I’ve been dying Easter eggs with my kids since my son was one year old. Dyeing eggs is always a fun experience, but making fizzing Easter eggs took it up to a whole new level. Not only did we get beautifully dyed Easter eggs, we combined art, fine motor development, and science into one fizzingly good activity!
Note: For more Easter egg decorating ideas, see my Easter Activities for Kids page.
Have you ever tried combining baking soda and vinegar? We have! (See here and here and here and here and here.)
When baking soda and vinegar combine, they create a chemical reaction that leads to fizzing and erupting. The effect is pretty cool, and it makes a great introduction to chemistry for young kids.
Fizzing Easter eggs simply combines this simple chemical reaction with the dyeing of Easter eggs. And the end result is just lovely!
How to make fizzing Easter eggs
To dye your Easter eggs fizzing-style, you will need the following materials:
- Eggs, preferably hard boiled
- Baking soda
- Vinegar
- Egg dye (we used the PAAS dye tablets)
- Pipette (we own these pipettes but I also love the one in this set)
- Tray or plate to contain the mess
To make our fizzing Easter eggs, I first prepared the dyes by mixing the dye tablets with vinegar. This activity will only work if you make the dye with vinegar. It will not work if you make the dye with water.
Next, I created a paste by mixing a bit of baking soda with a bit of water. I suggest using about 1 tbsp baking soda per egg you plan to decorate and adding water to make it into a wet paste. If you add too much water, the paste will be runny and it won’t sit on top of your egg. If that happens, simply stir in a bit more baking soda to keep the paste nice and firm.
Once you have your paste ready, scoop it on top of an egg.
Select the dye color you want to use.
Use a pipette to drip the dye on to the baking soda paste.
It will fizz and bubble and cascade down the side of the egg, leaving beautiful colors in its wake. Can you see all the bubbles in the photo below?
My kids enjoyed layering lots of different colors, one on top of another.
Keep adding dye until the baking soda has completely fizzed away.
The end result was beautiful. The cascade of color falling down each egg is really lovely, don’t you agree?
More Easter resources
More Easter posts from Gift of Curiosity:
- Easter Printables Pack
- Easter sensory bin
- Easter egg sound matching game
- Easter Bingo
- Easter do-a-dot printables
- Easter coloring pages
- Easter I Spy game
For more Easter activities and printables your kids will love, see my Easter Activities for Kids page and my Easter Pinterest board.
Follow Katie @ Gift of Curiosity’s board Easter on Pinterest.
So excited to try this with my class!! When you mix the dye, the PAAS directions say to to use 1 TBS of vinegar & 1/2 cup of water. Did you mix it with the water, or just use straight vinegar?
I believe I followed the PAAS directions. You don’t need 100% straight vinegar for this to work. I hope your students enjoy!