🔍 Discover🔬 STEM
🌋 Fizzy Volcano Tray
Drip vinegar onto bicarb and watch the whole tray fizz.
Ages
2–5
Duration
20 min
Cost
$2
👶 Kid challenge
Easy
🧑 Parent energy
Hands on · 3 min prep
⚠️ Safety first
Stay in the room. Keep the mixture out of eyes and mouths, and do it in a tray. Not for under 2.
You know your child best — supervise the whole time and skip anything that isn't right for them. See our Terms.
Why this is good for your child
- ✓Prediction
- ✓Cause and effect
What you need
Bicarbonate of sodaVinegarPipetteTray
Nice to have — not needed today ($2)
Everything we put in your daily three is free and already in the kitchen. This one needs bicarbonate of soda if you want to try it.
Search Amazon US for bicarbonate of sodaThat link runs a search in the shop closest to you. It isn't a recommendation, we don't check what comes back, and we earn nothing from it.
How to do it
- 1Spread bicarb over a deep tray.
- 2Give them a pipette of coloured vinegar.
- 3Drip and watch it fizz.
How it actually goes
The honest version — including what "going well" looks like at this age.
- ⏱ 30-second set-up
- Thirty seconds: put bicarbonate of soda, vinegar, pipette on a tray or a clear bit of floor, and sit down next to it before you call them over.
- 🧑 What you do
- Show it once, slowly, without talking over yourself. Then hand it over and stop helping unless they ask.
- 👶 What they do
- Touch, shake, sort and compare until it makes sense to them.
- ✅ What success looks like
- At 2–3 they'll do it their own way, not yours, and stop after five minutes. Both of those are fine.
- 🧺 How to put it away
- Everything back into one basket or tray, carried back to its spot by them. Naming the spot out loud is what makes it stick.
- 📈 When they outgrow it
- Older? Add a blindfold or a guessing round — same thing, harder.