Chemistry play idea for preschoolers

[Victor_c3]

I'm not sure if this is too far off topic for this forum, but I'll post it anyways (and take a beating if I deserve it).

I have two daughters aged 2 and 4. I work as a chemist (although I'll admit I'm not a very good one) and yesterday my kids got their hands on some baking soda and vinegar and were having a blast just mixing it together. I've been trying to think all day of other things I could add to the mix to make it more interesting and fun for them. The idea is I'll set up a bunch of solutions outside where I don't have to worry about a mess and just let them play around and pretend to be a scientist (or a chemist) like their dad. They pull a pipette full of a solution from a beaker and add it to a test tube to see what happens.

So far for my chemicals I have:

dilute soap solution (when mixed with baking soda and vinegar it'll (hopefully) make a really massive foam mess)
beakers of colored water
baking soda
vinegar

I "borrowed" some disposable plastic supplies from work:

pipettes
50ml test tubes
10ml test tubes
100ml beakers
PH papers

Does anyone have any ideas of chemicals or labware that I could add to their little chemistry kit that I'm putting together? I don't want anything that would be toxic by any means and I'm trying to keep the equipment to things that don't break and don't cost a lot of money.

Thanks for any ideas!

[Warpy]

1. Well, be a little wary of baking soda and vinegar

because you don't want either to get into their eyes. Also, it can get quite hot during the reaction, so you need to watch where little hands are going.

Your ideas to show them what's really going on are good.

If you can get your hands on some phenolphthalein, it's a little more dramatic as an acid-base indicator than pH paper is, the whole "water into wine" reaction as the pH changes.

[Victor_c3]

4. Thanks

Thanks for the word of caution. Just to be safe, I just mixed a massive amount of both household strength vinegar and baking soda and noticed no temperature change. I get stuck neutralizing massive amounts of acid periodically at work and it'll usually bring what I'm working with to a boil, but then again I'm dumping anhydrous NaOH to several liters of >30% nitric acid.

Phenolphthalein is a good idea. I'll have to "borrow" some of that from work. The bottle that we have is so old that it doesn't even have a bar code on it!

[tridim]

2. Not really chemical, but wet corn starch is super fun to play with.

I remember lots of fun opportunities with borax, and growing crystals with "bluing", whatever that was.

I think you can make nifty slime with borax if I remember correctly.

Edit: Found a nifty link: http://www.hometrainingtools.com/slime-recipes-project/a/1660/

I had several chemistry sets when I was a kid, so I got my fill (and got into lots of trouble). Unfortunately the good ones aren't legal any more.

[immoderate]

3. Have them make "GAK"

Here is how you can make Homemade GAK as well!
SUPPLIES:

- TWO 4 oz. bottles of Elmer’s Glue

- 1 tsp. Borax (found in the laundry detergent section of the store)

- Water

- Plastic Cup

- Bowl

- Food Coloring

http://lilluna.com/homemade-gak-recipe/


--imm

[mzteris]

5. Cross post

In the homeschooling forum.

Not that it gets much play anymore since everyone thinks hsers are dimwit right wing lock your kid in the basement sort. But. . .

I like your ideas and maybe you can help others while possibly garnering some response.

It's been a long time since I did those types of "experiments" so I'm sorry I can't be of much help. Though some hs websites might help if you look.

[sakabatou]

6. Cornstarch & water to make a non-Newtonian fluid

[Victor_c3]

8. Great idea, keep 'em coming! n/t

[DetlefK]

7. Salt, to show how solids dissolve in liquid.

1. The water can only dissolve this much salt, the rest will fall out. Hot water can dissolve more than cold water.
2. Once the water has dried away, the salt returns.

A fine weight scale (resolution of single grams) would also be good.

[Victor_c3]

9. Another good idea

I was thinking about either that or sugar. However, salt would be less prone to being eaten by my two year old.

My 4 year old daughter really does kind of understand what is going on. I really want to emphasize the hands on and playing around aspect of "playing" with chemistry. My parents did stuff like this with me when I was a kid and I think it helped to warp me into a science minded sort of person.

[DetlefK]

10. Young minds can be melded easily.

I've read about a famous chess-player (forgot name) who introduced his daughter to this game at an early age. Now she's a professional.

Richard Feynman put emphasis on showing his kids the beauty of patterns (e.g. in arranging colored toy-bricks in repeating sequences) to introduce them to the concepts of order and mathematics.

[sir pball]

11. Cesium in water!

It's such a pretty blue! Or ammonium triiodide?

I kid, I kid. Seriously though, check out United Nuclear, they're a treasure trove of chem-fun and I'm sure you can find age appropriate toys there.

[TheMadMonk]

12. Supersaturated sugar/salt solutions in a freezer.

Mainly for the fun of watching their eyes bug out.