You’ve got to try this simple pumpkin volcano activity this fall! Children will get excited to see the halloween science experiments ooze with colorful liquid out of the cute pumpkin! We love using pumpkin activities to teach pumpkin science; it is a great way to get kids excited about science and learning! I highly recommend these pumpkin science experiments with preschool, pre-k, kindergarten, first grade, 2nd grade, and 3rd graders too.
Halloween Science Experiments
Help your children learn about chemical reactions with this quick and EASY halloween science experiment where they will make pumpkin volcanoes! You can use a real pumpkin or artificial pumpkin for this pumpkin experiment. Kids will use a simple chemistry experiment to cause a silly oozing of colored lava to erupt out of the cheery orange pumpkin. This halloween activity is perfect for preschoolers, kindergartners, grade 1, grade 2, and grade 3 students too. Whether you are a parent, teacher, or homeschooler – you will want to add this pumpkin activity to your pumpkin theme or October activities for kids! Whether you’ave errupted a thousand volcano science projects or this is your first, you’ll love this seasonal twist on a classic baking soda and vinegar expeirment.
Pumpkin Science Experiments
All you need for theis fun halloween activity are a few simple materials you may already have on hand:
- pumpkin (s) – real or artificial, any size!
- Carving knife to cut out top
- Baking soda
- Vinegar
- Optional: Dish soap
- Food coloring
- Plate or tray to catch the “lava”
Personally, I prefer to skip the taking out all the innerds and use an artificial pumpkin, but this works with real pumpkins too. Carefully use your knife to cut off the top of your pumpkin so you can get to the inner opening. You can use any size pumpkin, just remember the bigger the pumpkin the more material you will need to get the huge WOW effect.
Pumpkin Science
Place the pumpkin or pumpkins on a tray or plate to catch the lava mess. Now fill the inside of the pumpkin about halfway with baking soda. Add a few drops of dish soap to the baking soda and food coloring if you’d like.
Pumpkin Volcano
Then we added the catalyst to our seasonal chemistry project – vinegar.
Halloween Experiments
The pubbles will begin to emerge out of the top of the pumpkin.
Pumpkin Experiments
My kids were SO excited to see the green bubbly lava flow over the pumpkin and begin pooling on the dish.
Halloween Activities
You can keep adding vinegar until the chemical reaction of the acid and base (baking soda and vinegar) is done.
Then you can always start it all over with a new color! My kids wanted to do this again and again. And it’s so simple because it uses common household items so I was happy to keep their intrest in science keep going!
Baking Soda and Vinegar Experiment
These common kitchen ingredients combine in this vinegar and baking soda experiment to form a chemical reaction where carbon dioxide is produced. The CO2 gas pushes the substance out as it takes up more room. The dish soap creates bubbles and allows it to ooze and flow more. I love making science FUN!
Pumpkin Crafts
- Hole Punching Pumpkin Craft for Preschoolers
- 100 Pumpkin Crafts for First Grade
- Printable Hats make cute Fall Crafts for preschoolers – so many choices
- Beautiful Cardboard Tube Stamped Fall Tree Craft
- Cute Corn Wreath Craft for Kids
- Fun-to-Make Yarn Pumpkins Craft for Kids
- Paint Swatch Pumpkin Craft for Preschoolers
- Scented Pumpkin Puffy Paint Craft for Fall
- Halloween Jack-o-Lantern Craft for kids
- Silly Spider Name Craft Activity for Preschoolers with FREE Printable
- 31 October Crafts for Kids
- Turkey Pumpkin Seed Craft
- Gummy Worm Slime
- Octoboer Activities for Kids
Pumpkin Activities
Looking for more fun pumpkin activity and craft ideas to try this autumn? Check out these fun ideas:
- Create a Jack-o-Lantern with this amazing Scented Rice Pumpkin Activity
- 50 fun Pumpkin Activities
- Edible Peep Pumpkin Playdough
- Pumpkin Goop with real pumpkin guts!
- Rubberband Pumpkin Craft for kids
- EASY, Edible Pumpkin Cloud Dough
- Edible candy corn playdough recipe you MUST try!
- Amazing Spider SLime
Pumpkin Activity for Kids
- Homemade Halloween Silly Putty Activities
- How to Make Pumpkin Slime
- Taste Safe Pumpkin Clay for Kids
- Spookley the Square Pumpkin Shape Activity with homemade Pumpkin Playdough
Plus don’t miss our favorite pumpkin books for preschoolers these fun FREE Fall Do a Dot Printables, and Preschool Pumpkin Theme
Pumpkin Science
- Super cute parts of a pumpkin craft to help kids learn the parts of a pumpkin
- Grab this free Pumpkin Life Cycle Worksheets pack to learn about the life cycle of pumpkins
- Printable, Cut-and-Paste Pumpkin Life Cycle Worksheet
- Simple Skittles Pumpkin Science Experiment
- EASY Pumpkin Volcano Science Experiments
- Dissapearing Flying Ghost Halloween Science Experiment
- Flying Film Canister Ghost Rockets
- Frankenstein’s Hand Halloween Science Experiment
- Quickly Growing Pumpkin Science Experiment
- This Why Do Leaves Change Color experiment is one of our favorite that is so simple and yet so clever!
- Jack-o-Lantern Pumpkin Volcano Halloween Science Experiments
Halloween Science Experiments
- Errupting Halloween Pumpkin Volcano Science Experiments
- Not-so-Spooky Halloween Ghost Science Experiment
- Exploding Pumpkin Science Experiment for October
- Dissolving Candy Halloween Science Experiments
- Frankenworms Halloween Science Experiment
- Melting Pumpkins Science Experiment for October
- EASY Static Electricity Ghost Experiment
- Halloween Lava Lamp Science Experiment
- Use your leftover Halloween candy to try some of these candy science experiments, or this water displacement with candy, or this fun candy STEM idea.
October Science Printables
- Grab this free Pumpkin Life Cycle Worksheets pack to learn about the life cycle of pumpkins
- Bat Life Cycle Worksheets
- Free Spider Life Cycle Worksheets
- Worm Worksheets – practice math, alphabet, literacy, and more!
- Growing Worms Observation Book
- All About Worms Worksheets
Pumpkin Math
- Pumpkin Counting activity that uses free printable and pumpkin candy corn to count and trace
- Count to 20 Pumpkin Playdough Mats
- Practice skip counting with this hands-on pumpkin math activity
- Super cute, free printable pumpkin addition game
- Fall Addition Sticker Worksheets are a fun, hands-on math worksheet
- Pumpkin Shape Matching Game to practice shape recognition with kids
- Make practicing math fun with this super cute, Pumpkin Patch Math Game
- These fun, reusable pumpkin math worksheets are super cute and make practicing addition fun for kindergartners
- Work on color words with this free pumpkin worksheets for preschoolers
- Pumpkin Matching Game
- Even older students will have fun getting in on the pumpkin theme with these multiplication pumpkin math puzzles
- These order of operation puzzles are another fun pumpkin math activity for older students.
- Work on number bonds to 10 with these pumpkin math worksheets for kindergarten and grade 1
- Super cute pumpkin counting activity piling the “whip cream” on the pie slice
- Work on 0ne-to-one correspondence with this pumpkin math for Kindergarten
- Grab these Pumpkin Addition Worksheets for a no prep math activity for young learners
- Practicing Counting with Pumpkin Seed Counting Activity
- Practice making shapes with these pumpkin shapes printable playdough mats
- Pumpkin Pie Number Sense pumpkin activity for preschoolers
- Work on counting, adding on, and using a number line with this pumpkin counting activity
- Hands on Pumpkin Shape Matching Games for Preshoolers
- Trace numbers and work on 1:1 correspondence with this pumpkin math activity for pre-k
- Adorable Pumpkin preschool pie craft for practicing counting!
- Pumpkin Shapes Printable game for kids
Pumpkin Printables
- Trace and Erase to practice again with this handy Pumpkin Printable Letter Tracing strips
- Practice sight words with this fun Pumpkin Game
- This find the letter pumpkin worksheets for preschool
- Kids will love this phonics Pumpkin Activity for Kindergarten where they will work on beginning sounds to put together these alphabet puzzles.
- Pumpkin Letters for tracing alphabet with a dry erase marker or playdough
- Practice reading with these cute, clever and FREE Word Family Sliders Pumpkin Activity for Kindergarten
- Improve reading with this fun Word Family Pumpkin Activity for Kindergarten
- These super cute Pumpkin Letters and sounds puzzles allow children to practice letter tracing as well as working on beginning sounds
- Sneak in some fun practice with these homophone puzzle pumpkin activities
- You’ll love these no-prep Pumpkin Worksheets where students will color by vowels
- These Pumpkin worksheets and printable activities work on rhyming skills to improve reading and spelling
- Find the Letter Alphabet Pumpkin Worksheets
- Printable October Writing Prompts
Candy Corn Activities
Looking for more candy corn activities for kids? You will love all these creative ideas!
- Free Candy Corn Words
- Candy Corn Edible Playdough
- Addition and Subtraction Candy Corn Math
- Phonics Puzzles with a fun Candy Corn Theme for Fall
- 28 Candy Corn Activities for Kids
- EPIC Candy Corn Popsicle Stick Catapults
- Candy Corn Multiplication and Division Puzzles
- Counting Candy Corn Puzzles
- Candy Corn Turkey Count and Trace
- Free Printable Candy Corn Alphabet Mats
Pumpkin Recipes
Plus don’t miss our yummy pumpkin recipes for fall:
- Best Pumpkin Pie Recipe
- Easy Pumpkin Waffles
- Cute Pumpkin Krispy Treats
- Deliciuos Pumpkin Chili
- Crockpot Pumpkin Pie Oatmeal
- Lava Cake Pumpkin Dessert
- 40 Yummy Pumpkin Recipes
- Everyone’s Favorite Chocolate Chip Pumpkin Bread
Great idea! Thanks! I will try to do this experiment with my kids this year.
Hello there!
I’m thinking about trying this activity out with some students of mine but I have no idea about quantity. Could you help me telling how much of vinegar and baking powder will I need to get
It all depends on the size of your pumpkin….. I like to fil it 1/2 way with baking soda for a really great effect