Activities that stimulate curiosity, teach science concepts, and avoid overwhelming or boring children with lessons are developmentally appropriate for the preschool classroom. When done well, preschool science is exciting and intellectually meaningful.

The right preschool science activities can nurture your child’s natural sense of adventure and curiosity, help your child develop his own understanding of the natural world, encourage your child to be a persistent problem solver, and introduce your child to basic elements of scientific reasoning (seeking evidence; testing predictions). Because we are learning about monsters this week, we decided to combine vinegar and baking soda to create monster faces!

We first poured 1/2 cup of vinegar into an empty water bottle. Then, we drew a face on the balloons while they were deflated. After that, we placed the funnel into the open end of the deflated balloon and poured in the baking soda. Following, we secured the open end of the balloon onto the top of the bottle being careful not to dump the contents of the balloon into the bottle quite yet.

Finally, we held the balloon upright, allowing the baking soda to fall into the bottle and mix with the vinegar! So, why does this work? Your little one learned that the product of the vinegar and baking soda is carbon dioxide, a gas present when we breathe out. The carbon dioxide inflates the balloon. It’s that simple!