Volcano Experiment

Friday, January 6, was a beautiful day. We spent much of it playing outside. When we came inside that afternoon, we dug out the craft book that Joshua's preschool aide, Mrs. Perez, had given him for Christmas. In it there are some different ideas for crafts - many of them I don't have the supplies for just laying around the house. But, I did have most of the supplies needed for the volcanoes. They had done this during 'V' week at preschool, and Joshua thought it was AWESOME!

First, the directions say you need dixie cups. This is the one thing I didn't have. So, I found some small containers that were plastic that I thought would do the trick. Next time, I'll want to see how bigger cups would do. Next, it says to form a volcano around the dixie cup using play-dh (or you can use aluminum foil if you'd prefer). One afternoon months ago, I had been playing with the boys with our play-doh. I don't typically allow them to mix colors unsupervised because I like everything neat and orderly and in its proper container when we're done, ready to play with again. As I was leaving for school, Daddy came home. His life philosophies are different than mine. His priority is the kids being allowed to have fun. So, they had a great time mixing all the play-doh together. After they were done, he threw the entire jumbled mess back into a large container. So, it's still soft, but mixed nonetheless. I don't know why I care - we have enough play-doh to go around!

So, I got the cups we need and found bowls to catch the spill (the article said you can use a plate with an edge or a bowl - I would highly recommend the bowl). Then, I got the play-doh out and we began to form a volcano shape around our cup. The mixed play-doh looked awesome for this - it was great!

Here are the other supplies we needed: vinegar, baking soda, food coloring, dish soap, a measuring cup, measuring spoons and the instructions. The book said to let the play-doh dry. The boys & I took a walk, played basketball outside, and did many other activities to let the play-doh dry for a couple hours. It was still moist when we got back. Then I pondered, "what difference does it really make?" I decided none, and I skipped that step. We weren't keeping these forever and ever - the idea was just to have fun this day!

So, we got 1/3 cup vinegar and added some food coloring drops to it. Caleb wanted orange, so we mixed yellow and red together. I added a couple drops of Dawn dish soap. We set the cup to the side.

Next, we scooped out three tablespoons of baking soda and put them into our volcano cup.

The boys loved getting to help make this experiment. I even recorded a video (which I can't figure out how to upload here) of when we erupted the volcanoes. They were SO excited! It was a really fun day.

Next, we poured our vinegar into the baking soda and watched the reaction. 

The volcano began to erupt! You'll see that Caleb chose to do green the following day - we erupted our volcanoes several times before throwing them away.

Joshua chose to make purple lava his third time round. It was a neat experiment.

The boys giggled and shouted at the eruption. I was afraid that it was going to overflow, but it stayed in the bowl (praise God!).

Once the eruption was finished, I simply poured out the excess liquid and trashed the cup, using a new cup in the play-doh volcano shape already formed to erupt it again. The boys LOVED it! Me, too! I love doing new things with them. :) :) :)