with this project!! I think the kids will love love love it!! Thanks! I find myself coming by your site everyday for amazing ideas to make this school year the best one yet!! Thank you!
Janelle, thank you SO MUCH for the sweet words! We’ve done this activity tons of times this summer (at the kids’ requests). I hope your kids have as much fun as we did. 🙂 Here’s to an awesome school year for all of us!
Can’t wait to try this with the kids this weekend. It is supposed to rain most of the week so we will have to wait but they will surely love it.
Thanks so much — let me know how it goes when you try it out! 🙂
You know I can’t resist glitter! Love the colours you used too. What fun!
Thanks so much, Ann! I love glitter a bit too much, too!! 🙂