Every year, the kids bring home bulging bags of candy from school parties and trick or treating, and much of it goes to waste. This month, Family Fun magazine has an article devoted to alternate things to do with Halloween candy. This article is entitled ‘My Great Idea’ and details one families yearly tradition of performing science experiments with Halloween candy.
Did you know that when you soak M&M’s the M on the candy will float off in one piece? Or that the colors will separate when the candy is dampened and placed on a coffee filter? You can then see exactly which colors the candy is made of.
The family keeps a journal of the experiments and adds to it every year. They have also detailed some of the experiments on their website.
This is a great way to spare your children from cavities and tummy aches and spend some quality time together. If you’re a teacher, you could incorporate this into your fall lesson plans. The experiments could also be documented and used for an upcoming science fair project.
If you are not a subscriber to Family Fun magazine, Amazon is running a good deal right now: If you buy a 1 year subscription for $9.95, you will receive a $5 Amazon gift card to be used on a future purchase.
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{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }
I like the website–everybody needs tips for saving money. Keep it up!
Thanks for helping to spread the word about candy experiments. I hear about people spending tons of money on candy, buying Halloween candy back from their kids, throwing candy away, hiding it…it just gets ridiculous. Let's all cut back on what we give out, and do candy experiments on what we collect.
The Family Fun instructions for chromatography weren't quite complete–you have to stand the paper up in an inch of water for it to really work. Here's the way I do it:
http://www.candyexperiments.com/chromatography
Loralee,
Thank you for taking the time to comment. I love the idea of candy experiments and fully intend to spend the weekend after Halloween using some of your ideas and creating our own.
We keep a huge bowl on top of the refrigerator for seasonal candy. We eat very little of it, and I have to dump it out about every 6 months. My daughter is the only one that eats much of it and would live off of it if we would let her!
Thanks again!
The rule at my house is…eat all the candy you want the night of Halloween and the next day. After that the candy "goes to poor kids who didn't get any candy on Halloween" aka – my college students.
I figure if my child eats so much candy that he pukes then maybe he won't eat so much candy anymore.
I am loving the experiment idea, too!