PUMPKIN BAKING SODA VINEGAR EXPERIMENT

Watch the video below to see how to create this fun Pumpkin Baking Soda Vinegar Experiment. Make sure to subscribe to our YouTube channel for more fun videos!

This Pumpkin Baking Soda Vinegar Experiment is a fun Halloween Science project for kids that’s simple to make using paper cups. It’s also a fun way to talk to kids about emotions.

Want to have some explosive Halloween fun? Then you won’t want to miss this simple and fun Pumpkin Baking Soda Vinegar Experiment.

It’s so easy to create with just paper cups, vinegar and baking soda, a classic science experiment that always captivates kids. 

We were inspired to create these fun paper cup pumpkin Jack O’ Lanterns from our viral Pumpkin Elephant Toothpaste Science Experiment. We recognize not everyone has access to hydrogen peroxide (what you need for elephant toothpaste) and that for younger kids it may be easier to create a smaller Halloween version. Paper cups are much easier than carving pumpkins!

This super fizzy and fun Halloween science project is also a great way to talk about emotions with your kids. We love the different faces a pumpkin can make to talk about feelings, like our paper plate pumpkin emotions. 

What causes the baking soda reaction in this pumpkin experiment?

Just like our Rainbow Volcano Baking Soda Vinegar Experiment, this experiment is an acid/base reaction. Vinegar is acidic and baking soda is a base. When you mix an acid with a base, two new chemicals form, carbonic acid and sodium acetate. The new acid then decomposes into water and carbon dioxide which causes bubbling.

It’s so much fun to see these Jack O’Lantern cups explode and bob around! 

Pumpkin Baking Soda Vinegar Experiment – Materials:

• Orange paper cups

• Craft knife

• Baking Soda

• Vinegar

• Orange gel food coloring

• Shallow plastic bin

INSTRUCTIONS:

• Draw in pencil your Jack O’ Lantern faces on the orange cups and then cut out with a craft knife (adults only).

• Cut out the bottom circle of your cups. 

• Add your cups large side down in a plastic bin.

• Inside each cup, add 1 TBSP baking soda and 3 drops of orange food coloring (you can add more or less depending on how vibrant you want the color to be)

• Pour vinegar inside each cup and watch the fizzy reaction happen!

 

A few notes:

• You can keep adding baking soda and some more fizzing will happen as it interacts with the vinegar already at the bottom of the bin. The pumpkin cups will bob as if they are floating, which is kind of fun.

• You can add more vinegar as long as there is more baking soda to react with. Just make sure you don’t pour more than your bin can handle!

• It was hard to get the reaction to flow out of the eyes too, because once the reaction came out of the mouth, the cups started bobbing. You can try to do this experiment with just one cup at a time, and also glue a bottom circle out of cardstock to the large open bottom and additionally secure the bottom to the bin somehow. Truthfully, we just had fun watching the reaction come out of the mouths and seeing the cups bob around 🙂