Flying Ghosts Science Experiment with Baking Soda and Vinegar

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Flying Ghosts Science Experiment with Baking Soda and Vinegar is a cool Halloween STEAM activity for kids! This easy to create science activity is the perfect way to keep your kids busy learning this Fall!

Flying Ghosts Science Experiment

Science for Kids

One of the great things about this activity is that its safe for toddlers and preschoolers but exciting enough to entertain older grade school age kids as well! The main ingredients for this chemical reaction are baking soda and vinegar, common kitchen household items that is easily available at the grocery store.

Easy Fizzy Baking Soda and Vinegar Experiments

Do you want to try more experiments with baking soda. You can also try our other fizzy experiments like our

Science Behind the Flying Ghosts Science Experiment

What happens when you combine baking soda with vinegar? Fizz! But why does this happen with two seemingly common ingredients. Baking soda is a base and vinegar is an acid. When an acid and a base mix they produce a gas called carbon dioxide.

But how are the ghosts flying? First off they aren’t flying, they are floating. By adding baking soda and vinegar to water, the liquid starts fill with lots of tiny bubbles. These bubbles start to rise to the surface and pop.

When you add an object to the water, like the lima beans, the bubbles cling to the surface of the objects causing them to rise to the surface along with the bubbles. The bubbles increase the buoyancy of the lima bean ghosts causing them to rise and appear as if they are flying up.

As the bubbles reach the surface of the water, they pop and the beans that were made buoyant loose their buoyancy and become more dense again. As the lima beans become more dense, they drop back to the bottom. While falling down and sitting on the bottom of the glass jar, the beans collect more bubbles. Once the beans have enough bubbles they will rise and fly again after a few minutes.

After a while, either the baking soda and vinegar reaction will get used up and stop making bubbles and the lima beans will remain on the bottom of the jar.

How Many Ghosts to Make and Add to the Experiment

When I did this experiment we got really excited,I made several little ghosts but you will honestly only need between 3-5 lima beans ghosts. We also added all our lima bean ghost at once. I recommend adding about three at first and then adding more later on.

How to Make the Flying Ghosts Science Experiment

Using a black sharpie, draw ghost faces on lima beans.

Fill a jar half way with slightly warm water. Mix in about 1/3 cup of baking soda. Mix the baking soda until its has fully dissolved.

Add 3 lima bean ghosts to the jar.
Slowly fill the rest of the jar with vinegar. Bubbles will start to form and collect on the beans. As they do the beans will become more buoyant and start to rise or fly to the top of the jar.

As the bubbles pop they lima bean ghost will start to fall back down.

Looking for more Halloween Activities? Check out these fun ideas:

Age Suitability

This activity is good for toddlers, pre-k, kindergarten aged children 2 years old and up. My kids are 4.5, 4.5 and 8 years old.

Mess Level

The mess level for this activity is MEDIUM.

Difficulty to Create

Medium.

Skills Developed

Sensory play, language development, number recognition, color recognition, hand-eye coordination, fine motor skills, imaginative play, creativity.

The benefits of sensory play:

encourages the development of fine and gross motor skills;
supports language development;
can calm and relieve anxiety;
promotes and strengthens memory; and
helps develop the nerve connections the brain requires for higher learning.

Supplies

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Mason jar
Warm Water
3-5 Lima Beans
Black sharpie
1/3 cup of Baking soda
Vinegar

Books, TV Show & Play Kits!

Book: Exciting Sensory Bins for Curious Kids

Did you know I wrote a book of sensory bins? Click here for more information Exciting Sensory Bin for Curious Kids. Or grab your copy at Amazon.

Engage your child in hours of play with my colorful collection of over 60 sensory bin activities, recipes and play projects that aid with memory formation, language development, problem-solving skills and more. Perfect for toddlers from eighteen months to three years old and beyond, each bin makes use of materials you already have at home and helps reignite your kids’ interest in toys long forgotten.

Boring afternoons are made exciting with awesome animal-based bins, like Salty Shark Bay or Yarn Farm. Pretend play bins like Birthday Cake Sensory Play or Bubble Tea Party encourage creativity and imagination. And your kids will have so much fun they won’t even know they’re getting smarter with STEAM (science, technology, engineering, art and math) activities like Sink or Float Soup, Magnetic Letter Hunt or Ice Cream Scoop and Count.

With setup instructions, details on how to guide your child through each activity, suggestions for what to talk about with your child as they play and other useful tips, Mandisa gives you all the information you need for creative sensory activities your kids are bound to love.

Designed for toddlers 18 months and up.

Book: Super STEAM Activity Book for Kids

Learning all about science, technology, engineering, art, and math sets kids up for scholastic success―and it can be so much fun! Watch kids enjoy building STEAM skills as they color friendly fish, help water find its way to tree roots, solve math problems with mazes, and more.

Find out more and grab your copy here.

Designed for preschoolers 3 years old and up.

How to Make Colored Spaghetti for Sensory Play

Book: Big Book of Riddles for Kids

Riddle me this: What’s an exciting way to practice critical thinking while having a blast? The Big Riddle Book for Kids, of course! From hilarious puns to tough brain teasers, kids can build problem-solving skills with hundreds of riddles that show them how to think outside the box.

350 riddles for kids—Have hours of fun with riddles, puns and jokes, and math and logic puzzles that’ll get their wheels turning!
Level up their skills—Riddles get trickier as kids progress through the book, challenging them as they get better at solving puzzles!
Double-check their work—Kids can check their answers in the back of the book with a handy answer key.

Help children expand their minds while having fun with this puzzle book for kids!

Designed for kids ages 6 years old and up.

TV Show: Curious Crafting

I’m so excited to finally share my new crafting TV show Curious Crafting which launched July 1 at on TVOkids and TVOkids YouTube!

Set in the ultimate crafting space, Curious Crafting is a short form pre-school age series about the joy of making crafts. I lead a rotating cast of adorable little preschoolers (including my own) making magic out of common household objects.

In each episode we transform recycled items into magical crafts like a milk carton school bus, paper bag puppet or cotton pad turtle. The crafters learn and laugh their way through each activity while demonstrating what their young imaginations can create.

Curious Crafting shares the adventure and joy of making art with takeaway lessons for creating crafts at home.

This show designed for toddlers and preschoolers 2.5 years old and up.

The Best Sensory Play Kits for Kids

Play is at the core of learning during the early years and it can take many forms. One of the most important of these is sensory play because it engages all of a child’s senses (taste, touch, smell, sight and hearing) and has a enoumous positive impact on brain development.

Our Sensory Play Kits are some fun and easy ways to keep your child engaged while at the same time using sensory play to nurture their mind!