Ghost Balloon Experiment – Halloween Party Activity for Preschoolers

This Ghost Balloon Experiment was a big hit at Colton’s preschool Halloween party! I struggled to find a good Halloween party activity for preschoolers, as a lot of the ideas I found on Pinterest were geared towards older kids. So, I wanted to share the instructions for this ghost balloon experiment to save for your next preschool Halloween party!

It’s always a good idea to do a trial of your experiment at home, just in case you need to tweak anything. We tried this ghost balloon experiment at home few days before Colton’s preschool Halloween party and both our kids loved it. Colton is 3 and was old enough to help with most of the experiment. Blair is 1, so she mostly watched, but still enjoyed it.

Ghost Balloon Experiment Supplies

The supplies you’ll need for this Ghost Balloon Experiment are:

• Empty Bottle [we used 16oz water bottles]
• Balloon
• Sharpie [we found this size worked well for drawing on the ghost face]
• Vinegar
• Baking Soda
• Funnel [not required, but useful!]

That’s it!

Ghost Balloon Experiment Instructions

Begin by drawing the ghost face on your balloon. We found it worked best to blow the balloon up with air first, draw on the face, then let it deflate.

Then, fill your bottle about half full of vinegar. Fill your balloon with about 2-3 teaspoons of baking soda. The funnel comes in  handy for both of these tasks.

Next, place your balloon over the top of the water bottle as shown in the photo above. Don’t let the baking soda pour down into the bottle just yet!

Prop up the balloon with your hands to allow the baking soda to pour down into the vinegar. The kids will think the bubbling inside the bottle is awesome.

Within a couple seconds, your balloon will start to inflate and the ghost will be revealed!

When we did this ghost balloon experiment as a Halloween party activity for preschoolers, several of the kids wanted to take the balloons off and tie them up to keep as a little memento of the experiment. I thought that was really sweet!

Ghost Balloon Experiment Modifications

Here are a few ideas to modify the ghost balloon experiment for more fun:

• Try using different size bottles and experiment with the amount of vinegar and baking soda needed for each one.
• Add food coloring to the vinegar to create different color bottles.
• Use different colors of balloons.
• Draw different faces on the balloons, like monsters or witches.

This ghost balloon experiment doesn’t have to just be a Halloween party activity for preschoolers, either! Even our little Blair had a lot of fun with this at 15 months old. I think older kids would enjoy the activity too, especially with some of the modifications suggested above.

Pin this Ghost Balloon Experiment – Halloween Party Activity for Preschoolers for later!

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