Clubhouse Science: A lot Can Happen in 2 Minutes!

We had a fun filled morning of predicting, testing, and drawing conclusions with our sink or float escapades. That was just the beginning of our Science adventures with soap though, we still had some exploding, oh.. um, I mean, exploring, to do ;)

I have seen this soap experiment all over YouTube, and scattered throughout a variety of blogs. When it came time to plan to do it with the kids though, I got all of my information from Steve Spangler Science. I wanted to be completely sure I didn't ruin any kitchen appliances in the name of Science. I'm sure in the future we may lose a blender or a toaster when the kids decide to test a few theories. Today though, I was trying to avoid any kitchen disasters. My in-laws arrive this week, I'd prefer my home in tact. After reading enough about this, I felt comfortable proceeding... with fingers crossed, of course.

First, we started with observation of the soap that floats, or as the kids deemed it, "the soap filled with treasure air."

"It's white!"

"It's a rectangle!"

"It has letters on it. I-V-O-R-Y.."

"It smells good."

Once I had written down all of their observations I explained what we were going to do next.

You should have seen their little faces.

"WHAT?!? We're going to put SOAP in the MICROWAVE?!?"

Sure, and what do you think will happen to it?

"It's gonna get melted."

"The microwave gets hot, it will cook it. Do we eat it?"

Probably not a good idea. It will still be soap, and we don't really eat soap now do we?

As I was putting the soap into the microwave I had one child literally squeal,

"Ahhhhh, I don't know if we should do this?!?!?"

After explaining that this science experiment may seem a little scary but Ms. Liz has it all under control, don't try this at home, etc. etc.. the kids were ready, and excited. Science is a scary thing sometimes ya know.

I put the soap into the microwave and we set it for 2 minutes. The kids watched the action, up close. Can you see what's happening in there? They sure could!

"It's getting big, big, bigger!!!!"

"WOW!!!!"

"It's like a Volcano in there!!"

Time to open the door and see what we had created...

"A lot can happen in 2 minutes!!"

"It feels like a giant pancake!!"

"We blew it up so big!"

"The treasure air inside of it got hot 
and made it explode!!"

I'm going to send Ivory a letter with that little nugget. 

I'm sure they didn't even know about treasure air.

All in all, the microwave made it through unscathed, 

the kitchen smelled like a very clean bathroom, and the kids were thrilled with their newest science discovery.

I would highly recommend everyone give this one a go. All you need is a bar of Ivory, a microwave, and two minutes... and you get to see a face like this:

Now THAT is definitely worth the overwhelming smell of soap.

We went on to play with the new stuff. Shape it, squish it, run trucks through it. Although ultimately it becomes a very fine powder, they were having fun seeing what they could do with it.

That's when the paintbrushes and watercolors came out.

Carefully, color met soap.

"Rainbow Soap!"

There is still a table full of this new concoction in the Clubhouse Classroom. We'll see what we decide to do with it next.

Maybe we'll put it in the guest bathroom for my mother-in-law.

Don't tell her I said that,

Ms. Liz




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