Halloween science experiments!

Are you looking for some spooky science to do at home? If you want to know how to do some Halloween experiments and make DIY Halloween decorations, you’ve come to the right place.

Discover how to create edible fake blood, craft a spooky window scene, turn Halloween candy into dancing Franken-worms, mix up a batch of gooey oobleck slime and carve a puking pumpkin right here. PLUS find out which issues of Whizz Pop Bang contain Halloween activities!


Whizz Pop Bang is our award-winning science magazine that brings science to life for children aged six to twelve (and their parents too)!

Discover how easy it is to enjoy science at home with Whizz Pop Bang magazine. Spark your child’s imagination with lab-loads of hands-on experiments, the latest science news, tantalising puzzles and amazing facts.

Subscribe today to start your child’s adventures in discovery and to inspire the scientists of the future!


1. Edible fake blood

You will need:
• 4 dessert spoons of golden syrup
• 10-20 drops of red food colouring
• 1-2 drops of blue food colouring
• 1-2 pinches of cocoa powder
• Flour

What you do:
Mix the red food colouring into the syrup a drop at a time until it looks blood coloured. Adding a drop of blue food colour ing will make it even more realistic, but be careful you don’t make it purple! Mix in a pinch of cocoa powder. Add a little flour if it needs thickening, or a drop or two of water if it needs thinning out. Drip it around your mouth like a vampire and go and scare your friends!


Pick up some more speedy science with the bargain Bumper Book Bundle!

The Bumper Book Bundle contains three of our most popular books to keep budding young scientists laughing, learning and having fun!

This bundle contains:
⭐️ The Whizz Pop Bang Science Riddle Book – packed with 150+ rib-tickling teasers!
⭐️ The Whizz Pop Bang Snip-Out Science Book – containing 30 projects to cut fold and stick!
⭐️ The Whizz Pop Bang Science Puzzle Book – packed with 150+ brain-stretching puzzles!

All for just £19.99, including FREE p&p in the UK – that’s a saving of £6.98!


2. Spooky window scene

You will need:
A pencil
Black card or paper
Scissors
Translucent sweet wrappers or coloured tissue paper
Sticky tack
Battery operated tea lights

What you do:

  1. Draw your design on black card or paper.
  2. Cut it out.
  3. Add the windows and cut them out.
  4. Use see-through sweet wrappers or tissue paper as window panes.
  5. Add finishing touches (we cut out bats and ghosts!)
  6. Use sticky tack to stick to a window. Add battery operated lights to make your scene glow!


Fill half term with science with Boredom-Busting Science Bundle!

Stock up on boredom-busting science fun with this bundle of three activity-packed magazines, together with the awesome Whizz Pop Bang Science Puzzle Book.

The bundle contains:
⭐️ The awesome Whizz Pop Bang Science Puzzle Book, packed with over 150 brain-bending puzzles!
⭐️ Whizz Pop Bang magazine, Issue 10: Extreme Environments
⭐️ Whizz Pop Bang magazine, Issue 27: Spectacular Skeletons
⭐️ Whizz Pop Bang magazine, Issue 34: Shocking Science

All for just £19.99, including FREE p&p in the UK (saving you £6.97)!


3. Dancing Franken-worms

Turn the contents of those overflowing trick or treat buckets into a fun learning opportunity. Find out how to use bicarbonate of soda and vinegar to make gummy worms dance over at Playdoh to Plato’s blog!


4. Ooey gooey oobleck

Find out how to make the freaky non-Newtonian fluid, oobleck! It’s a great Halloween science activity (and it’s easy to clean up!)

You will need:
Mixing bowl
Spoon
Cornflour or custard powder
Water
Food colouring (optional)

What you do:
1. Place four heaped tablespoons of cornflour or custard powder into a bowl.
2. Add a splash of water and stir the mixture. Keep adding water a little at a time, until the mixture is about the same consistency as honey.
3. If you add too much water, add some more cornflour or custard powder.
4. Add a little food colouring if you like and mix it in.

Watch the video to find out more about the strange properties of this special substance.

Watch Whizz Pop Bang kid Poppy make some spooky oobleck!

5. Puking pumpkin experiment

You’ve carved a pumpkin – now use science to make it even more fun with this brilliant idea from Little Bins for Little Hands! Click here for step-by-step instructions


Looking for more spooky science? These issues of Whizz Pop Bang have some simple Halloween science ideas inside!

🎃 Craft a scary skull mask, experiment with brilliant bendy bones and build your own model skeleton in Whizz Pop Bang 27: Spectacular Skeletons
🎃 Make an upcycled bat garland in Whizz Pop Bang 63: Sweet Dreams
🎃 Snip and stick a spooky street scene and craft light up ghost decorations in Whizz Pop Bang 87: Starry Skies

Thanks to Henry, aged 7, for sending in pictures of his brilliant bats – find the instructions in issue 63: Sweet Dreams!

Looking for more home science fun? From science experiments, science activities, collectible science club badges to science colouring and more, you’ll find loads of brilliant ideas right here!



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Teaching living things and habitats in year 6

Are you looking for some help and ideas for teaching about microorganisms in year 6? Here is how to use our downloadable teaching resources in your unit of work on living things and habitats.

Yeast is a microorganism and a type of fungus. It is used to make bread soft, squishy and full of bubbles! The yeast feeds on sugar in the dough, releasing bubbles of carbon dioxide gas as a waste product. The dough gets filled with bubbles, making it rise. In our lesson pack, pupils will investigate what yeast requires to grow. In this controlled experiment, pupils will plan their own investigations, making sure they only change one variable at a time.

More science reading links…

From our Fantastic fungi issue, we have three reading resources for year 6 that link to the topic and will spark your pupils’ curiosity. Carl Linnaeus is an important historical scientist for year 6 to learn about. He was a botanist and doctor whose ideas on naming and sorting organisms are still used today!

Whizz Pop Bang magazine and teaching resources are brilliant ways to enhance your school’s science teaching:

  • We provide downloadable science lesson plans, PowerPoint presentations, hands-on investigations and science reading resources written by primary school teachers.
  • Whizz Pop Bang teaching resources link to the National Curriculum, ensuring correct coverage.
  • All of our resources are year group specific, ensuring progression between the years.
  • We make cross-curricular links to other subjects, such as English, Maths, History, Geography, Art, Design and Technology and PSHE.

Prices from as little as £197.99 per year for a copy of Whizz Pop Bang magazine through the post each month and whole-school access to our ever-growing library of downloadable teaching resources, with unlimited teacher logins.

We also have an individual membership option so teachers and home educators can access all of our amazing downloadable resources for just £20 for the whole year


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COMPETITION CLOSED – WIN a National Geographic Glow-in-the-Dark Mega Science Kit!

We’ve got three Glow-In-The-Dark sets from National Geographic to give away! Scroll down to find out how to enter.

Explore glow-in-the-dark science with PUTTY, SLIME, CRYSTALS AND MORE!

Inquisitive minds will love discovering the world of glow-in-the-dark by making glowing slime and growing their own crystals!

The National Geographic Glow-in-the-Dark Mega Science Kit is an astounding collection of experiments and activities that all glow when the lights are out!

There is so much included in this Mega Kit: one glowing crystal seed, two DIY slime powders in glowing green and glowing purple, two slime containers, one glowing putty in a storage tin, one wernerite rock, one UV light, and a full-colour learning guide that takes you through each experiment step by step. Don’t worry, if you’re not a lucky winner, this kit is also available to buy from Amazon, perfect for Christmas presents!

To win one of THREE kits, answer this question in the comments:

How do most fungi reproduce?

A) Seeds

B) Pollen

C) Spores

This competition closes at midnight on 31st October 2023 and is open for UK residents only. For full terms and conditions visit whizzpopbang.com/terms-and-conditions

Thanks to Bandai, National Geographic and Playtime PR for this brilliant prize!


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COMPETITION CLOSED – WIN Humungous Fungus by Lynne Boddy

Professor Lynne Boddy is a woodland fungi expert at Cardiff University and she told us all about her amazing career in Whizz Pop Bang 99: Fantastic Fungi.

Lynne has written a beautiful book, Humungous Fungus, an exploration of all things fungi which will amaze young readers, and open their eyes to the fungi thriving all around them and we’ve got four copies to give away!

Simply answer this question in the comments for your chance to win a book.

Which one is a part of a mushroom?
a) Gill
b) Hill
c) Spill

Good luck!

This competition closes at midnight on 31st October 2023 and is open for UK residents only. For full terms and conditions visit whizzpopbang.com/terms

Humongous Fungus, written by Lynne Boddy and illustrated by Wenjia Tang. DK, £12.99. Out Now. 


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How to store a magazine collection

Do you or your children have magazine subscriptions that you would like to store neatly? The Whizz Pop Bang magazine binder has been carefully developed to make looking after your precious magazine collection simple!

Our brief was straightforward: to find a way for our readers to make sure that their magazines would stay as good as new for a long time. Lots of binders use metal rings, which means punching holes in treasured editions, and that just didn’t feel right. Instead, our colourful binders use a traditional, non-damaging cord system.

This awesome magazine binder is perfect for storing a whole year’s worth of Whizz Pop Bang magazines. Inside the binder, you’ll find 12 Cordex strings (lengths of super-strong cord). Open your magazine to the middle pages, then slide it under one of the 12 strings. In a couple of minutes, you can slot 12 magazines into the binder in the order of your choice. Once secured, you can flick through your collection with ease – as if it was one giant book!

Storing your Whizz Pop Bang subscription in one of our robust binders is the ideal way to preserve it for many years, allowing readers to refer back to older issues when they suddenly become relevant again as new school topics are introduced and new personal interests are discovered.


Whizz Pop Bang is the award-winning science magazine that brings science to life for girls and boys aged six to twelve (and their parents too)!

Discover how easy it is to enjoy science at home with Whizz Pop Bang magazine. Spark your child’s imagination with lab-loads of hands-on experiments, the latest science news, tantalising puzzles and amazing facts.

Subscribe today to start your child’s adventures in discovery and to inspire the scientists of the future!


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What you need to know about the new reading framework

The DFE published a new reading framework in July this year, which is a hefty read! The good news is that the main message remains the same – reading underpins everything. Children who develop a love of reading will succeed in their education and life; it is an important life skill. We have put together a quick outline of what you need to know from the framework to ensure your pupils gain enough ‘reading miles’.

FS2 and KS1

In F2 and KS1, phonic teaching is crucial and you should be doing daily direct phonics teaching following Systematic Synthetic Phonics (SSP). For those teachers among us who are old enough to remember, letters and sounds is an example of SSP. Check your phonics programme!

It is important for pupils to be given books that match their reading level so they should have access to books they are able to decode. It is also important that they are immersed in reading as often as possible – listening to stories, being read to, etc.

Book Corners

Book corners are always a key area of the classroom and should be like a mini library. They can often become muddled and overcrowded, making it very difficult for pupils to find a suitable text to read. The message from the framework is that these should be less cluttered; books should be chosen to match pupils’ level with a range of text types and there should be lots of books you have read as a class. At the beginning of the year, particularly in KS1, it would be good to include copies of the class favourites from the previous year.

Class reading

The framework states clearly that reading time should not be a filler activity, for example while you are taking the register, as this devalues it. Pupils should have quiet reading time and the best place for them to sit and read is at their desks.

When teaching reading, pupils should be given short texts or extracts from a story. If you are using extracts from a story, try and give them several extracts. Ideally, it could be from the class reader or they should have access to read the whole text.

Reading to your class

Story time in any class should be a special time and should be scheduled into your timetable. Kids love listening to adults read and they gain so much from it. Often, they will hear a story or text they could not access independently. It’s important to think carefully about which class readers you choose. These should vary in text types and should not always be a story. Poems, non-fiction books and good quality magazines are just as important to share as a whole book. Pupils need to be exposed to a wide range of vocabulary as this will help them to develop as a reader.

Reading partners

Setting up reading partners within your class or with another year group can be successful if organised well. It does require time and training to make it work but it can be invaluable and add to pupils’ ‘reading miles’.

Organising reading as a school

It is important that there is a wide range of reading resources in the school and these have been thought through carefully. Each year group could be given a box of class readers which they read each year. This works well as it’s easy for staff to find out what they have read before.

As a school, there should be dedicated quality time given to reading. The framework does give some useful tables with questions which help you to audit your provision.

I think this quote taken from the framework is key:

“Pupils must be offered a feast of books: easy reads, books about how things work, graphic novels, joke books, irreverent books, books about animals – anything that might hook them into reading – as well as the more challenging books they will listen to in story times and study in English lessons. For some pupils, the hook into reading may be non-fiction, for example, a book on climate change recommended by a science teacher. Importantly, they need to be offered books they might choose to read over and over again.” DFE Reading Framework, July 2023

Whizz Pop Bang science magazine is perfect for pupils in years 2-6. It is full of high-quality texts which introduce science to pupils in a child-friendly way without dumbing down the topic. We use a wide range of vocabulary and cover lots of different non-fiction text types.


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Teaching Space in year 5

Are you looking for planning resources to teach Space in Year 5? Here’s how you can use our downloadable lesson packs to create memorable lessons that produce the sticky knowledge Ofsted will be looking for…

Where to start?

Most children love space, but it is quite an abstract concept as they can’t properly experience it. Before they start investigating and experimenting, it’s important they are armed with the knowledge and vocabulary they need through watching video clips or reading suitable materials, as stated by Ofsted. Once they have this scientific understanding, it’s so important that pupils still have practical hands-on lessons so they can spot what is happening. Our knowledge organiser is a great aid to help them use the correct terminology in practical lessons.

How to sequence your lessons.

We have several lesson packs for teaching about space. When starting the topic, pupils need to know the order of the planets and how far away they are from Earth. In our lesson pack called ‘Make a solar system’, there is a simple paper model for pupils to make.

After they understand how far away the planets are, it is important to move on to the Moon and the Sun. We have a great lesson pack which teaches the phases of the Moon and explains how the Moon orbits Earth. Using our ‘Phases of the moon’ lesson pack, pupils will create their own Moon board that they can poke their head through, pretending to be the Earth.

Pupils should then understand how we get day and night. The Sun stays in the same place, but the Earth and Moon orbit around it and the Earth also rotates. Pupils will make a simple sundial which involves measuring the shadow to see how the Earth has moved position.

Once pupils have a clear understanding, you can then move on to discussing how scientists have found out information about other planets. We have two great lesson packs about looking for signs of life on Mars.

Plus, we have a new lesson pack on what alien life might look like on Ganymede, one of the many moons that orbit Jupiter.

Guided reading

To help consolidate pupils’ learning, adding texts with science content into your reading sessions is a great idea. We have over 20 different reading comprehensions related to space for Year 5. Here are just a few of them:

Whizz Pop Bang magazine and teaching resources are brilliant ways to enhance your school’s science teaching:

  • We provide downloadable science lesson plans, PowerPoint presentations, hands-on investigations and science reading comprehensions written by primary school teachers.
  • Whizz Pop Bang teaching resources link to the National Curriculum, ensuring correct coverage.
  • All of our resources are year group specific, ensuring progression between the years.
  • We make cross-curricular links to other subjects, such as English, Maths, History, Geography, Art, Design and Technology and PSHE.

Prices from as little as £197.99 per year for a copy of Whizz Pop Bang magazine through the post each month and whole-school access to our ever-growing library of downloadable teaching resources, with unlimited teacher logins.

We’ve also just launched a new individual membership option so teachers and home educators can access all of our amazing downloadable resources for just £20 for the whole year


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COMPETITION CLOSED – WIN a So Slime DIY Lava Lamp

Be in for a chance of winning one of these awesome So Slime Lava Lamps!

Design your own amazing lava lamp, with So Slime! Creating a glow-in-the-dark masterpiece couldn’t be easier – simply add the compounds and decorations to the lava lamp, then watch as the slime transforms into a lava effect!

This slime isn’t just for display – it’s for play too! Remove the slime from the lamp for mess-free gooey play. Twist, stretch and squish! This kit makes two lava lamps!

For your chance to win one of FOUR DIY slime lava lamp kits, simply answer the question below:

What does UFO stand for?

A) Unseen Floating Object

B) Unidentified Flying Object

C) Underwater Floating Obstacle

Good luck!

This competition closes at midnight on 30th September 2023 and is open for UK residents only. For full terms and conditions visit whizzpopbang.com/terms


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Carl Sagan’s Golden Record

Carl Sagan was an astronomer, planetary scientist, cosmologist, astrophysicist, professor and science communicator who was fascinated by extra-terrestrial life. You can read about him in Whizz Pop Bang 98: Aliens!

Carl was involved in American space exploration since it began in the 1950s. He put together messages that were sent into outer space in the 1970s on the Voyager Golden Record.

Read more about space in these out-of-this-world issues of Whizz Pop Bang!

By NASA – Great Images in NASA Description, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=6455682

Copies of the Golden Record were carried by Voyager I and Voyager II. They contained:

  • Messages in 55 ancient and modern languages
  • Sounds from Earth
  • Images of humans and Earth
By NASA/JPL – The Sounds of Earth Record Cover, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=137443

The discs contained diagrams that explain where Earth is and how to play the record. Scientists spent a long time working out how to communicate these messages to aliens!

Here are some examples of things that were included on Carl Sagan’s Golden Record. You can find a full list of everything that was included here.

Greetings in ancient and modern languages

English (this was recorded by Nick Sagan, Carl’s son, when he was six!)
Akkadian (an ancient language used in Mesopotamia about 6,000 years ago)
“May all be very well.”
Arabic
“Greetings to our friends in the stars. We wish that we will meet you someday.”
Cantonese
“Hi. How are you? Wish you peace, health and happiness.”
Hebrew
“Peace”
Korean
“How are you?”
Nguni
“We greet you, great ones. We wish you longevity”
Polish
“Welcome, creatures from beyond the outer world.”
Rajastani
“Hello to everyone. We are happy here and you be happy there.”
Spanish
“Hello and greetings to all.”
Welsh
“Good health to you now and forever.”

Music

Bach, Brandenburg Concerto No. 2 in F. First Movement, Munich Bach Orchestra, Karl Richter, conductor
New Guinea, men’s house song, recorded by Robert MacLennan
Mexico, “El Cascabel,” performed by Lorenzo Barcelata and the Mariachi México
“Johnny B. Goode,” written and performed by Chuck Berry
Georgian S.S.R., chorus, “Tchakrulo” collected by Radio Moscow
Peru, wedding song, recorded by John Cohen

Images

We can’t include the photographs and diagrams included on the Golden Record because of copyright but you can see some of them here. These show some of the same subjects that featured on it.

If you want to find out more about fantastic scientists like Carl Sagan, subscribe to Whizz Pop Bang, the awesomely amazing science magazine for kids! Learn about inspirational scientists of the past and present every issue – our readers are the in credible scientists of the future!


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Whizz Pop Bang’s trip to Just So Festival was out of this world!

Team Whizz Pop Bang spent a wild weekend meeting hundreds of scientists-in-training at Just So Festival 2023. Thank you so much to Just So Festival for having us back again – we absolutely love being a part of this incredible event.

This year, we brought Jonathan Scott from the European Space Agency (ESA) along to share his amazing knowledge of staying fit and healthy in space. Jon works in the Space Medicine Team at ESA and he used his expert skills to run an Astronaut Training Camp.

Jon brought a replica space suit along for Whizz Pop Bang fans to try on!

We were overwhelmed with the turn out for Jon’s talk and it was fantastic to see so many budding astronauts! A HUGE thank you to Jon, and to all of you who came and joined in the fun. We hope you picked up a thing or two about how astronauts stay fit and healthy on board the International Space Station.

We also ran The Whizz Pop Bang Discovery Den, where young scientists could explore their five senses in some super-fun hands-on experiments.

Children were invited to visit us in ‘The Future’ area in the woodland at Just So Festival and try five different activities linked to the senses.

  • FEEL IT: run your fingers through gloopy cornflour slime (find out how to try this at home here!)
  • SEE IT: trick your brain with optical illusions
  • HEAR IT: test how well sound travels through solids compared to through air using clanger hangers
  • SMELL IT: put your sense of smell to the test
  • TASTE IT: find out how holding your nose affects flavours

They learned some amazing facts, including:

We hope to see lots of you at Just So Festival in future!


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