Rainy Day Projects

Snow Day Science Experiments for kids

Kitchen-cabinet experiments with a clear 'what's happening' explanation for the adult.

Part of Snow Day activities and all science experiments.

No-prep ideas for this

Something to say right now while you get the snow day set out — or instead of it. All the quick ideas.

  • How many times do you think you can fold that piece of paper in half?

    Fold a piece of paper in half as many times as you can. Count each fold. See what number you reach before it is too thick to fold again.

    5 minutes · Ages 5–10 · Kids can run it · No mess · Needs: paper

  • Put your hand on your chest, count what you feel, jump ten times, and tell me what changed.

    Put your hand on your chest and count what you feel for ten seconds. Then do ten big jumps and count again. Tell me what changed.

    5 minutes · Ages 5–10 · Light adult help · No mess · Needs nothing

  • What do you think you would get if you could stir red and green together?

    Name two colors and predict out loud what color they would make if you could blend them together. Give at least six pairs of colors and explain your reasoning for each guess.

    30 minutes · Ages 5–10 · Kids can run it · No mess · Needs nothing

Snow Day Science Experiments at home

A full unplanned day at home with children who have higher-than-usual energy and nowhere to send it calls for something with a clear beginning, a middle that absorbs attention, and a visible end. Science experiments do that work better than almost anything else, because the activity itself provides the structure — there is a question, there is a test, there is a result — and the result generates conversation that extends the day further. These three experiments are built around that arc. They use nothing you need to buy, they produce something the child can look at and explain afterward, and they scale upward in complexity from a three-year-old who pours and watches to a ten-year-old who records data and argues about why one design beat another.

What is in this set

The three snow Day Science Experiments activities here run from 35 to 75 minutes — Baking Soda Bubble Foam Eruption is the quickest, Paper Bridge Load Testing the longest. Between them they cover ages 3–5, ages 5–8 and ages 8–10, and each card below says which. Each one wants an adult at least nearby.

Choosing one

Start with the age band: Baking Soda Bubble Foam Eruption for ages three to five, Density Tower in a Jar for five to eight, and Paper Bridge Load Testing for eight to ten. If you have mixed-age siblings and want one activity, the density tower is the most flexible — younger children can pour while older ones predict and explain. If you have an hour and need low mess, any of the three fits; if you need the longest runway, Paper Bridge Load Testing reliably runs seventy-five minutes or more. The foam eruption is the only one with genuine splash potential, so choose it when mess tolerance is high.

Before you start

For all three, do the measuring and pre-pouring before you call the children in — this removes the slow setup that loses attention. For the foam eruption, lay the towel and fill the pitcher. For the density tower, pour each liquid into its own labeled cup. For the bridge experiment, set the book-stack supports and count out the weights into a bowl. The one thing that tends to trip up all three experiments at once: children pour too fast. In each activity, slow pouring is what makes the result visible, and a quick reminder before the first pour saves most of the mess and most of the frustration.

More snow day activities

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