Dissolving Candy Pumpkins | Super Fun Halloween Science for Kids

Today I had to put on long sleeves and jeans.

The weather is turning chilly.

There are talks of pumpkin spice lattes and whispers of Halloween are in the air.

Knowing how much my kids love this time of year, I decided it was time to pull out the Halloween science experiments.

This simple Halloween science experiment seriously took 2 minutes to set up and was super fun. Both boys loved dissolving candy pumpkins and we were all a tad surprised by the results! 

Dissolving Candy Pumpkins | Super Fun Halloween Science for Kids

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Dissolving Candy Pumpkins: Super Fun Halloween Science for Kids

Dissolving Candy Pumpkins Experiment

What You Need for the Dissolving Pumpkins Halloween Science Experiment

Materials: 

Milk
Water
Oil
Vinegar
Candy Pumpkins or Candy Corn (We are trying this next)

Set Up:

Fill 4 cups up with the same amount of liquid in each glass.
Place the candy pumpkins in a bowl near the glasses for easy access.

How to Do the Dissolving Pumpkins Halloween Science Experiment

We start all of our experiments with Predictions. For this experiment, I had Bones (7) predict what he thought would happen when he put the candy pumpkins into the different liquids.

He was pretty sure they were going to float in all the liquids except the oil. He predicted that the candy would sink in the oil.

Halloween Science Experiment for Kids

Next, one by one, he placed the candy pumpkins in the liquids and observed them. He was so surprised that they all sank.

Using the observation form I made for him, he drew his observations and reported his findings to his brother.

See, all scientists record and report their observations!

 

Making Observations and Noticing Dissolution of the Candy Pumpkins

Candy Experiment

It didn’t take long before everyone started to notice that changes were taking place. Some of the candies were starting to change shape and break down.

It’s peeling. You know like when I get a sunburn. “

Bones and Legoman were in complete awe.

Dissolving Candy Halloween Experiment

In fact, the candy in the water glass was changing a lot. The conversations quickly changed to discuss possible reasons why this might be happened, comparing the candies to each other and predicting how long it could take to break down completely.

Dissolving Halloween Pumpkin Candy Experiment

I have to admit… I was shocked. I did not know this was going to happen to the candy and I was just as excited to keep watching the changes as the boys. The boys even started to notice the changes to the liquids as well as the pumpkin itself. Dissolving Halloween Candy Science FunSeriously, look at that candy!!! Did you know it could do that?

Dissolved Pumpkin Candy Experiment with kids

Finally, we took the candy pumpkins out of the liquids to observe the changes. Surprisingly, there were changes to all of the pumpkins but some of them were dramatically more than the others.

What Happens When You put Halloween Candy In Liquid

Pretty cool, huh?

There are so many variations to this Halloween science experiment. The boys are already talking about changing up the liquids, testing what happens when you shake the containers, changing the temperatures, and changing the candies.

I love how they are always questioning and looking for new ways to try things out.

Dissolving Candy Pumpkins | Super Fun Halloween Science for Kids

 

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Dissolving Candy Pumpkins: Super Fun Halloween Science for Kids

Dissolving Pumpkin Candy Experiments

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40 thoughts on “Dissolving Candy Pumpkins | Super Fun Halloween Science for Kids”

  1. I love this idea! Sometimes the simplest activities turn out to be the most interesting for everybody!

  2. Ashlee

    Its a cool experiment and all but my son is going to want to know why they changed or how. Why one changed differently compared to the others. Do you have an answer for that?

    1. Lemon Lime Adventures

      Great Question! The topic of dissolving sugar in different liquids is quite lengthy of an answer, and frankly not my area of expertise. I did use our friend google, and found this really helpful webpage with a similar experiment. Have you tried the experiment with your son? How did it go?

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  4. Lindsey Carver

    This is great! Do you have standards that this would go with for school by chance or a chart for writing observations?

    1. Lemon Lime Adventures

      Actually, I don’t have standards since we homeschool now. I am sorry. I usually make a chart for observations. If you send me an email, I’d be happy to chat about what you need

    2. Jessica

      We do something similar to this with gummy bears in water. I just take the kids through the scientific method, which is one of our standards. Maybe it’s one of yours too?

  5. Sandy

    I was wondering how long you left the candy pumpkins in the liquid before you pulled them out? I’d like to do this as a lesson but would like a time frame for the leaving them in.

    Thanks so much!

    Sandy

    1. Lemon Lime Adventures

      We did not leave them in long enough to dissolve completely, but you start to see changes immediately. The pictures in this post were after about 30 minutes. We’ll have to try this again next year to see how long it takes to dissolve completely!

  6. What a great idea! We’ve shared it on our Steve Spangler Science Facebook page and Pinterest page.

    1. Lemon Lime Adventures

      That is so wonderful! Thank you so much!

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  15. Lisa

    I don’t understand all these science experiments on pinterest and blogs that do a science or steam project, but then have no explanation as to why it happens the way it does. What does that teach kids? Sure, I made an explosion inside an apple, but why did it happen? Things like that. If there is no reason given, then what is it that the child is learning?

    1. Lemon Lime Adventures

      This experiment was meant to teach our children to come up with variables and test them. This was not a “demonstration” of dissolving or of chemical reactions with sugar and different substances. I think some of the activities you might find have various purposes. Hope this explanation helps.

    2. Crystal

      My son is 7 and we are looking forward to trying this experiement out! I think it depends on his level of curiosity as to how in depth we get into the ‘why did this happen’. I love that this is such a good basic starting point to open up discussion and creates an opportunity to go into those deeper topics. Overall, I think it just depends on the age of your child how you use this experiment.

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  32. Brianna

    I have two 2.5 year olds.. debating on if this is too advanced for them. Please let me know your thoughts!

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