Need a quick way to impress your 5 year old?

An internet search titled 'simple science experiments' will bring forth all manner of ........er....well......simple science experiments. Funnily enough.

Just what I needed on a wet Sunday afternoon with a five year old who wanted to do 'an experience' aka an experiment. I didn't want to run to the shops to buy any special ingredients that might be needed so I trawled through a list of activities and found the perfect one. 

Perfect for my kid and for what I already had in my cupboard.

Here's what we did: 

Take one glass bottle with a wide-ish neck, we used an old juice bottle. 

Fill a water balloon or hard/soft boil an egg.

Light a scrap of paper and drop it in the bottle.

Quickly place your water balloon or egg on the mouth of the bottle.

Watch it get sucked inside the bottle.

Give a short talk on the effects of air expansion and contraction and the forces at work in this experiment.

I left bit that up to hubby.

Repeat the above steps over and over as per request, for suitably impressed 5 year old. 

Note: if you DO want to do this over and over, then use the water balloon and not the egg, for obvious reasons.