Turn an ice-melting science activity into a creepy Halloween melting ice experiment! Perfect for a Frankenstein theme, we take a classic science idea and give it a Halloween twist for simple science every day!
Frozen Halloween Science
Add this simple Halloween science activity to your season’s theme lesson plans. If you want to learn about the melting point of water, let’s dig in! While you’re at it, make sure to check out these other spooky Halloween science experiments.
Supplies:
- Disposable Gloves
- Water
- Rubber Bands
- Food Coloring
- Glitter
- Halloween Items (spiders, eyeballs, and other plastic treasures)
How to Make Frozen Hands
Instructions:
STEP 1: Choose a handful of Halloween decorations you want to use.
STEP 2: Add the Halloween decorations and a few drops of food coloring to a disposable glove.
STEP 3: Fill up your glove with water, leaving enough space to tie off the end with a rubber band.
STEP 4: Make up several hands and lay them flat on a tray. Put the tray of hands in the freezer and leave overnight.
STEP 5: Once frozen, remove the hands and place them in a large container. This will help control the mess! Then peel off the rubber glove.
You now have some spooky Halloween hands ready to experiment with!
STEP 6: Set out a bowl of warm water and a choice of “tools” for melting the ice. We always love the classic meat baster from the dollar store. Eyedroppers and squeeze bottles work well too!
TIP: Once the ice has melted you may want to add a bit of warm water to keep everyone’s hands from freezing. This will definitely create a more enjoyable experience!
The Science of Melting Ice
At what temperature does ice melt? Water not only freezes at 0 degrees Celsius or 32 degrees Fahrenheit, but it also melts at the same temperature! This is why we call this temperature the FREEZING and MELTING point of water!
Freezing and melting are examples of phase changes. They are physical changes of water, not chemical changes.
Freezing occurs at this temperature as heat is removed from the water to form ice crystals. In order to melt ice, you have to use heat energy. The heat energy first goes to break down the ice before it raises the temperature of the water.
Ice at the freezing point of water actually has less energy or heat in it than water at the same temperature!
Check out more ways to experiment with water, as well as tons of ice play activities!
What Makes Ice Melt Faster?
Depending on the age and development of your kiddos, create your own melting ice experiment to investigate what makes ice melt faster. Read more… Scientific Method For Kids and Variables in Science.
Suggestions:
- What happens when you add water to the ice at different temperatures? Eg tap water, cold water from the refrigerator and boiled water.
- What happens to the ice when you add solids like sugar or salt? See our What makes ice melt faster experiment for ideas.
More Spooky Halloween Experiments
Check out our complete list of spooky Halloween science experiments for kids!
Bonus Halloween Art Activities
Go ahead and add some of these favorite Halloween art activities to your countdown!
Printable Halloween STEM Activities Pack
150+ Pages of Halloween-Themed Materials!
This Halloween project pack is suitable for home, school, and group use for kids in grades Kindergarten through elementary but is scaleable for many ages and abilities.
What’s Included:
- 25+ Halloween theme science and STEM activities with printable sheets, instructions, and helpful information all using easy-to-source materials perfect for limited-time needs. Includes a Halloween engineering pack with fun, problem-based challenges for kids to solve!
- The skeleton activity pack includes building a skeleton challenge and a coding challenge! Try a skeleton bone bridge-building STEM challenge!
- Halloween theme brick printable activities for hands-on learning with math that is perfect for early finishers or home fun and reinforces basic math concepts.
- Bonus fun pack includes games and activities to round out your Halloween theme, such as I Spy, bingo, matching, Would You Rather cards, scavenger hunt, word search, A-Z Halloween hunt, and a coloring page.
- The Halloween STEAM Pack includes artist-inspired projects by Warhol, Lichtenstein, and more!
