Erupting Aliens

Posted 2013-05-19 by Jane Street ⇒ follow

This activity is loads of fun for anyone who likes aliens, mess and making things explode. Watch out, it can get very messy so be sure to lay out lots of newspaper in advance!

Time: 45 minutes
Age: Any Age
Level: Medium

Materials

Newspaper to contain the mess

Old play dough

Embellishments - e.g. google eyes, feathers, sequins, pipe cleaners, twigs, flowers etc

Bicarbonate of soda (baking soda)

Vinegar

Several cups or tubs and a spoon

Food colouring

Starting materials

Method

Lay out lots of newspaper (or you could also use a shallow plastic box to contain mess)

Add a few drops of food colouring to a cup of vinegar

Put some baking soda in a cup

Add a few drops of food colouring to a cup of vinegar

Put some baking soda into a cup so that it is easy to scoop

Now create your aliens. We used play dough for the bodies. The play dough will go slimey and will need to be thrown out after the activity so it's a good way to use up old play dough.

Add embellishments such as googly eyes, pipe cleaners, buttons or even natural materials from the garden such as twigs or flowers

Add a hole or indent, where the baking soda will be added. We found that wide holes worked better than deep narrow holes to allow for more surface area for the fizzing reaction.

Have fun designing your alien

Try adding googly eyes, feathers, sequins etc

We added this interesting red flower for hair

When your aliens are ready, scoop some baking soda into the holes.

Ready to erupt

Now add coloured vinegar with a spoon, or pour straight from the cup

Watch as the bicarbonate of soda reacts with the acid from the vinegar to produce lots of fizzing and bubbles

Watch the fizzing begin

Exploding alien

Try different colours

Watch out it can get very messy

After the eruption has finished you can add more baking soda and make your alien erupt again. Try different colours.

Please upload a picture of your exploding alien via the comments section. We'd love to see it!

Check out some other fun monster , alien and baking soda ideas.

Categories
#medium
#under_5s
#5_to_10s
#over_10s
#science_experiments
#bicarb_soda
#play_dough
#alien
#monsters
#googly_eyes
#messy_play
#space
#alien

%mykidcraft

237919 - 2023-07-18 02:11:32

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