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    Home » Sensory Activities

    Erupting Play Dough

    Modified: Feb 5, 2024 · Published: Aug 27, 2013 by Vicky · This post may contain affiliate links · 2 Comments

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    We have a few simple science experiments to share with you today and they all involve the  No Cook Lotion Dough we made last week. You may recall that we made the dough using baking soda. Looking to get more use from the play dough, I thought we could roll it into balls and do some experiments with vinegar. The result was this fun and bubbly erupting play dough.

    Erupting Play Dough - A baking soda based play dough that erupts when kids add vinegar. What a fun way to teach science!

    You will need: 

    • Vinegar
    • Lotion dough (recipe here)
    • Small and large see through plastic cups
    Erupting Play Dough Balls

    Fill up a large see through plastic cup with vinegar. Roll the lotion dough into small balls. Drop a ball of the lotion play dough into the cup of vinegar and watch the results!

    Dropping lotion dough into vinegar

    What would happen when we dropped more play dough bombs? Would the eruption spill out of the cup? My daughter predicted it would, but after dropping four consecutive balls into the vinegar, it still stayed in the cup.

    Play dough eruptions

    For our next experiment, we got a smaller cup (the ones applesauce or fruit come in are perfect for this) and pressed the lotion play dough into it, leaving a small well at the bottom. I made sure to push it up against the sides. Then we poured the vinegar into the play dough cup.

    Pouring vinegar on lotion dough

    And look what happened!

    Erupting Play Dough - A baking soda based play dough that erupts when kids add vinegar. What a fun way to teach science!

    The kids were delighted with the reaction that occurred when the vinegar was poured into the play dough cup. We talked about how the play dough had been made with baking soda so when the vinegar touched it, it caused an eruption.

    Your child will be amazed with this erupting play dough

    Every time we would add more vinegar to the cup, more eruptions would occur.

    Play dough eruptions

    We tried one final experiment, this time pouring the vinegar into the play dough cup and topping it quickly with our empty vinegar cup. Would the eruption cause the cup to topple?

    Baking soda experiments

    It did! The force of the bubbles caused the cup to fall over.

    Baking soda and vinegar experiment

    As you can see, it's easy to create some simple science experiments for kids using materials you probably already have in your pantry or cabinet.

    For more baking soda play ideas take a look at:

    Exploding Milk Experiment

    Baking Soda Experiments

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      Recipe Rating




    1. Marwa Farouq says

      March 13, 2014 at 9:20 pm

      I can't wait to do this with my daughter tomorrow; she will love making the daugh and doing the volcano experiment!! we love doing experiment at home and learning why things happen. Thanks for sharing! Marwa form BlossomFamily.net

      Reply
    2. Allison Sonnier says

      August 28, 2013 at 3:02 am

      Great minds - I literally did this today! (Different dough recipe) I like your method better, though. I LOVE the photos of your girls. Their expressions are priceless. 🙂

      Reply
    Vicky from Mess for Less

    I'm Vicky, the founder of Mess For Less, which I started in 2011 to share easy, family-friendly recipes. With over a decade of experience as a home chef and recipe developer, I love creating meals that bring people together. I also design play and learning activities for kids, using my background as a former teacher with a Master’s degree in education. Learn more about me.

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