I received a copy of 101 Kids Activities for review. All opinions are 100% mine. There are Amazon affiliate links in this post. If you chose to buy the book on Amazon via the link below, Mess for Less receives a small commission.
If you are a regular reader at Mess for Less, chances are you have a child and are looking for ideas and fun activities to do with them. When I am looking for inspiration, one of the first places I go is Kids Activities Blog. You can imagine how excited I was to hear that Holly Homer and Rachel Miller, the creative minds behind the blog, have come out with a book, 101 Kids Activities. This books is chock full of activities (and beautiful photos) that your kids will ask to do again and again. I was so thrilled to receive a copy that I was doing one of the activities with my kids within an hour of getting the book. This is our take on Fizzing Sidewalk Paint from 101 Kids Activities.
From 101 Kids Activities by Holly Homer and Rachel Miller, printed with permission of Page Street Publishing June 2014
This activity trumps ordinary sidewalk chalk with a little science magic by creating a chalk-based paint and then spritzing on a little fizz. It all starts with pH. When solutions that are pH base mix with an acid, action happens!
Materials
+ Large mixing bowl
+ 1 (1-pound [454 g]) box baking soda
+ ½ cup (63 g) cornstarch
+ Warm water
+ Several containers to hold the paint
+ Food coloring
+ Paintbrush(es)
+ Spray bottle filled with vinegar—1 per child
+ Buckets for cleanup
In a large mixing bowl, mix the baking soda and the cornstarch together. Add the warm (almost hot) water, stirring until it is the consistency of pancake batter. Split the recipe into several containers, adding the food coloring color of your choice to each.
Use the homemade paint to create a scene or flick it with a paintbrush into a modern masterpiece. It is best to work fast because the paint dries quickly (but can always be diluted with the addition of more warm water).
Once the painting is in place, it is time for something a little extra. Spray the artwork with the vinegar-filled bottle and watch what happens. Your artwork will sizzle and pop!
About Cleanup
A bucketful of water splashed across the art can make it disappear. Because that is fun, too, you might not want to wait for rain.
Modifications for Younger Kids
If a paintbrush is hard to negotiate in the paint, give your children a spoon and let them drip or drop spoonfuls of paint onto the pavement. For the little ones, be sure to fully supervise when they spray vinegar. It can sting little eyes.
Modifications for Older Kids
This activity is an easy way to work in a lesson on reactions between acids and base chemicals and talk about why this works. Maybe you can have your budding scientists adapt the recipe to see whether they can get bigger bubbles and more fizz in their next batch of paint.

TIP
Do you have a prewriting preschooler? Use a turkey baster to squirt vinegar at the paint. The grasping and squeezing helps strengthen finger muscles they will use when they are writing.
Our Experience with Fizzing Sidewalk Paint
I love how easy it was to customize the color of the paint just by mixing different colors of food coloring. We created a beautiful rainbow of colors!
My kids used both a paintbrush and a spoon to paint the sidewalk. They preferred the spoon because they liked watching the paint splatter as it hit the ground.
When they were done painting, they got to spray vinegar on the paint and watch it fizz. What fun! This was their favorite part.
My daughter painted a sun and was excited to see it fizz when she sprayed the vinegar on it.
My kids added way more vinegar than was required because it was so cool to watch the sidewalk paint bubble up.
Besides being a fun painting experience, this activity teaches kids a little about science and reactions, while the spraying of the vinegar helps to strengthen little hand muscles.
I can't wait to try the remaining 100 activities in the 101 Kids Activities book. You can pick up your copy on Amazon.
For more paint recipes check out:
Bubbling Glitter Paint Glitter Finger Paint
This was such a fun activity! We can't wait to try it again!
ReplyDeleteOh this looks like so much fun! Can't wait till I can get the 101 Kids Activities book here in Australia!
ReplyDelete