Monday, November 05, 2007

Volcano Fun

This year in school we are studying Earth Science. Today we made our own volcano. Nathan and Stephen could remember when we did this four years ago and they were ready. This year we had more than just a couple Monopoly houses, we had lots of hotels and house. We made it bigger and better this year and as you can see, set it off in the garage. Nathan is putting in some baking soda into the "volcano".

Next goes the red vinegar.

Then the delight as the "lava" heads for one of Aaron's homes.

A close up of the consumed house (see it in the "lava"?). We made the volcano erupt time and time again until almost all the houses were covered or washed down the side. The red coloring didn't really work. The lava turned out to be pink rather than red.

By the way, I reached the pinnacle of homeschooling today. We got so involved in learning about earthquakes, hurricanes, tornadoes, and volcanoes that we missed the lunch hour. It was almost 1 pm before one of the children asked, "Mom, do you know that it is 1 pm and we haven't had lunch yet?"

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Very nice project. I love the houses and hotels...that's a clever addition! What did you actually build the mountain from?

By the way, do you have a good "recipe" for salt relief maps?

Betsy

Technoprairie said...

No I don't have a salt recipe. I've tried to avoid salt maps. :)

The volcano is a water bottle covered up by sand. We have a pile of sand from a project leftover and it makes a good supply for projects.

Anonymous said...

that's great!

but too bad you reached the pinnacle already. Where will you go from here?

It was almost 1 before I realized it was past lunch busy helping clean and organize - that's good, right?

Technoprairie said...

Well, the next day brought me back down the mountain with children sighing and asking if the history lesson would be short or long. So I guess I hit the pinnacle and tumbled over the top!

Anonymous said...

Hey! You let the kids purposely put houses and hotels on the side of the volcano so they could hope rivers of molten lava would destroy them?

HOW COOL IS THAT?????!!!!!!

Technoprairie said...

Yes, I did. In fact, they were at first disappointed that only Aaron's houses were the ones being swept away by the lava.