Here’s a fun activity for younger students – Fizzing Watercolors! I needed a fun and simple activity for my self-contained classes, and this ended up being perfect. We made baking soda watercolor paints, and then dripped vinegar on the finished art to watch it bubble and fizz. It was a super example of a chemical reaction.
To make the paint, simply mix equal amounts of baking soda and water, and add food coloring to achieve the hue you desire. You want the paint to be fairly thick, about the consistency of a good gravy. You will need to mix the paints up periodically, as the baking soda will settle to the bottom. We used large paint brushes to create our masterpieces.
After the painting was done, we gave them a few minutes to dry and then used eyedroppers to drip vinegar onto the paint. There were lots of oooohs and ahhhhs as the baking soda and vinegar reacted and fizzed up. It was a lot of fun for the adults and the kids!
