If you’re looking for fun and fascinating science experiments to do with your kids, there are few things more exciting, engaging and easy than magic tricks. After all, as the characters from our science education adventure Blue Apprentice™ might tell you, a lot of magic is just science we don’t understand. Here are four of our favorite kid-friendly “tricks.”

Vanishing Water
Is there a bigger staple in magic than making something disappear? In this trick, all the setup you need is a quick trip to your local garden center or hardware store to make a freshly poured cup of water disappear when you try to pour it over someone’s head.

Invisible Ink
Sure, making something disappear is great, but making something reappear is better. Invisible ink is a great chemistry project for kids and can be used in a lot of creative ways from magic, to haunted houses in October, to secret pirate treasure maps. Nothing makes chemistry seem quite so exciting and mysterious as invisible ink!

The Steel Straw
Make the impossible possible by using physics in this superhuman test of strength. By piercing right through an apple with only a plastic straw, this simple trick will show that science can make amazing things happen.

Water Into Wine
Watching water go from clear to red and then back again as if by magic is guaranteed to get your kid thinking like a scientist. Although the list of materials is a little longer for this experiment, the effort is well worth it. With Halloween on the horizon, a magic trick could just as easily be a mad scientist’s experiment or a vampire conjuring up its next meal!