Volcano Activity

Before we get started I’ll preface this by saying:

1. There’s not much traditional teaching here, just a fun volcano activity. Sometimes it’s nice to have a break from text books and worksheets.  I would recommend teaching about the Mount St. Helen’s eruption of 1980 and then doing the activity.

2. This is not how real volcanoes work.  Real volcanoes erupt due to the immense pressure underground forcing magma up through the surface of the earth.

You’ve seen baking soda and vinegar mix before right?  It just never gets old to me (and my little ones).  In this post we do the same basic reaction, but volcano style!

You will need:

1/8 cup baking soda

1 T. Flour

1 1/2 tsp. water

~1/4 cup white vinegar (it really doesn’t matter how much, just enough to have fun)

dropper

bowl to mix in

shallow plate or tray (needs a lip so it can hold liquid)

food coloring (optional)

Procedure:

1. Mix your flour and baking soda together.  Stir in your water.  It should look like a crumbly  mixture when you’re done. Pinch it with your fingers, if it holds it’s shape, it’s ready.  If it crumbles apart then add just a little more water.

You can add some food coloring to make it more fun.  We went with green, since Mount St Helen’s was covered in trees.

2. Dump your mixture onto your plate/tray/shallow bowl and form it into a mountain. Squeeze it/compact it well.

3. Poke a hole in your mountain, with a pointy object (a pen worked just fine for us!)

4. Pour some of your white vinegar into a bowl or measuring cup.  Add food coloring if desired (we used red for magma!).

5. Using your dropper, drop/squirt vinegar into the center of your volcano!  Watch it fizz, bubble and overflow!

6. You already got all the stuff out and made a volcano.  If you want let the kids students keep going until either your dish is full, or you’ve reacted all your baking soda.

I lava you guys! I hope you had a blast! 😉