If you are new to science discovery bottles, you have been missing an awesome way to share science with kids. Discovery bottles are a must do for simple science especially for our younger scientists. From simple glitter bottles to magnetic bottles, they are excellent resource for a science center at home or school. Start with this liquid density Christmas science bottle with a classic oil and water experiment.

LIQUID DENSITY CHRISTMAS SCIENCE BOTTLE

HANDS ON LEARNING WITH LIQUID DENSITY SCIENCE IN A BOTTLE!

I love holiday themed science activities like this one because young kids love themes! They love the novelty of the holiday and this just makes learning all the more fun. Check out some of our favorite Christmas science activities too! Our liquid density Christmas science activity looks like a Christmas tree in a bottle!

Plus you can make a new science bottle for each holiday or season, and kids can practice what they have learned again and again. Simply changing colors and small items is all you need to do to create a new science discovery bottle.

Our easy science discovery bottles are a great place to start! Our St. Patricks Day science sensory bottles are great examples of more ideas. Check out our LEGO bottles too.

DISCOVERY BOTTLES ARE GREAT FOR MANY SCIENCE CONCEPTS

HOW DO YOU MAKE THI AWESOME LIQUID DENSITY CHRISTMAS SCIENCE BOTTLE?

First you need a few simple supplies. Check your kitchen! I bet you are more than half way there. These are my favorite plastic bottles for making science discovery bottles. make sure to check out our tornado bottle and specimen bottles.

Don’t forget to grab your FREE set of Christmas STEM challenge cards…

SUPPLIES

VOSS Plastic Water Bottle {or any plastic bottle you have}

Cooking Oil or Baby Oil

Water

Food Coloring

Christmasy Items {we used mini ornaments}

Eye Dropper {optional but very cool}

Funnel {optional but helps}

SIMPLE SET UP FOR A LIQUID DENSITY SCIENCE BOTTLE

Unfortunately I didn’t get the best pictures in the moment because well my kid had oil and water and I needed two hands. However, it really is so simple! I borrowed the photo below from our St. Patrick’s Day Bottle.

1. Fill your bottle half way with oil. Above you can see we used baby oil and below we used regular cooking oil {much less expensive option}

2. Color a small bowl of water green.

3. Use an eye dropper to drop green water into the oil. Check out what happens! You will eventually want to fill the bottle most of the way with the green water.

4. Add desired items and check out what they do in the bottle too!

Now, you can either be done with your liquid density Christmas science bottle at this point and screw the cap back onto it. Or….

HOMEMADE LAVA LAMP OPTION

You can add an Alka Seltzer tablet for a very cool chemical reaction! If you have ever used Alka Seltzer, you know that it fizzes when dropped in water. Here you are also dropping it into water and a gas is released carrying up bubbles of colored water through the oil!

You can use a part of a tablet for a more lava lamp style, calm reaction. But my son thinks it’s not quite as exciting as……

a full tablet for a very messy eruption! My son greatly enjoys messy science. Another great way to play with messy science is setting up a Potions Mixing Science Table! I can’t even begin to tell you how much fun this is for a little scientist.

You can still cap your Christmas density science bottle at this point once the reaction dies down. You will notice the oil and water will always separate. Even when shaken furiously, it will separate! Pretty cool science.

Why does the oil and water separate? Water is heavier or denser than oil. If you have rubbing alcohol handy, you can add another layer to this liquid density experiment. You can even color that too. Check it out here! You have probably heard someone say, water and oil don’t mix!

CLASSIC SCIENCE WITH A CHRISTMAS TWIST!