Fun Science Projects for Kids in the Kitchen

Sometimes parents run out of ideas for fun, healthy and creative activities for children and fall into a rut of doing the same old - same old day after day. Getting out of routine ruts means you have to stop running on automatic pilot and park yourself in front of a computer and google "activities for kids" or go to the library and read those wonderful parenting magazines they have on the shelves.

If you are like most parents, you spend a lot of time in the kitchen fixing meals and washing up after-wards. Kitchens often become the hub for homework, playing games or doing art activities on the kitchen table. Since the kids are in the kitchen anyway and so are you, maybe rethinking how to use your kitchen differently is the place to start. Instead of thinking of the kitchen as the place to fix and clean-up after meals, it could become a science laboratory investigating all sorts of wonders of the world.

One way to turn your kitchen into a kids lab is to put together a science lab tool box that holds scissors, tape, a magnifying glass, measuring tape, plastic gloves, ruler, note books to use as journals, measuring cups and spoons, clear plastic drinking cups and any other kind of tool or instrument or utensil you can think of that would make a science experiment more interesting. In addition to tools, be sure you have on hand some kitchen cabinet basic staples such as baking soda, baking powder, food coloring, vinegar, flour, sugar etc. You might want to plan to have vegetables such as carrots and beets to experiment on making ink or stains.

Before opening the kitchen lab for experiments, talk to the kids about the scientific method which includes collecting data or gathering information by observing and trying different things (experimenting), thinking about why something happened (formulation) and then figuring out a way to test this idea (hypothesis) to see if the idea is right.

An example of a simple experiment to start off with is to have the kids think about what will happen when they add different liquids such as water, soda pop and vinegar to baking soda. Have them write their ideas in their kitchen lab science journal. If they can't write, help them with this. They may have a different idea about what will happen with each liquid.

When all of the hypothesis are made and recorded, give each child three small clear plastic cups with 1 teaspoon of baking soda in each. Let them put a tablespoon full of one of the liquids into one of their cups and watch what happens. When the reaction has ended, ask them what they observed and have them write their observation next to their hypothesis for that liquid. Continue until each of the liquids has been poured into the baking soda cups and the observations have been made and written in journals. To finish the experiment, talk about why each liquid caused a different reaction. If the kids you are playing with are old enough to read, have them google mixing vinegar and baking soda to find out why it fizzed and bubbled, why the soda pop fizzed and turned the baking soda a different color etc.

There are many good websites that focus on kitchen experiments such as: Kitchen Science Experiments, PBS Kitchen Chemistry and The Best Kitchen Science Experiments. The links to these are listed at the end of this article.

No matter what you decide to do in the kitchen to get you and the kids out of your rut, finding new ways to think about the hub of the house - the kitchen will be an exciting and fun process.