Where would preschool science be without bicarb and vinegar! Here is a wonderful science and art experiment that will: teach your child about all the colours of the rainbow, help them learn about colour mixing and learn about chemical reactions (i.e. when bicarb and vinegar mix they create the gas carbon dioxide which makes a bubbling and fizzing reaction). It is wonderful for developing observation skills and is sensory rich as the children see, smell, touch and hear the fizzing of the rainbow….and it makes a beautiful rainbow painting too!

Directions:

Mix together: 3 tablespoons of bicarb, 4 tablespoons powdered paint (each separately: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple), add some water so it becomes a liquid paint. If you don’t have powdered paint you can just use liquid paint and mix in a few tablespoons of bicarb.

Freeze the coloured water bicarb mixture in an ice cube tray

Once frozen, bring out the coloured cubes and lay them on a large sheet of paper.

Invite your child to paint with the ice cubes as they start to melt and make beautiful colours on the paper. We put on some rainbow themed music too.

Next put a row of your ice cubes in a shallow dish and invite your child to spray and squirt vinegar onto the ice cubes and watch them fizz….

Ask them about the colours they see, what they smell and hear, how the ice cubes feel, what they think will happen, etc, so you can help them to develop observation, prediction and language skills.