Hosting a 5th year birthday party, and am looking to include science-y games/activities for up to 12 kids under age 5.
I have the requisite Baking Soda Volcano, actually 3 of them. Any thoughts on how to make them more interesting than just having pinkish bubbles pouring down the side? Are there other safe ingredients that will bubble up and do fun things?
I have a setup to do a Mentos / Diet Cola geyser.
I am also planning to let the kids mix up a non-Newtonian fluid out of corn starch and colored water.
Any thoughts on other fun science type things one can do with kids of this age?
Variation on the volcano:
-Fill plastic bottle with mix of vinegar and water.
-Roll some baking soda into a long thin lozenge inside of a tissue, so it’ll fit easily into the bottle.
-Drop the lozenge into the bottle.
-Quickly seal a balloon over the opening.
Kids are delighted by watching the balloon inflate itself.
Related game: using a clean bottle, set it on its side and balance a tiny puff of toilet paper just inside the mouth. Challenge kids to blow the puff into the bottle using their breath. The harder they blow, the faster it’ll shoot out of the bottle into their face. Good times!
Fill a bunch of equal-sized clear glasses with fizzy water (can be tonic water or soda water or whatever, as long as it’s clear and highly carbonated), one glass per child.
Each child picks a raisin to race. At the signal they drop their raisins into their glass.
First raisin to rise to the top and fall again to the bottom three times wins. Yay for nucleation!
Also: for background entertainment you can’t go wrong with the videos from “Here Comes Science” by They Might Be Giants. My daughter is four and loves them, even if she only understands about a third of them.
Dry ice is always fun as a prop if nothing else. Putting some in plastic bottles with a balloon over it like the baking soda experiment above is also a good one. My kids had fun seeing how to make the balloon inflate faster - warming the bottle, shaking it, using smaller chunks of dry ice.
Would a 5-year-old be impressed by that? I know a lot of adults who would be, but 5-year-olds live in magical worlds already, so something that looks like magic isn’t really a big deal.
It’s a good point - if it doesn’t relate to their normal experience, magic looks the same as the real world to them. But all kids play with water and dump things out, so dumping water that suddenly freezes will be fascinating to them. Guessing that they picked the queen of diamonds from a card deck? Not so impressive.
I did another fun experiment for my kid’s party: dip a dollar bill in some alcohol (rubbing or vodka) then light it on fire. The alcohol burns leaving the bill untouched (just blow it out before too long). be on the edge of being impressed. My audience was 7-8, and they liked it.
Since I have 3 volcanoes, I’m definitely going to have one BS/Vinegar and one Peroxide/yeast. I can even demonstrate the differences with a match, one volcano puts the flame out, one makes it more fierce. Not sure what to do with the 3rd yet.
I’d love to do the freezing water, but I don’t think I’ll be able to pull it off during an outdoor birthday party.
The iodine clock reaction is very cool, I’d like to get that one working.
Missed the edit window, evidently lost some text above. This should have said five year olds might be on the edge of being too young to be impressed. And now that I see it’s an outdoor party, this isn’t a great one. You need darkness or dim lighting to see the flames.
You can also use purple cabbage to make pH water. Get some common household items (baking soda, vinegar, cream of tartar, lemon juice) and figure out if they’re acidic or basic based on the color change.
Wave bottles are a fun experiment and take home favor in one: a water bottle containing one part water mixed with a few drops of food dye plus one part vegetable or baby oil.
Would the kids enjoy some food science like ice cream in a bag or butter made by shaking a jar full of cream?
