Kitchen Science Experiments: Free Printable Guide for Year 5

Kitchen Science Experiments is a free printable guide for Year 5 (ages 9 to 10), in Key Stage 2. Ten simple tests with cupboard items It comes from the Mini Minds Hub, a growing library of free printables from Jaques of London, the British games and toy company that has been making games for families since 1795.

It is two A4 pages. Page 1 is the activity for children. Page 2 is for the grown-up: it has notes on how to use the sheet, help for children who find it hard, a stretch idea, and the answers. Print it at home or in the classroom. Black and white printing works well.

What is on the sheet

This guide includes a checklist to tick off.

A look at what children will meet:

• Sink or float: test a coin, a grape and a cork in a bowl of water
• Dissolving: stir sugar, salt and sand into cool water
• Ice race: put salt on one ice cube and none on another
• Fizz: mix a spoon of bicarbonate of soda with vinegar in a tray
• Dancing raisins: drop raisins into a glass of fizzy water
• Celery: stand a stick in coloured water overnight
• Oil and water: pour both in a jar and shake
• Static: rub a balloon on hair and lift scraps of paper
• Rainbow milk: add food colour drops, then a touch of washing-up liquid
• Magnet hunt: test which kitchen things a magnet picks up

Who this is for

Year 5 (ages 9 to 10) in Key Stage 2.

Key Stage 2 covers Years 3 to 6, ages 7 to 11. Children are widening what they know and getting better at explaining their thinking, so activities that ask them to reason, not only recall, are especially useful. Use it at home, in class, on a rainy afternoon or at a family gathering.

What children practise

• Observing
• Predicting
• Fair tests

Carrying out simple tests, observing carefully and noting what happens.

Learning focus and curriculum link

Subject: Science. Key stage: Key Stage 2. It supports the subject at this level through short, focused practice.

This sheet is a practice and play activity. It supports classroom learning and is not a replacement for it.

How to use it

1. Print both pages. Page 1 is for the child. Keep page 2 for the grown-up.
2. A grown-up should supervise all ten. Take care with allergies (milk in the rainbow milk test) and keep everything away from eyes and mouths. Do not taste anything.
3. Work through the activity together the first time. Talk about each choice.
4. Check against the notes on page 2 and the answers.
5. Come back to it another day. Repeating a familiar activity builds confidence.

If it feels too hard

Do two experiments first and write one sentence about each.

To stretch confident children

Pick one experiment, change one thing such as the amount of salt, and compare the results.

Make it a game

Pair up and show a partner your favourite experiment.

Tips for parents and teachers

• Print on plain A4 paper. Black and white printing works too.
• Work through it together the first time, then let children try alone.
• Praise effort and thinking, not only correct answers.

A screen-free science activity for Year 5

Children spend a lot of time on screens. This is a screen-free science activity that needs only paper and a pencil. It works as quiet time after school, a rainy day activity, a holiday boredom buster or a calm moment before bed. Screen-free learning gives eyes a rest and gets children talking, thinking and writing by hand.

Free science resources for teachers

Teachers can use this guide as a starter, a plenary, an early finisher task, a supply teacher resource, a homework task or a table activity. It needs no preparation beyond printing. The learning focus and skills are listed above so you can match it to your planning, and page 2 gives support and stretch ideas for mixed ability groups.

Science ideas for parents at home

You do not need to be a teacher to use this. Read the sheet through, sit with your child for the first go and let them lead. Short bursts of ten to fifteen minutes work better than long sessions. If you are looking for free science worksheets for Year 5, or simple home learning for the weekend or school holidays, this is a good place to start.

Home education and tutoring

Home educators and tutors can print this as part of a wider science plan. It pairs well with books, outdoor play and everyday talk. Because the sheet is free and printable, you can use it again for brothers and sisters or for revision a few weeks later.

Why it helps children learn

Hands-on, paper based activities slow learning down in a good way. Children read carefully, think before they answer and see their own progress on the page. Games and challenges add a reason to keep going. That mix of play and practice is why printable activities like this are popular with parents, teachers and home educators.

Why kitchen science matters

A kitchen is a good first laboratory. Everything in it is familiar. Salt, sugar, vinegar, milk and ice are things children see every day, and they behave in surprising ways. A grape floats in one glass and sinks in another. Salt changes how fast ice melts. A balloon rubbed on hair picks up scraps of paper.

This sheet has ten simple experiments. Children observe, predict and compare. The national curriculum for Year 5 asks for just that kind of work. It lists pupils comparing materials, dissolving solids in liquids, and noticing changes that can and cannot be undone. Its own notes suggest children might observe changes "when burning different materials or baking bread or cakes", and that they might research how chemical changes affect our lives, "for example, cooking". The kitchen is already part of the curriculum.

The sheet describes what to do. It does not explain the science behind each result on the web page. That is deliberate. The explaining is the best part, and it works best when an adult and a child talk about it together.

What the research says children find hard

We read two Ofsted publications on science, a 2021 research review and a later subject report called Finding the optimum. They do not look at kitchen experiments as such, so we make no claims about them. They do say useful things about practical work in primary schools.

• Doing is not the same as learning. The review says an important first step of effective practical work is to clarify its role in relation to specific curriculum content. It says practical work should form just a part of a wider instructional sequence. It also warns that pupils should not be expected to acquire the "working scientifically" skills simply as a by-product of practical activities. They have to be taught.
• Children remember the activity, not always the idea. The Ofsted subject report found that some pupils could only remember the activity. In one example, pupils could remember that they grew plants, but could not remember what they learned.
• Fair testing can be shaky. The same report found that some pupils knew why variables need to be kept the same in a fair test. In other cases, pupils planning an investigation did not have enough knowledge of controlling variables to do this well. Some Year 5 pupils used terms like "independent variable" confidently.
• Few children use the key words. The report says sometimes pupils referred to concepts such as evidence or variable, but this was rare.
• Everyday ideas are sensible, even when wrong. The review says misconceptions are not just errors because they are functional in everyday life. It warns that if a misconception is challenged too early, pupils are likely to rely on it.
• Primary pupils do a lot of hands-on work. The subject report says primary pupils were much more likely to take part in hands-on practical activities than secondary pupils, and that pupils generally carried out practical work well.

The message is simple. Doing the experiment is only half the job. Talking about what you saw, and why, is the other half.

What Year 5 children are expected to learn

The national curriculum for England, in its Year 5 programme of study for properties and changes of materials, says pupils should be taught to:

• "compare and group together everyday materials on the basis of their properties, including their hardness, solubility, transparency, conductivity (electrical and thermal), and response to magnets"
• "know that some materials will dissolve in liquid to form a solution, and describe how to recover a substance from a solution"
• "demonstrate that dissolving, mixing and changes of state are reversible changes"
• "explain that some changes result in the formation of new materials, and that this kind of change is not usually reversible, including changes associated with burning and the action of acid on bicarbonate of soda"

The non-statutory notes add that pupils should explore changes that are difficult to reverse, for example, "vinegar with bicarbonate of soda", and that they should recognise that "melting and dissolving are different processes." They also say safety guidelines should be followed when burning materials. This sheet does not use burning.

In the "working scientifically" strand for upper key stage 2, pupils are taught to plan different types of scientific enquiries "including recognising and controlling variables where necessary", to take measurements with increasing accuracy, and to use test results "to make predictions to set up further comparative and fair tests."

The sheet links to these directly. The sink or float, dissolving and ice experiments are about properties and reversible changes. The fizz experiment, with bicarbonate of soda and vinegar, is the curriculum's own example of a change that forms a new material. The magnet hunt is about response to magnets. The stretch idea, changing one thing such as the amount of salt, is a fair test.

Why hands-on experiments can help

We want to be honest about what the evidence does and does not say. We did not find a study that tests these ten kitchen experiments. What we can say comes from the Ofsted material above.

The Ofsted review says practical work introduces pupils to the objects, phenomena and methods of study. That is the case for doing experiments at all. The same review is clear that practical work needs a purpose. It should form part of a broader teaching strategy, and our own view is that pupils get more from it when they know what to look for.

So a sensible way to use this sheet is to give each experiment a question. Not "let's see what happens," but "which of these will dissolve, and how will we know?" Predicting first, then looking, then comparing the result with the prediction, is the working scientifically habit the curriculum asks for.

The Ofsted subject report found that some pupils could remember an activity but not what they learned. A short talk after each experiment is the cure. Ask: what did you expect, what happened, and what does that tell us?

How to get the most out of Kitchen Science Experiments

1. Read the safety notes first. See the section below. An adult should supervise every experiment.
2. Pick two or three, not all ten. The sheet itself suggests doing two experiments and writing one sentence about each if the task feels too hard. Fewer experiments, talked through well, beat ten rushed ones.
3. Predict before you start. Write the prediction down. For sink or float, ask your child to sort the coin, the grape and the cork into two groups before testing.
4. Change one thing at a time. In the ice race, one cube gets salt and one does not. Everything else, including the size of the cubes and the plate, should be the same. That is a fair test.
5. Use the right words. Say "dissolves", "prediction", "variable" and "evidence" as you go. The Ofsted subject report says pupils rarely use these words, so it helps to model them.
6. Record what you see. A drawing, a table or a sentence will do. The curriculum asks for results in tables, diagrams and labels.
7. Check page 2. The answers are on the printable. Compare your result with theirs, and talk about any difference.
8. Do one again with a change. Try twice as much salt. Or a different liquid. Predict first.

Staying safe

Kitchen experiments use everyday things, but a kitchen has real hazards. The sheet itself says an adult should supervise all experiments, that items should be kept away from eyes and mouths, and that nothing should be tasted. We repeat that here.

• Our own safety advice: do not taste. Food that has been in an experiment is not food any more. Keep eating and experimenting apart.
• Allergies. The NHS lists cows' milk among the common allergenic foods, and says symptoms can include itchy skin or a raised rash, and swelling of the lips, face and eyes. The rainbow milk test uses milk, so check first. The NHS says to call 999 if your throat feels tight or you are struggling to swallow.
• Hot water. This sheet does not need hot liquids. If you do use any, NI Direct advises keeping children out of the kitchen if possible when you are cooking, and says that fifteen minutes after they have been made, hot drinks can still scald young children. It also advises using a kettle with a short cord and keeping it well back from the edge of the worktop, and turning saucepan handles towards the back of the cooker.
• Eyes. Our own safety advice: keep vinegar and fizzing mixtures away from faces. An adult should wash hands and tools afterwards.
• Tidy up. Our own safety advice: wipe spills straight away so nobody slips, and wash hands when finished.

We are not a safety authority and the lines above are only a start. If you are a teacher, follow your school's risk assessment. If you are at home, use your judgement and stay in the room.

Common mistakes, and what to say

• "The big things sink and the small things float." Size is not the rule. Test it with a heavy but wide object and a small, light one. Ask: what else could matter?
• "It disappeared, so it is gone." When sugar dissolves, it spreads through the water. The curriculum says pupils should know that some materials dissolve in liquid to form a solution. Ask how you might get it back.
• "Melting and dissolving are the same." The curriculum notes say pupils should recognise that melting and dissolving are different processes. Melting is a solid becoming a liquid. Dissolving is a solid mixing into a liquid.
• "Fizzing means it is dangerous." Fizzing is a change in which something new forms. The curriculum cites vinegar with bicarbonate of soda as an example of a change that is difficult to reverse. Keep it away from faces.
• Unfair tests. If one ice cube is bigger than the other, the test tells you nothing about salt. Ask: what did we keep the same?
• Remembering the show, not the idea. The Ofsted subject report found pupils who remembered the activity but not what they learned. End each experiment with: "What did we find out?"

Why teachers matter to us

We are a games company, and we have been making games for families since 1795. We do not think a printable replaces a teacher. A science teacher does what a sheet cannot: notices a muddled idea, chooses the question that exposes it, and keeps the room safe. A 2011 report for the Sutton Trust, by researchers at the London School of Economics, found that for poor pupils the difference between a good teacher and a bad teacher is a whole year's learning. That is a general finding about teachers, not about science. The report's 40% comparison was about maths teachers, so we do not apply it here.

The report also found that gender, race, teaching experience, undergraduate university, advanced degrees, teacher certification and tenure explain less than 8% of teacher quality. A University of Bristol study of more than 7,000 pupils found considerable variability in teacher effectiveness. Our takeaway is that the skill in the room matters more than the paperwork behind it, and good teachers should be thanked.

A caution on the Sutton Trust figures: the report draws on US studies as well as English ones. The 40% compares a very effective teacher (at the 84th percentile) with a poorly performing one (at the 16th percentile). The figure that paper credentials explain less than 8% of teacher quality comes from US research. We use them as pointers, not as a promise about any one child.

Why education matters to us

Children who learn to ask "how do we know?" carry that question into everything else. Science is not only for scientists. It is a way of looking at the world that helps with health, money and everyday choices. Jaques of London has been making things for children to explore for generations. The Mini Minds Hub carries that on: free, screen-free, and simple enough for a parent at a kitchen table to use alongside a teacher in a classroom.

Kitchen Science Experiments: 20 questions and answers

1. Which curriculum topic do these experiments fit?

Year 5 properties and changes of materials. Pupils compare materials, learn about solutions, and study reversible and non-reversible changes.

2. What is a solution?

It is what you get when a material dissolves in a liquid. The curriculum says pupils should know that some materials will dissolve in liquid to form a solution.

3. Which things dissolve in the dissolving experiment?

Sugar and salt are the usual ones to try. Sand does not. Your child can predict first, then stir and look.

4. How could we get the salt back after it dissolves?

The curriculum says pupils should be able to describe how to recover a substance from a solution. Evaporating the water is one way. This should be done with an adult.

5. Why does the sheet suggest the fizz experiment?

The national curriculum names vinegar with bicarbonate of soda as an example of a change that is difficult to reverse and forms a new material.

6. Is the vinegar and bicarbonate fizz reversible?

The curriculum notes list it as a change that is difficult to reverse. You cannot easily get the original two back from the froth.

7. What is the difference between melting and dissolving?

The curriculum notes say pupils should recognise that these are different processes. Melting is a solid turning to liquid. Dissolving is a solid mixing into a liquid.

8. What is the ice race testing?

It compares one ice cube with salt and one without. It is a simple fair test. Keep the cubes the same size and the plates the same.

9. What is a fair test?

A test where only one thing is changed and everything else stays the same. The curriculum asks Year 5 and 6 pupils to recognise and control variables.

10. What is a variable?

It is something that can change in an experiment, such as the amount of salt. An Ofsted report found that some Year 5 pupils could explain this and others could not, so it is worth practising.

11. Why do we predict first?

Predicting makes you think about what you already know. The curriculum asks pupils to use test results to make predictions for further tests.

12. What should my child write down?

The prediction, what happened, and one sentence on why. A drawing or table works too.

13. What if the experiment does not work?

That is useful. Ask what might have been different. The curriculum mentions taking repeat readings when appropriate, so trying again is real science.

14. Who needs to be there?

An adult should supervise all ten experiments. The sheet says this, and we repeat it.

15. What about allergies?

The rainbow milk test uses milk, and the NHS lists cows' milk among common allergenic foods. Check before you start, and never taste anything from an experiment.

16. Should the experiments be done in one go?

No. Two or three a session is plenty. Spreading them across a week gives time to talk and to repeat one.

17. What does the celery experiment need?

It stands overnight in coloured water, so you will need patience. Ask your child to predict what they will see in the morning.

18. Why do children remember experiments but not the science?

The Ofsted subject report found that some pupils could only remember the activity. A short talk after each one, asking what they found out, helps connect the two.

19. Does this replace science lessons?

No. The Ofsted review says practical work should form just a part of a wider instructional sequence. Teachers provide the sequence.

20. Where can I find more Year 5 science sheets?

See the More like this section below, or browse all Year 5 science printables in the Mini Minds Hub.

Sources

1. Department for Education, National curriculum in England: science programmes of study: gov.uk.
2. Ofsted, Research review series: science (2021): gov.uk.
3. Ofsted, Finding the optimum: the science subject report: gov.uk.
4. NHS, Food allergy: nhs.uk.
5. NI Direct, Keeping children safe from burns and scalds: nidirect.gov.uk.
6. Sutton Trust, Improving the impact of teachers on pupil achievement in the UK, interim findings (2011): dera.ioe.ac.uk.
7. Slater, Davies and Burgess, University of Bristol CMPO Working Paper 09/212 (2009): bristol.ac.uk.

Frequently asked questions

What age is Kitchen Science Experiments for?

It is written for Year 5 (ages 9 to 10), in Key Stage 2.

What will children practise?

Carrying out simple tests, observing carefully and noting what happens.

How do I use it?

A grown-up should supervise all ten. Take care with allergies (milk in the rainbow milk test) and keep everything away from eyes and mouths. Do not taste anything.

What if it feels too hard?

Do two experiments first and write one sentence about each.

Is it free?

Yes. It is free to print for home and classroom use.

Is Kitchen Science Experiments suitable for teachers to use in class?

Yes. Teachers can use it as a starter, plenary, early finisher task, homework or table activity. It needs no preparation beyond printing.

Is this a screen-free activity?

Yes. It is a screen-free printable that needs only paper and a pencil, so it works well for quiet time, rainy days and school holidays.

Can I use it for home education?

Yes. Home educators and tutors can use it on its own or as part of a wider plan. It is free to print again for brothers, sisters or revision.

How long does it take?

Most children finish page 1 in 10 to 20 minutes. The notes on page 2 suggest ways to make it shorter or longer.

Do I need to print in colour?

No. It prints well in black and white on plain A4 paper.

More free printables

More for Key Stage 2 | More science printables | Free printable games | All Mini Minds Hub resources