Colorful Fizzy Bin

I like to be organized and love using my paper planner. I find that routine, schedules, and plans help free up my brain space for things that matter, like spending quality time with my kids or working without distractions of how to keep my house and life running.

Does this always work? Absolutely not! In fact, I’ve been a little (ok…a lot) frazzled since school started last week. Every day feels like I’m unprepared and out of my depth. I anticipated my life being less hectic with fewer children physically in the house during the week, but so far that has not been my experience. I think I underestimated how much the kids entertain each other, so now the younger ones are turning to me for entertainment more than they used to.

This classic baking soda and vinegar activity is one of my favorite go-to’s when I don’t necessarily have an activity planned. The materials are pretty basic, so it’s easy to keep everything in stock, making this easy to whip out on a whim.

Here’s what you need

Sensory bin. Are you getting tired of me listing this in activities yet? It’s just so convenient!
Baking soda. This is a pretty decent price per ounce and I actually prefer the boxes over just a huge bag of baking soda. The huge bag is easier to spill, harder to store, and we inevitably use way more than necessary just because it’s easy to scoop out a lot. The individual boxes serve as a built-in limit and I don’t have to worry about contaminating the whole stash with water or vinegar if the kids are dumping or pouring themselves.
Vinegar. I like to buy the biggest container possible because I use it for activities and cleaning. What’s not to like about a dual purpose item in the house?
Food coloring. This is my tried and true favorite brand, but I’m in the process of testing out new brands just to really make sure I’m not missing anything better. I used this brand today and it came with a wide variety of colors, which was perfect for this activity.
Droppers/Pipettes. I love our reusable pipettes for this activity. The tops come off and everything is easy to clean and reassemble. If you don’t want to add anything else to wash into your life, I also like this bulk pack of disposable pipettes. I save them for truly messy activities, like this Water and Oil Tray, so we still have most of them even though I bought the pack nearly 3 years ago.

Set up

1-5 minutes. We use the set up as part of the activity for this- the kids love dumping the baking soda and squeezing the food coloring! So you can take your time if you want.

Spread baking soda into your bin.
Drop food coloring in- you can mix colors by layering your dots.
Pour vinegar into a bowl or cup and let the kids use the pipettes to squeeze it into the bin.

Clean up

2 minutes

Dump the baking soda and vinegar slush down the drain and rinse/wash your bin.
Rinse out your pipettes, wash if desired. I usually just rinse well and let dry.
Wipe up the rogue baking soda on your floor. Use a towel, sheet, or blanket to avoid this step.

It feels easier to me to incorporate gross motor activities into our day and I find I have to be very intentional about fine motor practice. Fine motor skills sometimes feel messy or time consuming, but using the food coloring in a high walled bin is a great opportunity to let little ones practice important skills. Pressure control, hand and grip strength, critical thinking for dot placement and color mixing- who knew all of this could be accomplished with a little food coloring!

When we do color activities, I always have an idea of how I want it to look in my mind. I get these grand ideas of patterns and color mixing, but I have to stop myself. The goal here isn’t a beautiful end product! Stepping in to “make it better” doesn’t improve my child’s experience, in fact, it teaches them that they are not capable. So although I would maybe add more color here or try this color combination in the corner, I stay quiet and watch the beauty of my children concentrating and following their own creative intuitions.

You have maybe seen this activity done in a muffin tin or on a baking sheet. I love using the muffin tin, but didn’t want to clean up a wet floor or have a wet towel to wash. The baking sheet usually results in a bigger mess to clean up on the floor as well, so the sensory bin won out today.

What I love is how you can switch up the activity simply by changing the vessel. I probably set up a fizzy bin every 2-3 months, but it feels exciting and new each time for the kids, especially if you make a simple swap. This time I used the sensory bin inside, but maybe next time I’ll use a baking tray and a few months after that we can try it in the bathtub. Try changing one aspect of a go-to activity in your house and I bet your children will be magnetized to it.

Vaila is 3 right now, but she’s participated in this for several years in some capacity. She struggled with the pipettes when she was newly 2, so using a spoon or squeezing a sponge to could be a modification for younger kids. It’s also mesmerizing to watch the colors fizz and settle, so I’ve done a smaller scale of this with each of the kids as babies. You can use just a small glass bowl or food storage container instead of a huge sensory bin if you want to speed up the process for shorter attention spans.

One thing I love about this fizzy bin is that I can usually reset it a few times with minimal effort on my part and find a lot of enjoyment still in it for the kids. Sometimes I go through the effort of cleaning and resetting other activities, only to have their interest vanish in 10 seconds. Maybe it’s the food coloring or the explosion of the vinegar and baking soda reaction, but everyone is always very attentive to this activity.

The end result is always so cool, but usually gets swirled and stirred around to make a brown sludge. Again, this isn’t about me or what I think would look the best. My kids love making brown sludge and that’s really the whole point!

With just a few pantry staples you can be on your way to a super fun and colorful activity! It’s easy to clean, which is always a bonus in my book. Plus, it is magically entertaining for kids of all ages which makes it a great group activity if you have multiple aged children in your house.

If you enjoyed reading about this activity, pass it on to a friend. Having your support means the world to me and I love watching this community grow. Cheers!