Sidewalk chalk is fun, painting is fun, making things fizz is also fun! Let’s do all three! This is a really simple recipe to create sidewalk chalk “paint” out of food coloring, baking soda and cornstarch. We have made the standard sidewalk chalk paint before, but this recipe is better – it fizzes when you spray it with vinegar.
To make your own fizzing sidewalk chalk you need:
A container of baking soda
1/2 cup of cornstarch
Warm (almost hot) Water
Food coloring
Mix the dry ingredients and then add water stirring until its not too thick. I think we used about a cup, but I am not sure. This paint dries very quickly – but washes off with ease!
We made two colors, my kids favorites: pink and green.
Here is the “before” it began fizzing. I love the brilliant colors.
Now for the fun! Spray the paint with a bottle of vinegar and watch the fizz appear.
To say this activity was a hit is an understatement. They are thrilled. We have leftovers! 
And clean up was a bucketful breeze. Want to add more “learning to this activitiy? Talk about the reaction between acids and base chemicals. This is a fun way to incorporate chemistry into your preschoolers life (or just enjoy the fizz).
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If you make fizzing sidewalk paint, tell me about it!
OMG! What fun!!! I’m saving this to do this summer! Can’t wait!
I love this idea and put it in my favorites to use with my group of kids soon.
Oh my this looks COOL!!! Maybe we can have a go during our Royal Wedding Street Party! That would be lots of fun!
Thank you for linking up to Kids Get Crafty!
Maggy
What size box baking soda? I have a HUGE box.
Probably 1/3 of the box then. I used one of those small 3 inch tall boxes.
Lots of fun indeed! We have been mixing concoctions in the garden with most of these ingredients this morning, but no fizzing! Will HAVE to do this
BRILLIANT!!!!! Maybe we’ll try this on Easter Sunday!!
This is a great idea! We just need the weather to warm up a little out here…
we love making sidewalk paint!!!
What a great idea! We’ve made volcanoes, bath bombs, sherbert, dancing sultanas and bouncy eggs with this reaction but this one looks like lots of fun too.
Neat-O! We might have to try this one!
What a great way to get kids outdoors and do some fun-filled learning. What a great activity idea.
This is definitely something that Sam would love when he’s a little older. I don’t think that at 25 months he would stand around long enough.
We are going to have fun trying this!
I LOVE this idea! We will definitely be adding it to our list of fun outdoor activities!
Can’t wait to try this! Thanks for sharing! I pinned this to my board at http://pinterest.com/pin/15918649/
Love this idea! I starred it to hopefully make when we have a nice day!
Kerri
Ours will be pink and green too. Wink wink!
We did this at our last week of preschool this week. The kids LOVED it. I made up two muffin tins with some of the powder mixture in each cup, put about 5-7 drops of food coloring in each and then added water and let them stir. Two of them loved the stirring and seeing what color would develop. They did it the majority of the time. The other 2 painted and sprayed like crazy. The colors were very vivid. Loved it.
Muffin Tins! Brilliant! I was trying to think of a way to make more colors, without making a TON. Thanks! Glad you and your kids had fun!
I made up the paint yesterday and took it out front. Our little one year old neighbors came and joined in the messy fun. M and M loved the vinegar. Even thought the younger kids didn’t get the fizzing they had a great time painting. THANK YOU!
I am so glad they had fun! My kids are disappointed. We waited too long to paint with the leftovers and the jar spoiled – boo. Looks like we’ll have to make more later
This sounds amazing! Needs to be on my to do list!
How fun. My kiddos would love to do this!
Thank You for sharing this, what a great experiment & great fun! I cannot wait to try this out
I did this activity with the kids from my daycare this morning and they had a blast! I’d forgotten all about chemistry class until I came accross your blog! Thanks for the great idea!
Isa
Thanks so much for this really fun project. In the last week or so, I have seen this posting linked in so many different ways I cannot even count. I tried this fun activity inside with even more bubbles (by adding vinegar). Check it out! cowsgomooandducksgoquack.blogspot.com
Thanks again for inspiring lots of fun!
Gianne
We did this at preschool today and our children loved it! Thanks so much for the idea!
We LOVED this recipe!
http://prairiemother-prairiemother.blogspot.com/2011/05/fizzing-sidewalk-paint-and-foaminator.html?showComment=1308081289907#c766321536740628635
Thanks for sharing!
This is such a fun idea – many thanks!
We did this at pre school and we have extended the idea to experiment more with bicarb and vinegar. Thanks fir the idea.
Thanks for this great idea! we had fun painting with it. some of ours solidified a bit in the bottom of the cups (didn’t stir enough!) but then we also had fun making the paint into balls – as long as you would handle it, it would be solid – then you stop and it “melts”.
Thanks so much for the wonderful inspiration for our summer bucket list! I love your idea. I included a link back to your post here: http://mymontessorimoments.wordpress.com/2011/06/28/summer-bucket-list-2011/
hmmm . . . we tried this today and it didn’t get that fizzy.
We didn’t put as much baking soda in as called for . . . I guess we need to add more?
Yup! You can’t skimp on it as that is the “base” chemical, the vinegar is the acid. When you combine the two they “fizz”. White vinegar has a higher acid content… and the pool quality of sodium bicarbonate is the strongest form of “baking soda” – good luck making it another time.
We just did this! What a fun activity.
I linked to your blog on my facebook.
OK, we’ll definitely try it again! It was kind of a last minute project today, so my friend & I just grabbed what we had in the cabinet! The boys still had fun, so it was worth it
What a fantastic idea! The end result has so much texture, this is definitely one to try! Tweeted this too
I am definitely going to do this with my kids – got to get all the ingredients together! I’ll let you know what they think of it!
This is a must try! My girls would get such a kick out of this.
We just did this and the girls loved it. I didn’t use as much baking soda so the reaction was not as intense as it probably would have been, but they still enjoyed it. Next time I will make sure I have enough baking soda to make it the right way. It was still a great activity for a lazy summer morning! Thanks for sharing!!!
we did this today and LOVED it! we’ll definitely be linking people in your direction when we blog about it!
Love this idea. I’ll be pinning it on my board of activities to do with kids. thanks
That looks like so much fun! I’ll have to do it with my girls…they would love it! I hope you come link up with us at Show & Share! http://mylilpinkpocket.blogspot.com/2011/08/show-share-3.html
Marie
mylilpinkpocket.blogspot.com
So totally cool I can’t even stand it! Fantastic and can’t wait to do this!!!
So cute!
I’d love it if you shared this with the Fun Family Crafts audience. FFC is similar to Craftgawker but it only features kid friendly tutorials. Looking forward to seeing what fun crafts you submit!
http://funfamilycrafts.com
Wow, I’m so used to writing the word “cute” that I said that instead of cool LOL! So cool! haha!
This looks like such a fun idea for kids!
I love this idea! Science, art and a little sensory input for my little guy!
I am really looking forward to doing this with my children on the next warm day or I may have to wait till next Summer.
Thanks for this fun activity! My two and a half year old and I made Easter Eggs on the sidewalk today with this recipe… so fun! I will probably post some pictures of it soon on the blog. I will be sure to link back to your great blog and post!
I saw this on Pinterest this morning and went straight to the kitchen and made some up for my daughter. I just guessed at the amounts for the baking soda and corn starch and because of that we didn’t get a huge amount of fizz, but my daughter didn’t care. (I guessed because I buy a huge bag of baking soda from Costco and I only had about 1/4 cup of corn starch left.)
Thank you for posting this. It was great.