Earth Day Fizzy Science Activity for Kids

Earth Day is a yearly event that occurs on April 22. It’s a day of demonstration of support for environmental protection and to raise awareness of the issues currently facing our planet. To be creative in our teaching of this important day, you might like to try this Earth Day fizzy science activity for kids. They are sure to love it.

Importance of Earth Day

Our planet is remarkable, but we know it certainly needs our help to keep healthy and thrive. It’s interesting to think this movement started way back in 1970 in the U.S.A when a group of demonstrators took to the streets to raise awareness of global environmental concerns. This has now grown to be a world-wide phenomenon.

Here are a group of young children cleaning up the streets of New York and raising awareness of Earth Day. It has certainly come a very long way.

Below I’m going to show you a creative way to get your children engaged in Earth Day with this fun Earth Day fizzy science activity. It involves chemical reactions and the final result looks super cool.

Recommended age: 5 years +
(Strict and active supervision is required at all times)

Earth Day science activity instructions

To conduct this bubbly science experiment you will need to prepare some ingredients and materials. Fortunately most of them can be found around the house.

You will need –

• 2 x cups of baking soda
• 1 x cup of white vinegar
• blue food colouring (3-5 drops)
• green food colouring (3 – 5 drops)
• pippette
• 2 x small cups
• 1 x plate

To begin you simply need to prepare your materials and put the vinegar into two small cups.

In one cup mix the vinegar and blue food colouring. In the other mix the green food colouring.

Spread your baking soda across the plate so it’s evenly spread.

Using the coloured pippette, draw up the green vinegar mixture and drip it onto the baking soda.

What’s the science behind this activity?

Instantly your child will begin to see a chemical reaction! This is known as an ‘acid-base’ reaction and you can learn more about it from this STEM science page that explains it well.

This Earth Day fizzy science activity for kids is fascinating. The reaction occurs because one is a ‘base’ (baking soda) and the other is an ‘acid’ (vinegar). When they combine, two different chemical reactions occur. Firstly it’s the acidic reaction, which creates the bubbles and they release carbon dioxide when the bubbles pop.

The second reaction is a decomposition reaction, which is a result of the first reaction. This is where it all starts to break down, which can be see in the image above.

Your child can have fun adding the coloured vinegar mix to the baking soda and watching the many bubbles appear and burst. It’s great fun, especially that they are coloured.

There is no rules as to how your child decorates the surface of the baking soda, anything goes.

This Earth Day fizzy science activity for kids will sure inspire lots of questions. Of course you might like to ask them your own leading questions to get them thinking about our Earth on a deeper level.

Questions to ask your child this Earth Day

1. Where is your favourite place on Earth to visit? Why?
2. Do you have a favourite animal?
3. Why is it important we take care of our Earth?
4. Is there something big or small we can do to help our planet?
5. How do you think we can reduce out use of plastics and opt for more eco-friendly products?
6. Do you have a favourite season?
7. Where do you think we could plant more trees?
8. How do you think trees help our environment?
9. Where do you think seeds come from?
10. Do you have a favourite marine animal?

If you’re looking for more great questions to ask your child on Earth Day, visit this page here.

This is a fun science activity you might like to do with your child in the lead up to Earth Day. It’s a great way to tune them into Earth Day and get them thinking about our planet and the extra care it needs.

Don’t forget for your younger children, the use of the pipette is brilliant for developing those fine motor skills, which they need for writing and other important life skills.

If you’d like some more inspiration you can visit my Pinterest page.

Share below how you engage your children in Earth Day?
I’d love to hear your ideas.