Author: Susie    Published: 03/04/2023    Updated: 03/04/2023

Looking for a fun way to play with plastic Easter eggs? Try this Easter science activity with baking soda and vinegar. It’s a twist on an old classic experiment (and an Easter twist on a classic Busy Toddler activity).

Baking soda and vinegar is a classic kid experiment that never gets old in our house.

We do this science experiment/activity all the time. Here’s some of the funnest ways:

Every time I bust out baking soda and vinegar, my kids know that a good time is coming.

Which meant, obviously, I needed to find an Easter twist on a favorite way to play.

RELATED: Looking for more Easter activities for kids? I have the best list to check out!

Supplies

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I know this may look like a long list of supplies, but this is actually pretty basic things that you probably already have on hand. I like to keep supply lists light.

The how-to

This activity is based off one of my first ever viral activities: hidden colors.

The idea: hide food coloring under baking soda so kids don’t know what color will be revealed when the vinegar reacts with it. Hence, the color is “hidden.” See what I did there?

Here’s how to set this up:

• In an egg carton (reusable or consumable), place half a plastic Easter egg.
• Put 2-3 drops of food coloring into each egg half.
• Top the food coloring with baking soda to hide the color.

RELATED: Are you interested in more plastic egg activities? Here is a fun list of ways to play with plastic Easter eggs.

Tip – Dilute the vinegar

Vinegar seems to always be the part of this experiment that I run out of first.

That is until I learned that you can dilute vinegar with water and it will still cause a chemical reaction with the baking soda.

For the bottles my kids have in this activity, 50% is water and 50% is vinegar.

RELATED: Do your kids love science experiments? Try this fun list of experiments for children.

How to explain the Easter science activity to kids

I gave each kid a container full of vinegar and told them to “aim well.” They have a blast doing this.

Since they don’t know what color bubbles will come out, each time is a ball of excitement and giggles.

Tip: Squeezing these big condiment bottles is tough! For little hands, try a spray bottle, medicine dropper, or peri bottle, instead (yes, that peri bottle).

What is happening in the baking soda and vinegar experiment?

This experiment, while childish and simple, is a chemical reaction.

Talk to your kids about that in kid-friendly terms.

Here’s what I say: “We are using two substances today: baking soda and vinegar. When these two combine, they react and something new happens. Let’s see if we can see and hear what happens when the powder touches the liquid.”

Lean in and listen to the bubbles! That’s carbon dioxide!

Tip – how to keep the Easter science activity going

You can keep this activity going by carefully dumping out the vinegar from each egg half.

As long as you can see baking soda in the egg, your toddler can keep making colorful bubbles until you run out of vinegar (which is what happened to me after round 4 of this game).

The activity really has longevity especially considering how one and done this experiment was when we were kids and built a volcano.

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