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.


8 comments:

  1. Home experiments are so fun. I was expecting a baking soda explosion-type experiment - baking soda seems to be everywhere in the blogosphere - but this is pretty cool.

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  2. Yeah - um, how do you get an egg out of a bottle?!

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  3. I love it! I think I'll do it in secret, show teh kids the egg in the bottle and ask them how I did it ;)

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  4. That's a great idea, they'll think you're a wizard!

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  5. Yep, hubby wanted to do the egg instead of the balloon. I said 'think about it for a minute....'

    Debbie - we made a baking soda volcano once but Mr 5 was expecting explosions from it which didn't happen of course. This one was less messy and more magical.

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  6. What a cool experiment! I'm visiting from Friday Blog Hop. I signed up to be a new follower.

    http://www.onemomscorneroftheworld.com

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  7. I am a new follower from Friday blog hop. This is a lovely site. My nephew will enjoy this trick. Blessings!

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  8. hi from your newest follower -- fun blog:)

    www.dandygiveaway.blogspot.com

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