Chemistry Projects

Easy Homemade DIY Snow Globe

Kids of all ages, the young and the young at heart, appreciate the appeal of a snow globe. And even young kids are capable of mastering this easy DIY snow globe.

What You Need:

  • Small glass jar with tight fitting lid
  • Hot glue gun or super glue
  • Distilled water
  • Liquid glycerin or light corn syrup
  • Fake snow or glitter (find at craft stores)
  • Small plastic trees, animals, houses, or other decorations
  • Adult supervision

What You Do:

1. With a grown-up’s help, use the superglue or hot glue to affix your trees or other decorative items to the inside of the lid. Let dry.

2. Fill jar about 3/4 full of water (or about 1/2 if using corn syrup).

3. Put a few pinches of glitter or fake snow in the jar.

4. Screw the lid on very tightly.

5. Turn your jar upside-down and watch the snow fall inside your homemade DIY snow globe.

6. Now add several drops of liquid glycerin (or an equal amount of corn syrup) making sure you leave room for air at the top. Repeat step 5.

7. Finally, if you like, you may decorate the base (lid) of your snow globe with ribbon, fabric, or pretty paper.

What Happened:

Have you ever noticed how sometimes objects of the same size weigh different amounts?

That’s because of density. We figure out an object’s density by comparing its mass to its volume.

Mass refers to the amount of matter that makes up an object. Volume refers to the amount of space an object occupies.

Compare a rock and a marshmallow that are the same size (having equal volume), which is heavier?

The rock is, because it has more mass.

That means the rock has greater density than the marshmallow because it has more mass (amount of matter) in the same volume (occupied space).

Liquids have density, too.

The more dense a liquid is, the easier it is for an object to float on.

Glycerin (or corn syrup) is more dense than water; so after we added it to the snow globe, the snow fell more slowly.

Try adding a few more drops of glycerin (or corn syrup). What did you notice?

You should have found that the more glycerin (or corn syrup) you add, the slower the snow falls. Learn more about liquid density with these projects.