20 Science Experiments for Kids Using Household Items

Are you looking for a fun and educational way to spend time with your kids at home? Look no further! This blog post is packed with some exciting science experiments that you can do with your kids using items you probably already have in your home.

These activities are not only enjoyable but also spark curiosity and teach valuable scientific concepts. From creating lava lamps to understanding how plants drink water, each experiment offers a unique learning experience.

See also: Simple Bible Story Crafts for Preschoolers

Science is everywhere, and what better way to learn about it than through hands-on experiments? These science experiments for kids using household items are designed to be simple, safe, and perfect for all ages.

The steps outlined here are for educational purpose only and results may differ. Keep in mind that this post is to show the children a practical understanding of scientific principles and for them to see the results of their actions in real-time.

Note: Be sure to supervise your kids during these experiments, especially when working with hot water or chemicals. Safety comes first!

Kitchen Chemistry

Experiment 1: Rock Candy Creation

What You'll Need:

• Sugar
• Water
• A jar or a glass
• A pencil or a stick
• A piece of string

Instructions:

1. Heat a cup of water until it's almost boiling, then remove it from the heat.
2. Add sugar to the water one spoonful at a time, stirring until it dissolves. Keep adding sugar until no more will dissolve. This is your sugar solution.
3. Let the solution cool for about 15 minutes, then pour it into your jar or glass.
4. Tie one end of the string around the middle of the pencil or stick. Place the pencil or stick over the top of the jar so that the string hangs down into the sugar solution.
5. Now, be patient! Leave your jar in a cool place where it won't be disturbed. Over the next few days, you'll see crystals forming on the string.
6. Once you're happy with the size of your rock candy, remove it from the solution and let it dry. Enjoy your sweet treat!

Experiment 2: Homemade Lava Lamp

What You'll Need:

• A clean plastic bottle
• Water
• Vegetable oil
• Fizzing tablets (like Alka-Seltzer)
• Food coloring

Instructions:

1. Fill the bottle up about 1/4th with water.
2. Pour the vegetable oil into the bottle until it's almost full. Wait until the oil and water separate.
3. Add a few drops of your favorite food coloring. The drops will pass through the oil and mix with the water.
4. Break the fizzing tablet in half and drop part of it into the bottle. Watch your lava lamp come to life!
5. When the bubbling stops, add another piece of the tablet and enjoy the show!

Experiment 3: DIY Slime

What You'll Need:

• 1/2 cup of glue (white or clear)
• 1/2 cup of water
• Food coloring (optional)
• 1 teaspoon of borax powder
• Another 1 cup of water

Instructions:

1. In a bowl, mix the glue with 1/2 cup of water. Add food coloring if you want colored slime.
2. In another container, dissolve the borax powder in 1 cup of water.
3. Slowly add the borax solution to the glue mixture, stirring constantly.
4. Keep stirring until the slime forms and begins to harden.
5. Take the slime out and knead it until it reaches the desired consistency. If it's too sticky, add a little bit more borax solution.

Experiment 4: Walking Rainbows (Color Mixing and Capillary Action)

What You'll Need:

• 6 clear glasses or jars
• Water
• Red, yellow, and blue food coloring
• Paper towels

Instructions:

1. Arrange the six glasses in a circle or in a row.
2. Fill glasses 1, 3, and 5 halfway with water.
3. Add a few drops of red food coloring to glass 1, yellow to glass 3, and blue to glass 5.
4. Fold a paper towel lengthwise into a strip and then fold it in half. You'll need a total of 6 paper towel strips.
5. Connect the glasses with the paper towel strips. Place one end of a paper towel into glass 1 (with red water) and the other end into glass 2 (empty). Repeat this process until all the glasses are connected in a circle or row.
6. Watch as the water begins to "walk" along the paper towels from the full glasses into the empty ones, mixing colors as it goes. Red and yellow will create orange, yellow and blue will make green, and blue and red will create purple.
7. Leave your setup for a few hours or even overnight and come back to a beautiful rainbow!

Experiment 5: Balloon Carbon Dioxide Experiment

What You'll Need:

• A balloon
• An empty plastic bottle
• Baking soda
• Vinegar
• A funnel

Instructions:

1. Use the funnel to pour about two tablespoons of baking soda into the balloon.
2. Fill the plastic bottle roughly one-third full with vinegar.
3. Carefully fit the neck of the balloon over the mouth of the bottle, making sure the baking soda doesn't spill into the bottle yet.
4. Once the balloon is securely in place, lift the balloon and allow the baking soda to fall into the vinegar.
5. Watch as a chemical reaction between the vinegar (an acid) and the baking soda (a base) creates carbon dioxide gas, which will inflate the balloon!
6. Discuss with your kids how the gas needs space to spread out, and since it's trapped, it fills the balloon.

Nature and Environment

Experiment 6: Dancing Raisins (Buoyancy and Gas Bubbles)

What You'll Need:

• A clear glass or jar
• Clear carbonated soda (like 7Up or Sprite)
• A handful of raisins

Instructions:

1. Fill the glass about three-quarters full with the clear soda.
2. Drop a few raisins into the glass.
3. Watch as the raisins begin to dance up and down in the glass! The gas bubbles from the soda attach to the rough surface of the raisins and carry them to the surface. When the bubbles pop, the raisins sink again, only to be carried back up by more bubbles.

Experiment 7: Shiny Pennies (Cleaning Copper and Chemical Reactions)

What You'll Need:

• Dirty, tarnished pennies
• Vinegar
• Salt
• A shallow dish or bowl
• Paper towels

Instructions:

1. In the shallow dish, mix one cup of vinegar with one teaspoon of salt.
2. Place the pennies in the mixture and watch them for a few minutes.
3. Take the pennies out and rinse them under water. Place them on a paper towel to dry.
4. Observe how the vinegar and salt mixture cleans the copper pennies and makes them shiny again!

Experiment 8: Dancing Worms (Baking Soda and Vinegar Reaction)

What You'll Need:

• Gummy worms (or any gummy candy)
• Baking soda
• Vinegar
• A tall glass or jar

Instructions:

1. Cut the gummy worms into thin strips.
2. Mix a few tablespoons of baking soda into a bowl with the gummy worms. Make sure they're fully coated.
3. Fill the glass about halfway with vinegar.
4. Drop a few baking soda-coated gummy worms into the vinegar and watch them dance! The baking soda and vinegar react to create bubbles of carbon dioxide gas, which make the gummy worms move around.

Experiment 9: Milk Bottle Xylophone (Sound Waves and Vibrations)

What You'll Need:

• 6 glass milk bottles or any uniform glass bottles
• Water
• A metal spoon
• Food coloring (optional)

Instructions:

1. Fill each bottle with different amounts of water. Arrange them in order from the least to the most water.
2. (Optional) Add a drop of different food coloring to each bottle to create a colorful xylophone.
3. Gently tap on each bottle with the metal spoon and listen to the different sounds.
4. Discuss how the amount of water in each bottle affects the pitch of the sound.

Experiment 10: Lemon Volcano (Acid-Base Reactions)

What You'll Need:

• A lemon (or a few to make more volcanoes)
• Baking soda
• Food coloring (optional)
• Dish soap (optional)
• A plate to contain the mess

Instructions:

1. Cut the bottom of the lemon to make it stand up. Then, cut the top off and remove a bit of the inside of the lemon to create a 'bowl'.
2. (Optional) Add a few drops of food coloring onto the lemon.
3. (Optional) Add a few drops of dish soap. This will make your volcano foamier.
4. Sprinkle a spoonful of baking soda onto the lemon.
5. Watch the eruption! The acid from the lemon juice reacts with the baking soda, creating a fizzy, fun volcano.

Physics in Action

Experiment 11: Walking Water Rainbow (Capillary Action)

What You'll Need:

• 7 clear glasses or jars
• Water
• Paper towels
• Red, yellow, and blue food coloring

Instructions:

1. Arrange the seven glasses in a line.
2. Fill glasses 1, 3, 5, and 7 halfway with water.
3. Add a few drops of red food coloring to glasses 1 and 7, yellow to glass 3, and blue to glass 5.
4. Fold the paper towels lengthwise and place one end in a glass with water and the other end in an adjacent empty glass.
5. Watch as the colored water "walks" over the bridge of paper towels into the empty glasses, creating a rainbow. This happens due to capillary action, where water climbs up the paper towel.

Experiment 12: Dirty Penny Chemistry (Oxidation and Reactions)

What You'll Need:

• A few old pennies
• Vinegar
• Salt
• A shallow dish

Instructions:

1. Pour vinegar into the shallow dish.
2. Add a teaspoon of salt and stir until it dissolves.
3. Drop the pennies into the solution and wait for about 10 minutes.
4. Take the pennies out and rinse them under water. Observe how much cleaner they look!

Experiment 13: Density of Liquids (Density Gradients)

What You'll Need:

• A tall, clear glass or jar
• Various liquids (honey, dish soap, water, vegetable oil, and rubbing alcohol)
• Food coloring (to color the water for better visibility)

Instructions:

1. Pour each liquid slowly into the glass, starting with the densest (honey).
2. Wait a few minutes for the liquids to settle into layers.
3. Observe the layers of different liquids. Discuss how the density of each liquid determines its position in the stack.

Experiment 14: Cosmic Colors (Color Mixing and Light)

What You'll Need:

• A CD or DVD
• A flashlight or a lamp
• A dark room

Instructions:

1. Hold the CD in the dark room and shine the flashlight or lamp on it.
2. Move the CD around until you see colors reflecting off it.
3. Discuss how the CD diffracts (spreads out) the light, separating it into different colors, similar to a rainbow.

Experiment 15: Tornado in a Bottle (Vortex Formation)

What You'll Need:

• Two 2-liter clear plastic bottles
• Water
• Duct tape or a tornado tube connector

Instructions:

1. Fill one bottle 2/3 full with water.
2. If using duct tape, place the empty bottle upside down on top of the water-filled bottle and tape securely. If using a tornado tube connector, screw the bottles into each connector end.
3. Turn the bottles so the one with water is on top, and give it a vigorous swirl in a circular motion.
4. Set the bottles down and watch a vortex form in the bottom bottle as the water drains into it.

Fun with Forces

Experiment 16: Homemade Bouncy Balls (Material Properties)

What You'll Need:

• 1/2 cup warm water
• 1 tablespoon borax
• 1 tablespoon of glue
• 1 tablespoon cornstarch
• Food coloring

Instructions:

1. In a cup, mix the warm water and the borax.
2. In another cup, mix the glue, cornstarch, and a few drops of food coloring.
3. Pour the glue mixture into the borax solution.
4. Let the ingredients interact for about 10 to 15 seconds, then take it out of the solution.
5. Roll the mixture in your hands to make a ball. The more you handle it, the firmer it becomes.

Experiment 17: Build a Da Vinci Bridge (Engineering and Balance)

What You'll Need:

• 7 pencils or sticks of equal length
• Rubber bands

Instructions:

1. Tie two pencils together at the end with a rubber band. Repeat this until you have three sets of two pencils tied together.
2. Connect these sets by wrapping a rubber band around the middle pencils of each set.
3. Add the seventh pencil perpendicularly across the middle and secure each end with rubber bands to the base of the bridge.
4. Test the stability of your Da Vinci bridge by gently placing it between two books or objects.

Experiment 18: Create Eggshell Chalk (Material Science)

What You'll Need:

• Eggshells
• Flour
• Hot water
• Food coloring (if you want colored chalk)

Instructions:

1. Wash and dry the eggshells, then grind them into a fine powder.
2. Mix one teaspoon of flour with one teaspoon of hot water.
3. Add one tablespoon of eggshell powder and mix until it forms a paste.
4. Add food coloring if desired.
5. Shape the paste into a chalk-like cylinder and wrap it in a paper towel to dry for about three days.

Experiment 19: Make a Basic Sundial (Solar Tracking and Shadows)

What You'll Need:

• A stick or a straight pencil
• A sunny day
• A flat surface outside
• A watch or clock

Instructions:

1. Find a sunny spot and place the stick or pencil vertically in the ground or in a lump of clay on a flat surface.
2. Every hour, mark the end of the shadow with a stone or a chalk mark.
3. Write the time next to each mark.
4. Observe how the shadow moves and changes length as the day progresses.

Experiment 20: Make a Parachute for Toys (Gravity and Air Resistance)

What You'll Need:

• A small toy or an action figure
• A plastic bag or a large napkin
• String
• Scissors
• Tape

Instructions:

1. Cut out a large square from the plastic bag or napkin.
2. Cut four pieces of string of the same length.
3. Tape each string to one corner of the square.
4. Attach the four strings to the toy.
5. Hold the parachute by the center of the plastic bag or napkin and throw it in the air. Watch your toy gently float down as the parachute slows its fall.

FAQs on Science Experiments at Home

Q: What are the safety precautions we should take during home science experiments?
A: Always supervise your kids, especially with experiments involving heat or chemicals. Ensure they wear protective gear like gloves or goggles if needed. Keep a first aid kit handy and make sure your workspace is well-ventilated.

Q: How can I make science experiments both educational and fun?
A: Start with experiments related to your child's interests. Explain the science behind the experiment in simple terms. Ask questions that encourage critical thinking and let your kids make predictions about what they think will happen.

Q: How can I involve different age groups in these activities?
A: Choose experiments that are adaptable to different skill levels. For younger kids, focus on the sensory aspects or simple observations. Older children can handle more complex tasks and delve deeper into the scientific explanations.

Conclusion on Science Experiments for Kids

Science experiments are a fantastic way to spark curiosity and instill a love for learning in children. They transform abstract concepts into tangible experiences, making learning both effective and fun. These activities not only teach children about scientific principles but also encourage critical thinking, creativity, and problem-solving skills.

As parents, engaging in science experiments with your children using everyday household items is a wonderful opportunity to bond and learn together. It demystifies science, showing that it's not just a subject in school but a fascinating part of our everyday lives. So, encourage your kids to ask questions, explore, and experiment. Who knows? You might just be nurturing the next great scientist!