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Looking for a FUN and EASY activity to do with your kids for the 4th of July? Then look no further! This activity couldn’t be easier to set up and execute. And it creates the most beautiful and exciting exploding fireworks, just like you see on the 4th of July displays in the sky!
What makes this experiment so simple is that it uses materials you already have at home. It’s flexible too: if you don’t have whole milk, you can use white school glue instead (or try both like we did and see which you like best)! The milk version of this experiment is often called “Magic Milk“.
I was inspired by some of our favorite Instagram accounts for this activity: She Loves Science did it with milk and blew my mind, then I saw Twin Toddler Mom do it with glue, and I knew we had to try both ways. Check out both of their reels linked below for the OG inspiration:
Watch the Activity on YouTube:
I made a YouTube video with my kids showing the full step-by-step instructions and a detailed overhead visual of the experiment. Check it out below for a more visual view of the experiment!
Activity Overview:
If you have kids who can’t stay up late to watch the fireworks show, or maybe you just want to recreate the excitement of fireworks without the pyrotechnics in your own home, then this is the experiment for you. Create fireworks that explode and expand before your eyes in a plate of milk (or glue)! Big kids (9+) can set this up and complete the experiment on their own. An adult will have to set up for younger kids, then let the kids use the cotton swab dipped in soap to create the fireworks. This activity is recommended for children ages 3+.
Materials:
- Plate
- Whole milk and/or white school glue
- Food coloring
- Dish soap (such as Dawn)
- Cotton swabs (such as Q-Tips)
- Optional: reusable table cloth
Safety:
Do not drink the milk used in this activity. It will be mixed with soap and should not be consumed. Be careful not to get the glue or soap into eyes or mouth, and if it accidentally happens, immediately flush with water to clear it out.
Food coloring can stain clothes, skin, or surfaces, so be sure to protect anything you don’t want to potentially, accidentally get stained by the food coloring.
I recommend setting down a table cloth or placemat before beginning this activity. This will help protect your table from accidental milk or glue spills and from food coloring stains. Have extra towels on hand to clean up any spills to prevent surface damage to your tabletop.
Once you are done with the activity, drain the milk in the sink, wipe the glue off the plate into the trash, and dispose of the cotton swabs in the trash.
Procedure:
- Set a plate out on a covered table.
- Pour enough milk to cover the bottom of the plate. Alternatively, or on a second plate, pour a good size blob of glue onto the plate (ours was about 6″ radius).
- Place drops of food coloring about 1-2 inches apart in the milk or glue. (Tip: to make it more patriotic for the 4th of July use red and blue food coloring).
- Place a small drop of dish soap on the tip of a cotton swab.
- Dip the cotton swab into the drops of food coloring, one by one, and watch the fireworks explode all over the plate!
- Repeat as many times as you like: dump the used milk/glue, rinse and dry the plate, and then start again.My kids also enjoyed leaving the cotton swab tip in the milk and watching the colors move and swirl. They moved the cotton swab aroudn to watch the colors swirl and mix on the plate and created cool patterns and colors.
STEAM Concepts Learned:
When whole milk is used, kids learn about two chemistry concepts: surface tension and chemical bonding. Milk is mostly water, and water molecules stick together to create a high surface tension. The drops of food color sit on top of the milk without breaking the surface tension (because they are water based).
The dish soap is a surfactant attracted to fat molecules. It breaks the water surface tension barrier, and chases the fat molecules in the whole milk. This movement of the soap chasing the fat and the water escaping the soap creates the explosion you see because the food coloring goes along for the ride as the dish soap touches it.
The glue works purely on surface tension: the soap breaks the high surface tension in the glue. When the soap touches the food coloring in the glue, it creates a slow, branching, fractal-like explosion in the glue. It’s a much smaller scale explosion than the milk, BUT a more intricate and interesting pattern is created.
We had a blast (pun intended) with this activity. I know it’s a winner because it’s one my kids wanted to do again, and again, and AGAIN! Is there anything more fun for the 4th of July than celebrating with fireworks? This is the perfect way to take the excitement of fireworks indoors to keep the independence day fun going all year long!
Let us know if you try it, and which do you like best: milk or glue? Our family unanimously voted milk! But that’s why we experiment: we discovered through the experimentation that milk was a lot more explosive and fun for us. If you enjoy the firework patterns more than the explosion, you may prefer the glue, which gives more detailed, fractal like patterns more like the special shaped fireworks.
