Dirty Pennies

Our Lunch Bunch group was fascinated by this simple science experiment.  It was a fun way to introduce the scientific method.

First I presented them with a problem.  "I have all these dirty old pennies.  I really want them to be shiny like my new penny."

The children brainstormed some ideas to clean the penny-- water, hand soap, dish soap, baby wipes.  We tried them and nothing really worked.

So we talked about trying something different-- chemistry!  (The preschoolers love that word! It sounds so important.)

Each student had a bowl.  They poured in a little vinegar and added a dash of salt.  Then they stirred the pennies around in it and watched what happened.

Oooh.  Aaah!  Clean pennies!

The children can use their verbal skills to discuss the result.  An extension of this activity is to have the students rinse the vinegar and salt off of some pennies and leave it on the others.  The next day, they can observe what happened to each group of pennies.

If you're looking for some more scientific information about this experiment, be sure to read this article.  You could even copy it and send it home for families to try together.

Have fun playing and experimenting with your children today!