Mad Science Monday: Fizzy the Snowman

Happy Mad Science Monday! This week's experiment was one I took last year from one of my favorite bloggers and authors, Asia Citro. If you have not already, I highly recommend checking out her blog and her books as well. Additionally, you can see how she prepared and conducted this activity over on her blog, Fun At Home With Kids.

Fizzy the Snowman

You will need:

For the dough...

• 2 cups baking soda
• 2 TBSP salt
• 1 tsp dish soap
• about 8 TBSP water

For the accessories...

• google eyes
• pipe cleaner arms in black or brown
• orange pipe cleaners cut and folded into carrot noses
• any other snowman accessories you'd like to add!

and lastly...

• white vinegar
• squeeze bottles, pipettes, small cups and/or recycled condiment bottles

1. Prepare your snow dough following the recipe above. Little hands will love helping with this! The dough will be a bit crumbly and if it is too crumbly to hold a shape, you'll want to add more water, one TBSP at a time until it is able to hold the shape of a ball. From there you can build and accessorize your snowman! 
2. Next it's time to see some stuff 'splode! Using your squirting or pouring vessels and white vinegar watch your snowman fizz and bubble! He's melllllllting! Half the fun of this experiment is setting it up and the other half is definitely playing with it as you tear it down!

This one is totally worth digging your hands into according to my then-18 month old. But don't worry about the mess. I'd still throw down a drop cloth if you're working on the floor like we were, but baking soda, vinegar and dish soap are three of my favorite self-cleaning science ingredients! The carpet looked better than ever when we were done...

Happy Experimenting!