Whether at home or in the classroom, this Halloween offers a great opportunity to keep the learning going with hands-on activities. Festive projects with spooky themes can teach your learners about engineering, physics, chemistry and more — check out these suggestions for making this holiday a learning occasion.
Experiment with chemistry basics by making custom slime! Teach about the states of matter (solid, liquid and gas) by playing with this not-quite-solid gel.
- Mix ¼ cup of baking soda with water
- Add 5oz of Elmer’s glue and stir to combine until the mixture becomes thick and pliable
- Optional: mix drops of food coloring or glitter to decorate
For older students, experiment with chemistry and try making a batch of Wizard’s Brew (aka Elephant’s Toothpaste). Students can learn about chemical reactions in this fun and learning-filled exothermic chemical reaction using hydrogen peroxide, soap, food dye, and yeast.
- Add an equal amount of hydrogen peroxide into each container used
- Add dish soap
- Add food coloring
- Mix 1 teaspoon of yeast with 2 tablespoons of warm water (does not need to dissolve entirely)
- Add the yeast/water mixture to the hydrogen peroxide
- Teacher Tip: Eye-safety!
Create a spider’s web to learn biology basics and architectural engineering skills. What shapes do spiders use to make their ultra-strong and ultra-silky webs? Explore what works best to catch cotton ball “bugs” on your string web!
- Cut the center out of a paper plate and punch holes in the remaining circular rim
- Thread string “spider web” through the holes in patterns of your choosing,
- Aim to make the strongest design with the fewest holes!
- Toss cotton ball “bugs” at your web to see what you catch!
Test your knowledge of physics and aerodynamics with a paper bat flight contest! Follow these instructions to fold a paper bat from any piece of construction paper, then test how they fly! How does changing the folds in the wings change their flight? What happens if you add weight to the body by taping a penny to your bat’s nose?
For more free, activities — including our Bye, Bye Bug engineering activity — to enjoy at home or on-the-go, visit our EiE Families platform, now with a new home page!
How are you celebrating Halloween with your students? Let us know any Halloween / spooky-science connections and your favorite seasonal activities in the comments.
