Halloween STEM activities are so much fun this time of the year. If you're looking for a way to tie your child's love for trick-or-treating, mischief, and scary tales with picking up valuable lifelong STEM skills, look no further.
Today we've rounded up some of the spookiest fun October projects, computer science challenges, and puzzles that are easy to set up and budget-friendly, so you have time to try a few. Find your favorites, and enjoy.
Why didn't the skeleton do the scary STEM project? He didn't have the guts! But you do!
Learn how to create personalized Halloween animations like a witch, ghost, or anything imaginable with beginner-friendly coding in our free Scratch class.
Explore Halloween STEM activities for elementary and middle school children
Here we'll cover Halloween educational activities for both elementary and middle school children from coding pumpkins to fizzing ghosts, floating worms, glow-in-the-dark slime, and much more. Keep in mind they're best done with adult supervision.
1. Create animated pumpkin characters
Do your children want to create awesome Halloween animations of ghosts, pumpkins, and candy? Join this fun virtual event to unleash their imagination as they learn how to create their own sprites in the beginner-friendly language Scratch. Better yet, no coding background is needed!
Kids will see how to choose, upload, or draw a sprite, plus create special effects, and animate their sprite in different ways. At the end of the event, students are able to upload and share their own sprites to their portfolio, to show off their cool animations for others. Join the free Scratch sprite event.
Plus discover all sorts of Halloween coding activities.
2. Ghost busters Halloween coding class
Join our expert teachers to learn how to create an exciting Halloween game using MIT's Scratch coding - one of the best programming languages for beginners. Class is in a small group with up to 5 students only. Kids will code the video camera on their computer with Scratch to recognize their hand movements and control their sprites.
3. Make fizzing ghosts
Fizzing ghosts is super simple, and provides the kids with lots of exploration and discovery opportunities. In this activity, you'll make ghosts by shaping moon dough into ghostly shapes, and add decorative elements like candy eyes. Then, using a simple acid-base chemical reaction (in this case, baking soda and vinegar) you'll turn your ghosts into a bubbling cauldron. See the recipe here. There's also a vomiting pumpkin version for those not faint of heart.
4. Create Halloween slime
Try your hand at super cool, super stretchy and absolutely homemade Halloween slime the kids will love. The fun thing about this project is that your children can customize the colors and creepy items to match their style! This slime is easy to make, and you can whip up any colors from orange to purple in minutes. See the slime recipe here. Or take it up a notch with this with this glow in the dark recipe.
5. String spider webs
Did you know spiders are amazing engineers? Not all spiders build webs, but the ones that do are engineering the tools to help capture prey, protect their homes, hold their egg cases, and move around. There are also different basic web structures: orb webs, funnel webs, and irregular webs. Find out how to make an orb web out of yarn. See the spider web tutorial here.
6. Candy construction challenge
How tall can you build a structure using Halloween candy? Using toothpicks and little candy pumpkins, can you make a pumpkin or a witches hat? In this fun challenge, with just a few supplies your child will figure out how to accommodate rounded objects, how to make structures stronger, and more. See the structure tutorial here.
7. Make ice Halloween hands
A salt and ice experiment is always a favorite science activity! With surgical gloves, water, food coloring, and fun Halloween items like plastic spiders, you can whip this experiment up in no time. After your gloves have frozen, you'll be shocked by what you made. See the Halloween hands tutorial here.
8. Dancing Frankenworms
This science activity uses baking soda and vinegar to make gummy worms dance, rising up from the bottom of a cup. You just need about 4 gummy worms, 2 clear cups, baking soda - be sure to make sure your baking soda is fresh - and vinegar. Here's how to bring your creepy worms to life in just a few steps.
9. Sink or float
This experiment lets kids make a hypothesis and test it. Which candies will sink, which will float— and why? It's simple to put together and the only materials required are pen and paper, a selection of candy bars, and a bowl of water. See how to make use of your Halloween candy here.
10. Bake mummy muffins
Packed with blueberries and cream cheese frosting, these mummy muffins are a great Halloween party treat, and they teach kids all about what combining ingredients can do. Whip them up in six steps. These are so delicious and are sure to be a hit. For an easier mummy project, try hotdog mummies.
Have fun with Halloween STEM activities
Enjoy hands-on learning this Halloween! We hope these STEM activities make for a fun-filled October.
Up next, explore the best online STEM classes for kids and our live online STEM camps for even more STEM fun led-live by experts. Build your computer science skills with free coding classes for kids.
