I have mentioned before that Kaleb loves science experiments.  When I came across numerous videos on youtube all about the ivory soap experiment, I knew we had to try it.  This is one of the simplest experiments that you can do with your kids, and it is virtually mess free.  All you need is a plate, fresh bar of Ivory soap and a microwave.

We started our experiment by dropping our Ivory soap bar into water.  The kids were amazed that a full sized Ivory bar floated and an almost used up bar of a different brand sunk.  It would have been better to have another full sized bar, but that was the only other of bar of soap I could find in a hurry.  We are more a liquid soap family.  If you are interested in why Ivory soap floats, you can find one explanation here.  There are a number of other web sites that cover this topic as well.

Ivory Soap Experiment

We placed the Ivory soap bar in the center of a plate and into the microwave.  All the kids stood on a bench so they could have a good view of what was happening in the microwave.  You will want to make sure everyone can see before you begin because it is amazing!

Cook the bar for 2 minutes on high in the microwave.  Ours started to change after about 20 seconds and continued for the full 2 minutes.  When your soap cloud is finished, let it cool before letting the kids touch it.

I did not want to waste a whole bar of soap, even for a cool experiment.  So instead of throwing the soap in the garbage, I found a great recipe that I will be posting about tomorrow.  It will incorporate all the soap “cloud” that you have created.  We did our experiment one day and let it sit on the counter overnight before we started our next creation.  Here is a quick peek of tomorrows post.

UPDATE:  Here is the link to the Fluffy Bath Tub Paint recipe.

Here is a link to a fun list of great experiments that my kids love.

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If you don’t want to miss out on any of the fun we are having at Housing A Forest, make sure to follow us on Pinterest, Facebook, Google + and Twitter.

Tammy