A few months ago my kids asked me if they could make a volcano. I tried to procrastinate this activity given the fact I knew it would take days to complete. However, given the fact I’m a science geek, I decided why the heck not! So over the course of 3 days, we made our own exploding volcano. Although it wasn’t perfect the kids had a “blast”!
Day 1: gathering supplies and molding the volcano
Since I wanted to find a way to make a volcano that contain the messiness, I decided to pick up the following supplies:
- 1 large tub
- 1 soda bottle
- vinegar
- baking soda
- supplies for salt dough ( 1 cup flour, 1 cup salt, 3/4 cup water)
Steps:
- Make the salt dough by mixing the flour and salt together. Then add water. I mixed mine in a food processor. My 1st batch was too runny so started over and slowly mixed the water until it was dough like consistency.
- Once the dough is made, layer the dough on top of the soda bottle until it forms a cone. Be careful you don’t add any inside of the soda bottle. What helped was to keep the lid on the bottle until I was ready to work on the sides. This process can take some time depending upon the size of your bottle
Day 2: Uh Oh, there’s cracks in the side. Let’s decorate anyway
- Since I did not have enough salt dough, overnight it formed cracks and gaps where you could see the bottle. I decided to leave it for effect.
- The kids and I painted our creations. I let them paint it different colors, use plastic dinosaurs, rocks from outside, sticks from the trees and plants to make a prehistoric scenery. Since the dough was not completely dry, they were able to place their decorations on and around the volcano.
Day 3: Exploding our volcanoes!
- I placed 2 tablespoons of baking soda, liquid soap, and a few drops of red food coloring inside the volcano.
- Then with a gravy cup measure (it has a perfect spout), I filled the volcano with vinegar.
- Viola! Our volcanoes erupted with a nice consistent flow of red lava. Since the dough was not completely dry, it appeared to “melt” the sides. The kids were able to see the change of before and after. We were able to talk about what molten lava does to rock.
The cracks on the side? Well, once the volcanoes stopped erupting, the kids were able to see the red liquid inside the volcano. We discussed the difference between an active, dominate and extinct volcano. Ironically, our flawed volcano became a teaching tool!
