Ghost Writing
Create a disappearing message with this fun Ghost Writing Preschool and Toddler Halloween Science Activity!
Materials Needed
Ghost Writing
Difficulty Level: Medium/Hard
Time Needed: 10 minutes plus dry time
Best done: Indoors
Mess Level: Medium
Materials Needed
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White Paper
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Lemon juice
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Paintbrush
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Lightbulb or other source of low heat
Time to Experiment!
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Pour some lemon juice into a bowl (fresh-squeezed or from a bottle).
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Then ask your child to write a secret "ghost message" on their paper using the paint brush. Their message can be whatever they would like – a drawing, some scribbles, letters, whatever they choose! Note that it works best if they do a thinner layer of the juice so that they paper does not tear.
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Once they have written their “message,” set the paper flat to dry.
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Once dried, they will see that their message has disappeared!
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Hold it up to the light and the message should turn brown! (Note it may be light brown like in our image above)!
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**Why does this work?
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Lemon juice contains acid (as any of us know who have found little cuts on our fingers after touching lemon juice). That acid starts to break down when it is exposed to the heat (of the lightbulb). As it breaks down is shows up brown!
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