Ivory Soap Experiment and Sensory Play

If you haven’t heard of the Ivory Soap experiment by now, then you are missing out.  It’s been on my list of things to try, and I finally remembered to buy Ivory soap the other day.  (It HAS to be Ivory brand soap – other’s will not work!)

All you have to do is take a bar, or part of a bar of soap and microwave it.  I’d suggest putting it on a plate or you’ll end up with residue on your microwave (ask me how I know…).  First we cut up the bars into 3 pieces and put them on small plates.  We microwaved each of them for less than a minute, separately.  If you watch (and you should definitely watch – it’s so neat!) you’ll be able to tell when it stops expanding, and that’s when it’s done!

We also microwaved an entire bar and it took nearly 2 minutes to complete.  It creates a lot though!

To be on the safe side, I let the soap explosion cool off for a few minutes before we played with it.  It was completely cool to the touch, inside and out, within about 2-3 minutes. Definitely check the temperature before letting any little hands play though!

Logi-Bear was interested.  It felt flaky and soft.

Royal got out the magnifying glass to see a bit closer.

I let them explore the soap for awhile, and then Royal asked if he could have some water.  So I gave him a bowl of water and let him see what would happen!

It turned into a silky, soapy mix.  He played with this mix for nearly an hour!

I don’t like to waste things so if possible I like to put things aside to use later.  When Royal was done with the mixture I left it near the tub for our next bath.  We ended up skipping bath that night, but the next night we found the mixture had kind of gelled.  It created this really great goopy mixture that was super fun to play with!  They played with it in the tub for the longest time – and got clean in the process!

So if you do the ivory soap experiment, play with it, and then add it to water and let it sit overnight!  You’ll end up with a great goopy mixture for sensory play!

Here are some other great ideas on how to use your Ivory soap explosion:
Make Ghost Mud from Happy Hooligans
Make homemade laundry detergent from Happy Hooligans
Make tub soaps from Our Best Bites
Turn it into Glowing Clean Mud  from Train Up A Child
Make bathtub paint from Housing a Forest