Hallowe’en is always a good time for experiments!
Floating Ghosts, from the Ontario Science Centre demonstrates the power of static electricity. Kids with beginner scissor skills can try this activity with adult help. (And if ghosts and spooky stuff isn’t your child’s thing, you can bookmark this and try it with snowflake shapes to make a winter science activity – it might even work better in drier, winter months!)
Pepper’s Ghost, or the Haunted Hologram , is an OSC experiment for the slightly older student (or requiring much more adult participation). It explores refracted light. Light and Sound is a Grade 4 unit, so kids around this age may be able to connect this to their inquiries at school.
The Articulated Hand from De tout et de rien can be pretty creepy (especially if made in zombie green or other exciting Halloween choices). Children will learn about bone structure (Grade 5, Humans, Health and Body Structure) and puppetry (a life-skill for all ages).
Geodesic Domes (and other structures) can be created with just toothpicks and some form of gummy/soft candy, as Science Buddies shows with candy corn gumdrops. (And connects well to Strong and Stable Structures in Grade 3.)
Scary Slime, is of course the right slime of time of year. Oozing Oobleck is winner year-round.
And there’s always the classic baking soda and vinegar experiment in a Jack o’Lantern:
Place the pumpkin in a space that can get messy. (Outside is probably good.) Pour about a cup of baking soda in the bottom of the pumpkin. Add a few drops of food colouring and a squirt of dish soap if you want an even bigger/more sustained reaction. Then let your little scientist add a cup or two of white vinegar and stand back!
Introduce the concepts of acid and base. Vinegar is acidic. Baking soda is a base. When they meet, they change, and release carbon dioxide making bubbles. When we add food colouring it colours the bubbles. When we add soap, it traps the escaping CO2 in stronger bubbles, and makes them bigger and last longer.
Whether you try these, look up some alternative experiments, or decide to simply experiment with which candies taste best, we wish everyone a Happy Spooky Season!