Science for Kids: 7 Experiments You Can Do With Your Kids

by Holly Homer on May 1st, 2011 | 3 Comments »

Over the last few months I have been featuring science experiments that are fun and easy to do with your children at home. They use everyday items and materials that teach simple lessons. Fostering creativity and science curiosity in your kids is super simple with these activities and hopefully they will inspire you to look for other fun things to do with your kids because...

...learning should be fun.

Easy Science Experiments for Kids

Magic Finger

In the magic finger science experiment, children learn how to make pepper flee from their finger. This is based on the simple concept of why soap can clean a kid...no matter how dirty.

Materials needed: pepper, soap, drinking glass, and water

Paper Airplanes

Basic theories of flight are explored in the Paper Airplane science activity. Four identical planes are constructed with just one detail changed on each one. Kids figure out that a simple wing fold can change the course of the plane. This experiment teaches kids how a plane is steered by raising and lowering the wing flaps.

Materials needed: paper and some helpers

Balloon Rocket

With the Balloon Rocket experiment, kids continue learning concepts of flight, except this time is is space flight! This science activity is a two-stage rocket which will teach kids that "for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction." I think that this lesson can go beyond science.

Materials needed: fishing line, straw, empty bottle, balloons, tape, outdoor space

Dancing Craisins

When you make Craisins dance, it uses Carbon Dioxide bubbles like the ones found in soda pop. Kids can see how two things that don't do anything on their own can be combined for a reaction.

Materials needed: Raisins or Craisins, baking soda, vinegar, glass containe, water

Chip Ship

The Chip Ship experiment was the one that surprised me the most. This science experiment for kids uses the principal of buoyancy to show how a ship can carry more cargo if it displaces more water. I was pretty sure it wouldn't work. I was wrong.

Materials needed: Empty chip bag, medium size container top, 100 pennies, bucket of water

Frankenstein's Hand

This science experiment was my favorite of all the ones I did with my five year-old. The look on his face (pictured above) was priceless! This is a variation of the combination of vinegar and baking soda with fun results.

Materials needed: Rubber glove, drinking glass, vinegar, baking soda

Gross Volcano

Building a miniature volcano in our backyard was a big hit. We modified the original experiment to create a gross, thick, green lava eruption. My son loved building this and spent most of the morning building a doomed town around the volcanic mountain which he named Pompeii.

Materials needed: Empty bottle, baking soda, whipped cream, food coloring, vinegar, dirt and I recommend an outdoor space

Science Education Resources for Parents

This series of science experiments for kids was inspired by Workman. They publish a wide variety of amazing science books for kids. ach of these experiments can be found in those books. All of the instructions for these and other kids' science experiments can be found on their Scribd page. I personally own several of these books and have used them for fun activities at home and play groups/home school groups.

Have you and your kids ever conducted a science experiment? If so, what experiment was it? What was the result? What did you love most about the activity?

Holly Homer likes science so much in her previous life she became a Physical Therapist and willingly spent two summers in a cadaver lab. When she isn't blowing things up with her three boys, she writes. As a mom blogger, she blogs at June Cleaver Nirvana. She is the founder/editor of She is Dallas which explores fun things to do in DFW. Please follow her on Twitter and FB...she loves the attention.