“Mom, can we…*insert activity here*”?
I get these types of questions multiple times a day. My answer tends to be “Let’s find out!…on the weekend”.
I don’t know about you, but with the kids back in school, evenings are busy. Even on nights when we don’t have sports or other activities, there’s dinner, homework, showers, and prepping for the next day. Plus, my kids are young, so everything takes 5x longer than it should, and they have an early bedtime.
My kids ask me to do approximately 57,000 activities a day, and due to the reasons above, there’s just not enough time for all of them. So, I started having them make a list of what activities they wanted to do. Now, when the weekend rolls around, they look at their list and pick a few activities that they want to do most.
Then the weekend comes and…it’s supposed to rain all weekend.
But, the weather change brings all things, Autumn. Including apples galore.
Whether you decide to pick your own or take advantage of the plethora of locally grown apples in stores right now, apples are abundant (and delicious).
So, after you clean and eat one, you can do some fun apple-science experiments that your kids will love.
Apple Volcanoes
Supplies Needed
Cored apples
Baking Soda (no specific amount)
Vinegar (no specific amount)
Low, shallow dish (I use a pie dish or pyrex casserole dish)
Apple pie spice (optional)
Food dye (optional)
Apple Volcano Experiment Steps
Place your apple in the dish to prevent runoff.
ADULTS: use a knife to cut a hole in the top of the apple going about half the apple depth.
Have the kids scoop a couple of spoonfuls of baking soda into the hole.
*Hint: Add a drop of dish soap for a foamier reaction (make sure to consider the additional runoff as well).
Put some vinegar into a small cup, measuring cup, or turkey baster to make it easier for your kiddos to pour the vinegar on their own.
(Pouring from a cup into the apple will produce a larger eruption while using a turkey baster makes a less dramatic reaction. However, it’s fun for the kids to test different science tools.)
Observe the reaction of the baking soda and vinegar when combined.
Keep mixing and refilling the two ingredients over and over to keep the fun going!
Optional: Add food dye to the vinegar for colored fizz.
Hint: I have my kids mix the different colors of food dye to see what color combinations they can create
Optional: Add apple pie spice to the baking soda to give a festive scent to your house.
Do this just for fun, or Add a Lesson:
*A couple of options depending on your child’s age.
Teach your child that this is a chemistry experiment. Chemistry is a science that investigates different substances and the ways in which they respond when combined and changed. This is how new substances are formed.
By combining baking soda and vinegar, you are creating carbon dioxide gas, which causes a fizzy eruption.
Have your child do a Lab Report as you’re doing the project. Make a hypothesis, track how much of each ingredient they used, and explain or draw a picture of what they observed.
You can do this experiment with a variety of containers to find the best vessel for your volcano. We have used carved-out mini pumpkins, a small mason jar or cup, and toy test tubes left over from a science kit.
Apple Building
Building with apples is a fun and entertaining activity that can be customized to almost any age. My second-grader constructs elaborate designs and incorporates a story to go with it, while my 4-year-old makes a cube and turns it into a stacking game. Either way, it inevitably ends up with both kids eating the subjects (aka, the apples), which is a win in my book.
Supplies Needed
Apples cut into pieces of varying sizes and shapes
Toothpicks
Apple Building Steps
Use the toothpicks as a skewer to connect the apple pieces.
Make it into an experiment to determine how many shapes you can make. 2D or 3D shapes, a tower, a house?
Creating apple structures promotes kids to use their imaginations while combining creativity, engineering, and fine motor skills. Plus it’s a healthy snack afterward.
Apple Boats
“Does an apple sink or float? What about apple slices? Does it matter the size or shape?”. Add it to the weekend list, and let’s find out!
Supplies Needed
- A bowl
- A whole apple (use various sizes to compare)
- Toothpicks
- Pieces of colored paper
- Tape or a glue stick
Apple Boats Experiment Steps
- Put water in a clear bowl deep enough to see if the apple floats or sinks.
→ Spoiler Alert: Apples float*
- Once you’ve determined that the whole apple floats, have an ADULT cut the apple into pieces to see if the size and shape of the apple changes how it floats.
- Now that you know the apple floats and how the slices float, have your child build an apple boat and see if it will float.
- Use the leftover toothpicks from the activity above to make your own sails for your boats.
- Use colored paper pieces to create sails for your boat.
- Tape or glue the paper to the toothpicks
Hint: Try different weights of paper (card stock, construction paper, printer paper, etc.) and different sizes and shapes of sails to see if that affects how the apple piece floats.
Our larger apple slices fared much better than the small pieces (actually using one half of the apple worked the best), and my kids played “boats” long enough for me to do laundry and vacuum.
*Why do apples float? Apples are buoyant because they are less dense than the water. Even though the apple feels hard and solid, it has a large amount of air inside and that air keeps it from sinking.
There you have it, three easy, educational, and fun ideas to incorporate the delights of Autumn with STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Math) when you’re stuck inside on a rainy Fall weekend.
By Allison Pugh, Military Wife, Mom, and Content Creator & Copywriter at Pollock Writing
IG: @allisonpollockwrites | FB: @pollockwriting
Click here to Share on Facebook!
Did you Like this article? Macaroni Kid Tacoma is full of useful local information like this PLUS tons of kid-friendly events on our event calendar. Plus you can stay in the know of all the local family fun by subscribing to our FREE weekly e-newsletter!
Macaroni Kid is a free weekly newsletter and website focused on fun family events and information in the South Sound area.
We gather together all kinds of local family events and activities each week and add useful information about classes, family-focused businesses, book and product reviews, recipes, crafts, school and camp guides, and more.
We proudly serve over 5,000+ families in Tacoma, Fife, Fircrest, Ruston and other surrounding communities. Subscribe today
