Turn a science experiment classic into the ultimate Halloween science for kids experience! More Halloween science fun for kids at the end of this post.
Click to read also: Spider Web Obstacle Course
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Recognize this post? I’m sharing it again today along with other fun hands-on Halloween activities for kids from friends!
Ghost Balloons! Halloween Science for Kids
What You'll Find on This Page
Ghost balloons make easy Halloween science for kids! – all you need is a water bottle, balloon, Sharpie pen, vinegar, and baking soda! This is a fantastic Halloween science experiment for groups – check out the group photo from enjoying this experiment with my son’s second grade class below! Last year a friend and I ran this experiment for at least 100 kids as part of the kids’ noon science program at school.
Draw a ghost face on the balloon, and fill it with about 1 Tablespoon of baking soda. Fill the water bottle with about half a cup of vinegar. Attach the balloon to the top of the water bottle, lift the balloon so that the baking soda falls into the water bottle, and watch the magic happen!
This activity is a great one for large groups of kids! My son’s second grade class made these fun ghost balloons.
How Do Halloween Ghost Balloons Work?
The two household chemicals, baking soda and vinegar, create carbon dioxide when mixed.
These process photos were taken using a pink balloon for three-year-old Lily. The pink-ness makes it a particularly friendly ghost, I think. :)
Emma used our small camera to capture the entire thing on video:
Which we’ve uploaded to Youtube! Enjoy!
Here are some fun twists on this activity:
- Inflate-a-monster by Artsy Momma
- Magic Jack-O-Lantern by I Can Teach My Child
- Spooky Pop Rocks and Soda Ghostly Hand by Lemon Lime Adventures
More Hands-on Halloween Science Activities for Kids
- Fluffy Zombie Slime
- Discovering a Pumpkin: STEM Investigation
- Spider Science Activities for Kids
- Static Electricity Ghosts
- Halloween Rock Painting for Kids using Physics
- Robot Spider Craft
- Edible Candy Corn Slime
- Halloween Peeps Candy Ghost Experiment
- Bubbling Pumpkin Experiments
Do you have a favorite Halloween science experiment? How about a favorite Halloween activity or craft? Check out this post featuring Halloween Activities for Preschoolers.
MaryAnne is a craft loving educator, musician, photographer, and writer who lives in Silicon Valley with her husband Mike and their four children.
What a neat idea for October. Cute and fun… we won’t tell the children that it’s actually educational!
We aren’t big Halloween people, but my son is strangely obsessed with all the ghosts and skeletons he sees. I see him loving this project!
How awesome! Pinning so we can try later in October!
Fun idea!
This will be so cool to do for Halloween! I can’t wait.
I apparently did not comment the first time around. I agree the pink makes it a particularly friendly ghost.
LOVE this so much! Will share!
Thanks, Mia!
Such a brilliant way to make a science experiment more fun – we’ve made so many volcanoes I think everybody is bored of them now, balloons are a top idea :)
The balloon was is neat, because it’s so unexpected for kids the first time round, even if they have done dozens of volcanoes!
These are amazing! :-) and your balloon blowing up worked much better than ours!
Love it – Anna did a very similar experiment in her Mad Science class lately.
Clever idea mama! I’m featuring it this week on Tuesday Tots so if you collect featured buttons, you’re welcome to grab one of mine. Thanks so much for linking it up :D
Thank you, Debs! I’ve added your feature button to my “featured on” page :)
Oh, how fun!! We should have done this with our ghost crafts the other day! Thank you for sharing at Sharing Saturday!!
That is awesome! I am going to have to do this with my 3.5 year old!
Awesome idea! It’s been a year since we did this experiment (non-ghosty), so it’ll be fun to see J’s excitement for the experiment again and have something new, Halloween related (that’s not messy or sugary). I might steal the idea for a Halloween post. I’ll link back up to you, for sure.
Go for it – glad you liked the idea!
Adding the ghost idea to the self-inflating balloons is a great idea! Tell your daughter that my favorite is also the pink ghost. ;)
This is so awesome!!!
I have to pin this for next Halloween!! :)
It’s super easy and fun!
That looks fun and super easy to do. My oldest is 7 years old and loves doing science experiments so I know she’d enjoy this one. :)
I love the pink friendly ghost. :)
My girls will love this – will definitely be trying it soon.
Wow, it happens really fast! Cool!
This is very cute!
How fun! Great video! :)
We’ve done this experiment, but not in a long time, and *certainly* not as a ghost. My kids are going to love this!
Coolest ghost experiment ever! I love that I already have all of the supplies so can set it up at a moment’s notice. :)
That looks so fun!
Ahahahahahha that is a great variation!
What a great experiment! I think we’ll try this next week.
My kids loved it!
You know for all of the baking soda experiments we’ve done, we’ve never done this one. I should remedy that.
What a fun project for the kids!
Ha! This is a fun Halloween experiment!
I was so excited when I thought of it! :)
Hey, this is coolllll!!!!!!