Re: How could we make a homemade electroscopes work?

The easiest way to produce some electrical charge is by way of friction, the so-called "static charge" or "static electricity". This may not be any harder to do than to scuff your feet on a wool carpet, and then touch the electroscope to transfer your charge, as a spark.

If you don't like having sparks jumping off you, then you can try this: take a glass rod and rub it with a piece of silk cloth. The rubbing leaves the glass rod with a positive static charge, which you can then transfer to the electroscope.

Or, you can try rubbing a rubber rod with a piece of fur. This leaves the rubber rod with a negative static charge. You should be able to show that the positive and negative charges attract each other.

You should be able to find lots of examples of materials that hold static charge, and some of them might be better than glass or rubber. Good luck!