Halloween is a great time to introduce some STEM experiments to your kindergarten students! Using only a few ingredients you can show your students this not-so-spooky “haunted milk” STEM activity where the colors seem to move around on their own, just like a ghost. Engage your students with fun that’s perfect for preschool, kindergarten, and first grade!

Check out these other related articles:

• Halloween STEM Activities
• Halloween Minute to Win It
• Counting Pumpkin Seeds
• Pumpkin Candy Tower
• Halloween Lava Lamps

This activity goes well with these resources:

Haunted Milk STEM Activity

Combining milk and food coloring looks so cool! It’s one of the most exciting STEM experiments for children to watch. With just a few tweaks or props, this is the perfect activity for Halloween. You can joke with your students that the milk is “haunted” for Halloween as it moves around like a ghost. Just make sure they know it’s a ‘friendly ghost”, so they don’t get scared. Looking for ALL the best Halloween STEM activities? Read them all here!

See the experiment in action here:

How-To:

With some everyday items combined with a couple of Halloween things, this low-prep Haunted Milk STEM activity will be the hit of the day!

Materials:

• Cup of Milk
• Food Coloring
• Toothpicks
• Dish Soap
• Halloween Container-ghost, pumpkin, etc

Directions:

1. Pour enough milk to cover the bottom of your plate/container
2. Carefully add drops of food coloring to the milk (Pro Teacher Tip: This is a great chance to talk about primary and secondary colors, and see who knows what two colors combined would make orange, purple, etc)
3. Dip the toothpick into the dish soap so that it covers the full end (Q-Tips or a folded paper towel works well too)
4. Touch the food coloring in different areas and watch it move across the plate- or “float like a ghost”, and see how the colors swirl together
5. Watch the looks of awe and amazement on all your students’ faces!

Share Your Haunted Milk Experience

Let us know how much your students love this experiment! Share a picture by tagging #simplykinder on Instagram or post on the Simply Kinder Teacher Group on Facebook! Happy teaching and Happy Halloween!

This post was written by Johanna, an experienced early elementary teacher who loves learning about new teaching ideas for preschool, kindergarten, and first grade!