Back to: Pre Vocational Studies Primary 6
Welcome to class!
Hello my little chemist! I’m so glad to have you back for another exciting and practical lesson. Today, we’re going to learn “how to make detergent.” This means creating your own cleaning agent at home using simple ingredients. It’s like mixing ingredients to bake a cake, but instead of making something to eat, we’re making something to clean! Let’s begin!
How to Make Detergent
Making your own detergent can be a fun and economical way to clean your clothes and other things. Here’s a simple recipe for making laundry detergent:
What you will need:
- Washing Soda (Sodium Carbonate): This helps to remove dirt and grease. Be careful, it can irritate skin, so adult supervision is needed.
- Borax (Sodium Borate): This helps to boost the cleaning power of the detergent and soften water. Adult supervision is needed.
- Bar Soap (like Castile soap or laundry soap): This helps to create suds and lift dirt.
- Grated Bar Soap: Grate the bar soap into small pieces using a grater. This helps it dissolve more easily.
- Hot Water: This is used to dissolve the ingredients.
- A large bucket or container: To mix all the ingredients.
- A spoon or stick: For stirring.
- Optional: Essential oils: For fragrance (like lavender or lemon). Adult supervision is needed.
Steps:
- Dissolve the soap: Put the grated bar soap in a pot with some hot water. Heat it gently on a stove (with adult supervision!) and stir until the soap dissolves completely.
- Mix the ingredients: In your large bucket or container, pour some very hot water. Add the washing soda and borax to the hot water and stir until they dissolve completely. Adult supervision is needed for handling washing soda and borax.
- Combine the mixtures: Pour the dissolved soap mixture into the bucket with the washing soda and borax solution. Stir everything together well.
- Add more water: Add more hot water to the bucket until it is almost full. Stir again.
- Add essential oils (optional): If you want to add fragrance, you can add a few drops of essential oils at this stage. Adult supervision is needed.
- Let it sit: Let the mixture sit for several hours or overnight. It will thicken into a gel-like consistency.
How to use your homemade detergent:
Use about ¼ to ½ cup of the detergent per load of laundry. You can use it in both top-loading and front-loading washing machines.
Important Safety Tips:
- Adult supervision is required for this activity, especially when using washing soda, borax, and hot water.
- Washing soda and borax can irritate skin and eyes. Avoid contact with skin and eyes. If contact occurs, rinse thoroughly with water.
- Do not ingest (swallow) any of the ingredients.
- Keep the ingredients and finished detergent out of reach of young children and pets.
- When using essential oils, make sure they are safe for use in laundry and follow the instructions carefully.
Let’s use an example. Imagine you are making the detergent with your parent or guardian. You would carefully grate the bar soap, mix it with hot water on the stove (with their help), and then combine it with the washing soda and borax in a bucket. After letting it sit overnight, you would have your own homemade detergent ready to use!
So, to summarize, making your own detergent can be a fun and useful activity. It’s important to follow the instructions carefully and always have adult supervision when handling chemicals and hot water.
Evaluation
- Can you name three ingredients used to make homemade detergent?
- Why is adult supervision important for this activity?
Excellent! You’re doing a fantastic job! I’m so proud of your learning. Remember, making your own detergent can be a great way to save money and learn about how cleaning products work, but safety is always the most important thing. Keep up the amazing work!
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