Disclaimer: This post may contain affiliate links, which means I’ll receive a commission if you purchase through these links (at no extra cost to you). For more information, please read full disclosure here. Thank you for your support!
Anyone else have leftover pumpkins? This is the PERFECT activity to use them up and have some fun at the same time 🙂
I did a similar activity about a month ago in our homeschool co-op preschool class, but with apples instead. The kids seemed to really enjoy it, so I rewrote the worksheet (and also added some versions for older students) so that my kids could do this at home with our last pumpkin. We had a blast! My fourth grader told me that this was her favorite experiment so far this year 🙂
If you are looking for a fun Thanksgiving activity, this is definitely a great one!
And these worksheets really help take it to another level!
In fact, I made five different versions of the worksheet to go along with this experiment. Of course, it can still be great to just do an experiment in and of itself, but I’ve found that my kids think through the process and remember everything more if we take time to write down our thoughts via a worksheet. These worksheets are great for making sure your students stop to observe, question, discuss, and evaluate the entire experiment at a deeper level.
Pumpkin Volcano Science Experiment
This science experiment is easy, low-prep, & only requires a few materials. I will warn you though that it can get messy! It got a little crazy at one point and we had a foamy reaction all over our kitchen table! You’ll want to place the pumpkin in a shallow container or just do this outside, if the weather allows it.
Supplies Needed:
- Worksheet PDF
- Crayons, markers, and/or pencils
- Small pumpkin
- Shallow container, to set the pumpkin in
- Knife
- Spoon
- White vinegar
- Baking soda
- Measuring Cups
- Dish soap (optional)
- Food coloring (optional)
After you download the PDF file, you will want to choose your worksheet. There are 5 different versions of this worksheet to choose from, depending on the level of your student(s).
Once you decide on the worksheet, go ahead and print them out for your student(s). At this point, you’ll want to have gathered your supplies and started prepping your pumpkin. You can do this beforehand or with your students. Using your knife, cut off the top of the pumpkin and then proceed to scoop out the insides with a large spoon. Don’t worry about making it perfect – it’s okay if there are still some seeds and pulp left inside.
One thing to note; if your pumpkin is on the bigger side, you’ll want to place a jar or cup inside the pumpkin. That way you don’t have to use a huge amount of vinegar and baking soda. Our pumpkin was a little big, so I went ahead and placed a glass jar inside.
Now it’s time to start filling out the worksheet! Have your students fill out the top portion, which includes the observation, questioning, and forming a hypothesis section.
Once that is filled out, it’s time to begin the experiment! Add baking soda into the pumpkin. The amount will vary based on the size of your pumpkin, but for our pumpkin above, we used between 1/2 – 3/4 cups.
It’s now time to add the vinegar! Again, the amount will vary based on your pumpkin, but just eyeball it and try to shoot for 50/50 ratio with the baking soda.
Repeat this however many times your students want! We had a lot of fun experimenting with different colors and adding dish soap. We tried squirting the dish soap & food coloring on top of the baking soda and then adding the vinegar. And then we tried mixing the dish soap and food coloring into the vinegar before adding to the baking soda (this happened to be our favorite result).
Have a blast! Don’t worry about trying to remember any of this – I did make sure to include a supply list and step-by-step guide inside the PDF!
I hope you and your students enjoy this activity as much as we did!
