One of the activities my children ask to do over and over again is our jumping frogs which are a great way to learn about static electricity. Inspired by Inspiration Laboratories moving ghost we made jumping ghosts instead of frogs. To make it more of an investigation rather than demonstration we tried to make tissue paper and normal paper jump.
You’ll need
Black Balloon
Paper, cut into ghost shapes. We used tissue paper and normal paper.
Woolly jumper or hair
How to make jumping ghosts
Cut up your different types of paper into ghost shapes ( or anything else you want to make jump )
Blow up your balloon, and rub it on a jumper or your hair. Hold the balloon above one type of paper ghosts and watch them jump up.
Repeat with the other paper ghosts, do both types jump?
Can you design a simple table to show your results?
More science ideas
Can you try any other types of paper?
Can you time how long the ghosts stay stuck for?
If you rub the balloon on your hair for longer do the ghosts stick for longer?
Do smaller ghosts stick for longer than bigger ones? How many can you stick at once?
More static electricity investigations for kids
Find out how to make your hair stand up on end and why this happens.
Pick up tissue paper on a ruler like Premeditated Leftovers,
Learn how to become a tissue paper snake charmer with Kids Activities Blog.
[…] Double-up science lessons with Halloween and teach children about static electricity by using paper ghosts and balloons. Get the children to rub balloons on a woolly jumper and then hover them over the paper ghosts and […]