By: Courtney Newman
It’s pumpkin season, which is my favorite season of the year! While all the adorable fall decor and autumnal vibes with hayrides, scarecrows, and apple cider donuts are bales of fun, I also look forward to it being SPOOKY season. We are approaching Halloween, so what better time to explore a few spooky science experiments with our kids? Even if you don’t care for Halloween, you can still enjoy these crazy and startling Halloween science experiments!
While certain Halloween science experiments are pretty common (erupting volcanoes, boiling saltwater, & DIY slime ring a bell?), I specifically looked for unique, out-of-this-world projects for this post. These strange science projects will hopefully have your kids howling with fun, and what better way to learn science?! So, let’s grab our goggles, a few household items, and dive into these Halloween science ideas.
Spooky Science Projects
Thankfully, prior to high school, most science projects only require items we usually have on-hand or can grab with a quick trip to the local store. I love these practical and easy projects, and I think they are some of the most exciting, truth be told. We would never expect the combination of such common items to produce such crazy results! All the credit goes to Pinterest and fellow bloggers for their ingenious Halloween science experiments!
Learn about carbon dioxide with this experiment! By mixing baking soda and vinegar in a bottle, you’ll inflate the ghost with “magic”!
Amaze and mystify with the flying tea bag ghosts. These ghastly ghosts will float up into the air while teaching about convection and air pressure.
If you need a Halloween activity for the older students this last one is for you. Explore practical chemistry with the redox and precipitation reactions that take place in the colorful Halloween clock reaction.
This project is weird and colorful, which makes it uber fun for kids! This does require purchasing syringes, but the result is pretty cool. Please note to keep the syringes safe from young children.
Oh my goodness, how fun does this look?! This project reuses old film canisters, which seems like a great use for something hardly around anymore! With just a few ingredients, you’ll make these super cute ghosts FLY!
Yes, it’s a volcano, but it’s an ice volcano, which makes it infinitely cooler than a regular volcano project, right?? These are messy, bubbly, and teach about chemical reactions. AKA, just what I’m looking for!
Oobleck is thrilling because it’s a great way to demonstrate how matter changes. Is it a solid or a liquid? That’s the constant question with oobleck since it seems to take on both!
Ever wondered what to do with all those packing peanuts when you open a shipment? I’m often wishing there was something I could do with them other than just tossing them in the trash. I love this idea of making them into little “ghosts”! It only works with biodegradable peanuts, but at least there’s something to do with them now!
This project involves a slightly more complicated process, as well as a few extra supplies, but your kids will have a blast! With this conductive homemade dough, a battery pack, and some LED lights, your kids will be able to build their own lights and watch it come to life! This is definitely a great STEM project.
If you are set on carving a jack-o-lantern, you can experiment with the pumpkin seeds when you are finished. Try out some pumpkin seed friction and challenge your children to lift a container of seeds with just a pencil!
I love this project for the littles! It’s just the best thing when these simple activities are super engaging and entertaining. Your kiddos will don the hat of a mad scientist while learning about how baking soda and vinegar react.
Hidden Pictures with Invisible Ink
What child doesn’t love invisible ink and “coded” messages?! I know I would have loved something like this when I was a child. Make your own hidden pictures with just laundry detergent and a black light!
Halloween and blood go hand-in-hand, so this is the perfect project for this time of year. Teach your kids about how blood works with this three-dimensional model!
Our Top 10 Favorite Science Resources
While I do prefer just using what I have on-hand for most scientific endeavors, sometimes you just have to use other resources for finding products. Similarly, even if you are already using a great science curriculum, you don’t have to stick with just that program for your science study. That’s one of my favorite aspects of homeschooling; we can mix and match as we please! I love supplementing my favorite science curriculum with these resources to add depth and variety to our science study, as well as our experiments. Enjoy!
- National Geographic related videos
- Printable Science Experiment Journal (FREE)
- Time4Learning Science
- How to Teach Science with Living Books
- Crash Course Kids
- Bozeman Science
Science is one of those subjects that can make or break a homeschool day, to be honest. If it is done just right, it can be one of the most exciting subjects with loads of discovery and fun. However, when delivered in a series of dry facts, quizzes, or textbook answers, science can be almost painful to study. If you don’t even enjoy it as the teacher, your kids are almost certain to struggle through. Instead, let’s take advantage of the Halloween season to apply those science lessons with hauntingly strange projects!
Get more Halloween science at these other A2Z resources below:
Halloween Books With Science Connections
Frankenstein Friday
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