Kitchen Science
Here are some fun kitchen experiments!
Level 1
Make flubber! (Parent Needed!)
Ingredients:
 2 cups of glue or however much you need
 A large container or a pail to put everything in
 Warm water
 Sparkles
 Borax
 Bowls
Put 1 cup of very warm water, and if you want put food coloring or
sparkles in a bowl. In a second small bowl, combine 1 1/3 cups of warm
water and 3 tsp. of Borax. Then mix the two bowls and mix until a
rubbery consistency is present and let extra water drip.
Reflection: What are the key details that you
need to know about?
Make A Baking Soda Vinegar Volcano!
First get a big pan with at least 1 inch walls. Then if you
want a volcano you get a cylinder and place it in the
middle of the pan. Put clay around the cylinder as it gets
shorter and wider. Let it dry and take the cylinder. Put
clay on the bottom. For a big explosion, put at the most 2
cups of baking soda in. Make sure there is powder or
nothing will happen. Then add 2 ½ cups of vinegar at
the most and…… BOOM! Liquid pours out
everywhere.
Reflection: Describe the
relationship between the pictures and the
directions.
Make a hover Craft!
(Parent needed)
All you will need is a DVD or CD that you
don’t want and a 9-inch balloon a plastic pop top from a
liquid soap or a water botttle and hot glue. If you are
using cap from a water bottle cover the hole of the CD
with a piece a tape and poke six holes with a push pin or
small nail. This will slow down the flow of air and allow
your hover craft to fly longer.Use the hot glue gun to glue
the cap to center of the disk. Make a good seal to stop air
from escaping. Blow up the balloon all the way and pinch
the neck (don’t tie it). Make sure the top is closed and fit
the neck of the balloon over the pop top portion of the
cap.(This is usually easier with 2 people.) That’s it! When
you’re ready for hovering, put the craft on a smooth
surface and and pop the top open.
Reflection:
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.1.2
Write informative/explanatory texts in which they name a topic, supply some facts about the
topic, and provide some sense of closure.
Make Lava in a Cup!
What you will need
 A clear drinking glass
 1/4 cup vegetable oil
 1 teaspoon salt
 Water
 Food coloring (optional)
Fill the glass about 3/4 full of water. Add about 5 drops of
food coloring - I like red for thelava look.Slowly pour the
vegetable oil into the glass. See how the oil floats on top cool huh? It gets better. Now the fun part: Sprinkle the
salt on top of the oil. Watch blobs of lava move up and
down in your glass! If you liked that, add another
teaspoon of salt to keep the effect going.
Reflection: What happened first
Second:
Next:
Provide the reaction:
Blow up a balloon with Yeast!
www.youtube.com/watch?v=XOjCEbupifc
(Video of balloon with yeast)
You will need:
 A packet of yeast
 A small, clear, clean plastic soda bottle (16 oz. or smaller)
 1tsp. of sugar
 Some warm water
 A small balloon
Directions:
Fill up the bottle with one inch of warm water. Add all of the
yeast packet and swirl the bottle gently for a few seconds. Add
the sugar and swirl it around some more. Like people yeast
needs energy (food) to be active, so we will put sugar in it. Now
the yeast is active. Stretch out the balloon and put the neck of
the balloon over the bottle. Let the bottle sit for about 20
minutes, and if all goes well, the balloon will inflate.
Reflection: (With guidance and support from adults, respond to
questions and suggestions from peers and add details to strengthen
writing as needed.) Do you think it is important to have all the
directions?
Chemistry Cleans Your Penny
You Will Need:
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A few not clean pennies
1/4 cup of vinegar
Non-metal bowl
Paper towels
Directions:
Pour the vinegar into the bowl and add the salt - stir
it up. Put about 5 pennies into the bowl and count to
10 slowly. Take the pennies out and rise them in
water and you will have shiny pennies.
Reflection: Use a combination of drawing and
composing to write a non-fiction text about the
directions and add some facts.
Exploding Lunch Bag
What you will need”
 One small (sandwich size) zip-lock bag - freezer bags
work best
 Baking soda
 Warm water
 Vinegar
 Measuring cup
 a tissue
Directions: Go outside - or at least do this in the kitchen
sink. Put 1/4 cup of pretty warm water into the bag. Add
1/2 cup of vinegar to the water in the bag. Put 3 teaspoons
of baking soda into the middle of the tissue. Wrap the
baking soda up in the tissue by folding the tissue around
it. You will have to work fast now - partially zip the bag
closed, but leave enough space to add the baking soda
packet. Put the tissue with the baking soda into the bag
and quickly zip the bag completely closed. Put the bag in
the sink or down on the ground (outside) and step back.
The bag will start to expand, and expand, and if all goes
well...EXPLOSION!
Reflection: Write a text to identify the topic and
preference of the topic.
Make an Electronic Magnet
What you will need:
 large iron nail (about 3 inches)
 About 3 feet of THIN COATED copper
wire
 fresh D size battery
 Some paper clips or other small magnetic
objects
Directions
Leave about 8 inches of wire loose at one end and wrap most of
the rest of the wire around the nail. Try not to overlap the wires.
Cut the wire (if needed) so that there is about another 8 inches
loose at the other end, too. Now remove about an inch of the
plastic coating from both ends of the wire. Attach the one wire
to one end of a battery and the other wire to the other end of the
battery. See picture below. (It is best to tape the wires to the
battery - be careful though, the wire could get very hot!) Now
you have an ELECTROMAGNET! Put the point of the nail near
a few paper clips and it should pick them up!
Reflection: What are the key details?
Rock Candy
What you will need:
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A wooden skewer (you can also use a clean wooden chopstick)
A clothespin
1 cup of water
2-3 cups of sugar
A tall narrow glass or jar
Directions
Clip the wooden skewer into the clothespin so that it hangs down inside the glass
and is about 1 inch (2.5 cm) from the bottom of the glass. Remove the skewer and
clothespin and put them aside for now. Get a helpful adult! Pour the water into a
pan and bring it to boil. Pour about 1/4 cup of sugar into the boiling water, stirring
until it dissolves. Keep adding more and more sugar, each time stirring it until it
dissolves, until no more will dissolve. This will take time and patience and it will
take longer for the sugar to dissolve each time. Be sure you don't give up too soon.
Once no more sugar will dissolve, remove it from heat and allow it to cool for at
least 20 minutes. NOTE: While it is cooling, some people like to dip half of the
skewer in the sugar solution and then roll it in some sugar to help jump start the
crystal growth. If you do this, be sure to let the skewer cool completely so that
sugar crystals do not fall off when you place it back in the glass. Have your
friendly ADULT carefully pour the sugar solution into the jar almost to the top.
Then submerge the skewer back into the glass making sure that it is hanging
straight down the middle without touching the sides. Allow the jar to fully cool and
put it someplace where it will not be disturbed. Now just wait. The sugar crystals
will grow over the next 3-7 days
Reflection:
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.1.2
Write informative/explanatory texts in which they name a topic, supply some facts about the
topic, and provide some sense of closure.