Introduce a fun science project to your fifth-grader using a yeast solution, liquid detergent and hydrogen peroxide to produce a volcano-like reaction. If done correctly, this project will result in a stream of foam shooting up out of a bottle, looking like toothpaste being squeezed from a tube.
Get the child in question to put on the safety glasses and then place the empty soda bottle in the middle of the aluminum tray. Place the funnel into the top of the soda bottle.
Add three to four drops of any color food coloring to the peroxide, then pour the peroxide/food coloring mix through the funnel and into the soda bottle.
Pour the dish soap liquid and the yeast mixture into the bottle and remove the funnel as quickly as possible.
Stand back and watch the reaction. After a few minutes, the foam should shoot up out of the bottle and run into the aluminum tray. The "explosion" will eventually stop and begin to come out in a steady stream. In addition, to make this project even more fun, you can allow your child to play with the foam. After all, it is just soap, water and oxygen bubbles.
Introduce your fifth-grader to fun fossil making. Start by collecting two to three objects such as seashells, old bones or wood.
Choose one of the objects you want to use and place it on a table. Take the clay and press it into the object gently. Be careful not to make the impression too deep.
Pull the object from the clay carefully. Try to withdraw of the object smoothly so that the clay does not smudge or smear.
Fill the clay mold where the indentation of the object is with glue. When real fossils are created, they occur because animals rot away in soil and the space they once occupied is later filled with minerals from groundwater. The glue in this project is like those minerals.
Let the glue dry fully. When the glue is dry, peel the glue off the clay. Your fifth-grader should see an imitation fossil in the clay. If you have enough time, take your fifth-grader to a local science museum to see real fossils so that they can compare it with theirs.