4th of July Science Activity with Red, White, And Blue Baking Soda and Vinegar Eruptions

Kids love to celebrate holidays and a favorite one that’s coming up is the 4th of July! Just because the kids are out of school doesn’t mean you can’t set up simple science experiments. Or add this easy to set up 4th of July science activity to your summer science camp week. Perfect for junior scientists to get their feet wet with cool chemistry demonstrations!

4TH OF JULY SCIENCE ACTIVITIES AND EXPERIMENTS FOR KIDS

Holiday themed science experiments and activities have always been a thing around here. It’s a ton of fun for young kids to celebrate the whole year with holiday {or season} specific science activities.

We have science and STEM collections for every major holiday and season, including the 4th of July!

Repeating similar types of science experiments or activities with the different holidays is a great way to check on progress and create a type of repetition young kids need to remember new concepts. Instead of being boring and repetitive, we make it way more fun with our holiday themes!

4TH OF JULY SCIENCE EXPERIMENT SUPPLIES

Materials:

Baking Soda
White Vinegar
Food Coloring
Confetti Stars and/or Glitter {optional}
Test Tubes and Racks {or small plastic bottles/containers}
Eyedroppers, Pipettes, or Small Vessels {to pour from}
Tray {to catch the eruptions}

SET UP

There’s nothing better than a super simple to set up science experiment straight from the kitchen cupboards. That’s where the term “kitchen science” comes from. A lot of chemistry happens in the kitchen!

Now if you don’t have test tubes and a rack, small plastic water bottles work too! Even a muffin tin will do the trick. We like the test tubes because we can achieve and even better eruption by using them. Water bottles will also give a nice eruption too.

First, add a couple teaspoons of baking soda to each test tube. We went with a red, white, and blue theme of course for our 4th of July science activity! One test tube for each color.

You could even do more. Check out the test tubes and rack we used for our rainbow eruptions.

Next, fill up three vessels with white vinegar. Add red food coloring to one and blue food coloring to another. We added about 6 drops or so of food coloring to get a nice deep shade of both blue and red.

Finally, add glitter and confetti stars if desired! Baking soda science eruptions are always more fun with glitter. We put red glitter in one tube and blue glitter to another.

Set out your 4th of July science activity tray and invite the kids to come and experiment with a very simple chemical reaction. Personally, I keep extra baking soda and vinegar on hand at all times.

Check out: Unique Baking Soda Science Experiments for more ideas.

You can test out a small reaction by transferring some of the vinegar into the test tube with baking soda using a pipette or an eyedropper or even a meat baster!

You can create an even bigger, more explosive eruption by slowing pouring vinegar into the tube! The narrower the vessel that is holding the baking soda, the better the up and over the eruption will be as the gas is pushed upwards in the narrower space.

WHAT’S THE SCIENCE?

Have fun exploring the reaction between the vinegar and baking soda! This chemical reaction occurs between the acid {vinegar} mixing with the base {baking soda}. When the two mix, a chemical reaction takes place that produces the fizzing and bubbling. The gas they create is called carbon dioxide.

This patriotic science activity is also quite playful making it perfect for young kids to explore over and over again. Keep extra baking soda and vinegar handy, and let them continue to mix “potions”!

This is the perfect science that kids can explore with their senses too. You can use 4 of the 5 senses with this science experiment. Hear the fizzing of the gas created, feel the fizz and the eruptions, see all the changes taking place, and even smell the reaction. You can also use lemon juice and other citrus juices instead of vinegar.

If you would like a worksheet to go along with this, we have a 5 senses journal page on our FREE SCIENCE WORKSHEETS page.