Have you ever started out doing one thing and ended up with something totally different? That’s what happened when we tried an experiment with exploding milk. It started off as a completely innocent experiment using milk, food coloring and dish soap and ended up as a bubbly, fizzy adventure. We did all of these activities at once but you can split them up over a series of days culminating with this bubbling milk activity. If you are in the mood for more science activities for kids, try our Making Color Disappear experiment.
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- Milk
- Dish soap in a small cup
- Food coloring
- Tooth picks
- Baking soda
- Vinegar
- Bowl or container for milk
We started out by adding a few drops of food coloring to some milk.
Then we dipped a toothpick in some dish soap and touched it to the food coloring in the milk. My daughter was so impressed with the reaction that took place between the dish soap and the liquid. I think it’s pretty impressive, don’t you?
Next, she tried stirring it up with her toothpick.
My other daughter worked with blue food coloring.
She had the same cool result when the dish soap made contact with the liquid.
Then she added lots of different colors for a rainbow effect.
At this point I had the idea to add baking soda and vinegar to the milk and food coloring mixture. I didn’t know if the milk would curdle. I was surprised when the baking soda and vinegar acted as they normally did and caused a bubbling, fizzy eruption. Apparently the milk made no difference. As you can see my youngest was surprised as well.
We loved how the resulting foam was colored from the food coloring. We added some more food coloring to the mixture along with more baking soda and vinegar and it was fun watching the colors bubble up.
We also tried adding food coloring on top of the bubbled mixture and using a spoon to make beautiful swirls.
The kids really loved all the experiments we did with the milk and food coloring but the watching the milk errupt was by far their favorite. They kept asking me to add more vinegar and baking soda, so you want to make sure you have a good sized container so the milk doesn’t overflow.
For more fun science experiments check out:
Balloon Experiments
Cranberry Morning says
I love your chemistry class! I suppose I'm too old to enroll? 🙂 What fun your girls have – while you're teaching them so many things and giving them opportunities other kids never get.
OneMommy says
This looks like so much fun!
Definitely pinning it for later!
Louanne says
I love the surprised look on her face!! We will try this for sure! Thanks.
Jaime JJ says
love this. i will have to do this with my boys! they will have a lot of fun with this. I love your daughters face that is priceless:-)
Melinda says
We did this in class yesterday and my kids
loved it!
M 🙂
thubbard says
I am looking for small science projects to do with my kids this summer. This one will be perfect. We will do ours outside, just in case. Thanks for posting.
Melanie at raiseaboy.com says
Her expression is priceless! We've been playing with baking soda and vinegar a lot lately so next time I'll add milk for a great variation.
Katie says
Thanks for the idea. I did it with my boys (3 and 4) and they had a blast. They're obsessed with Sid the Science Kid right now so they always want to do "experiments".
Valerie says
This is really cool!! How much baking soda and vinegar did you put to the milk
Vicky says
Hi Valerie, 1/4 cup to 1/2 cup will work.
Sarah Pletcher says
Hi, do you pour the baking soda into the milk first and stir and then pour the vinegar in? Or do you mix the baking soda and vinegar together first before pouring it in?
Thank you!
Vicky says
Hi Sarah,
We added the baking soda first and then the milk. Hope that helps!
Jackson Christiana says
I love this. Thumb’s up!
Mariliz Salazar says
Hi! My son wants to do this experiments en his school. Which are the scientific principles for this experiments?
Vicky says
Here are the principles http://www.nipissingu.ca/education/jeffs/4284winter/pdfs/magicmilk.pdf It is also a basic reaction between vinegar and baking soda.