One of the first projects we attempted this summer was Chalk Rockets.  Sounds awesome, right? Well, in my typical fashion I crossed all of my T’s on this experiment but forgot to dot the I’s.  Let me explain…

Originally posted Summer 2018; Updated September 2023

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What is a Chalk Rocket?

This activity is by Growing a Jeweled Rose, their version and successes can be seen here. The idea is to make homemade chalk, load a film canister with it, add an Alka-Seltzer and blast off-messy, colorful chalk rockets! This is definitely an outdoor activity, perfect for summer time!

Step-by-Step Instructions for building chalk rockets

Step 1

Add corn starch to water.

My messy girl loving this, my not so messy boy is on photo duty since I am also covered in the Oobleck. (If you don’t know about Ooblek you’ve got to check out the book by Dr. Seuss!)

Step 2

Fill the film canisters.

Here’s where I screwed up.  I did not follow the original blogger’s link for these, I went to Amazon myself and found the cheapest option (notice I have not listed that link as an affiliate here! Hopefully you are able to learn from my mistake!)

Step 3

Add a few drops of food coloring. Working quickly add the Alka-Seltzer to the canister and snap on the lid.

Step 4

Quickly place the canister on the ground and stand back!

We scrambled back and were ready to watch the canister fly like a rocket…

The mixture started to bubble and that’s about all that happened. 

Failure of the Chalk Rockets

This is where I figured out that my canisters had teeny tiny holes in the lids.  So all of the built up pressure was escaping and we were left with chalk rocket duds.

I was so impressed with my kids at this point.  I thought they’d throw in the towel and ditch me with my chalky mess, but instead they started trouble shooting.  We spent the next 20 minutes playing with different amounts of the mixture, pieces of Alka-Seltzer, color mixing and how to set off the reaction.  We were able to make a decent mess, albeit more on our hands than on the driveway.

Then in my middle child’s typical fashion, she made lemonade out of lemons and started finger painting with it.

 

Take-aways from the Chalk Rockets activity:

1. Every time I use the word ‘activity’ I think of this scene from Step Brothers.

via GIPHY

2. I’m so glad I attempted this while my husband was still home on paternity leave.  I made a big mess. The newborn would not have been cute covered in blue Alka-Seltzer goo.

3. My kids are awesome and were okay with our experiment being an utter failure.  We still learned about chemical reactions and they had fun! (Little did they know that this was to be the first in a string of Pinterest fails).

Have you tried this activity?  Do you have Pinterest fails? Comment below!

Homeschooling with The Chaos Manager