🚍 Back to School Yellow Bus Science Activity for Kids

Look for simple, but outrageously FUN welcome back to school activities? Try this school bus back to school science activities to impress kids and dive right into learning about the chemical reaction between baking soda and vinegar! This first day of school activity allows preschool, pre-k, kindergarten, and first graders to melt the school bus with an easy chemistry experiment for kids. This cute project is perfect for the first week of school activities.

School bus activities for preschoolers

Help kids get excited about going back to school by making it FUN with back to school activities! These first day of school science activities ar super simple to try and only require a couple simple materials you probably already have on hand. Try this back to school activity with preschoolers, kindergartners, grade 1, and grade 2 students. Whether you are a parent, teacher, or homeschooler – these first day of school science experiments are sure to delight, engage, teach, and cause children to want to dive keeper. Use this Baking Soda and Vinegar Experiments for Kids to kick-start your year of learning with a back to school activities for kindergarten they will not soon forget! Plus don’t miss all the first week of school activitiy ideas we’ve included!

First day of school science experiments

Start out by grabbing a few simple materials you probably already have in your kitchen:

1 cup baking soda
1 Tablespoon water
1 Tablespoon yellow food coloring for bold color
3 squirts of liquid dish soap
~ 1 cup distilled white Vinegar
sharpie
box for shape
Squeeze bottles

Welcome back to school science activities

In a bowl mix the bicorbonate soda, water, dish soap, and food coloring. Mix to distribute food coloring. Depending on the size of your school bus you can double the recipe if you like.

First week of school science

Now it’s time to mold the baking soda mixture into a school bus shape. You can use your hand, a plastic mold you happen to have, or reuse a cardboard box you have on hand like we did. Get the correct rectangular shape with a lower front.

Back to school science activities

Use a sharpie to add the finishing touches to make your big yellow school bus come to life. We added windows and wheels.

First day of school science activities

Now quirt some of the vinegar on your school bus, just a little to start with. Ask he kids what they observe. You may hear things like it starts to foam, makes bubbles, looks like the bus is dripping, etc. Expain that what they are seeing is a chemical reaction between the baking soda the bus is made of and the vinegar you are adding.

Activity school bus

Continue adding vinegar to watch the chemical reaction and to melt yoru school bus! This is also a fun extension for a Magic School Bus activity too!

Back to school activities for kindergarten

The bubbles are aided by the addition of the dish soap to the mixture at the beginning.

First day of school activity

As your school bus dissapears more and more, it’s time to explain a little more of the science behind this simple back to school science experiment! When baking soda is mixed with vinegar, something new is formed. The mixture quickly foams up as it reacts to form the gas carbon dioxide. If enough vinegar is used, all of the baking soda will react and disappear. This reaction is also a fun way to start introducing children to the states of matter – solid, liquid, and gas (see this simple balloon states of matter for kids demonstration)

Baking Soda Vinegar Experiment

There are so many fun ways to play and teach kids about chemical reactions using a baking soda and vinegar reaction. Here are some of our favorite baking soda and vinegar activities.