Oozing pumpkins are really fun and simple to create. You will start with a basic carved pumpkin and then create two simple mixtures.

Supplies:

• 1 medium sized pumpkin
• 4 squirts dish soap
• Food coloring (I used about 1/3 bottle of neon green)
• 4 ounces hair developer, 40 volume (this can be found at beauty supply stores — be sure to get the liquid form, not the cream form)
• 4 tablespoons instant yeast
• 1 cup warm water
• Small plastic bowl or cup that fits well inside of the pumpkin
• Tools or a knife to carve the pumpkin

Directions:

1. Carve pumpkin

The first thing you need to do is to carve your pumpkin and clean out the inside. You can use a kitchen knife to carve the pumpkin if you like, or a pumpkin carving kit.

After the pumpkin is carved, you will create two different solutions, in two different cups.

Solution #1:

• Hair developer
• Dish soap
• Food coloring

Solution #2:

• Warm water
• Yeast

2. Pour in the solutions

Place solution #1 inside of your pumpkin, leaving it in the cup. I used a small plastic cup that I could throw away after using. But any type of cup or bowl would work.

Quickly pour solution #1 and #2 into the pumpkin. Immediately place the lid back on the pumpkin and watch how quickly your pumpkin goes from a traditional, boring carved pumpkin to an ooey gooey oozing pumpkin.

Depending on the size of your pumpkin, you may need to adjust your solution quantities. I used a medium sized pumpkin and the above proportions created the perfect amount of ooze. So if you have a smaller pumpkin you can make less solution. But if you have a larger pumpkin, I would make more of both solutions to ensure that you have lots of foam oozing out of your pumpkin.

3. Watch the fun unfold

This experiment is really quite simple and fast. The most time consuming part is carving your pumpkin. But after it is carved, the rest of the experiment is quick and fun.

Once this experiment is over, you can clean out your pumpkin and use it as a Halloween decoration.

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