Hey moms and hopefully teachers!
I would like to make a volcano, not huge but a good size. I don't have time to paper mache, but I want it to work nicely. It is for VBS at my church. I have made very small ones and I know how to set them off with baking soda and vinegar. Any ideas on how to create this? Hopefully without spending too much money!
Thanks!
Hi B.,
A great website for children's activities (including volcanoes) is www.aplaceofourown.org
It has a large variety of activities that are age-appropriate and not at all expensive. A lot of the materials they use are right in our homes.
Have fun!
Dear B.,
I just can't think of anything, but maybe make it out of play dough and let it harden over night, probably the surface will dry up so that you can do the volcano relatively soon. Use some rocks or gravel in the molding of the volcano to help stabilize it.
Go to www.creativekidsathome.com and they will have a lot of play dough recipes you can chose which one that is best for you. I printed out several pages of play dough recipes from ther in 2005, hopefully they are still 'in business'.
C. N.
Use a clay pot (you can get an inexpensive one from Michael's Craft Store and they come in various sizes). Turn the pot upside down and cover it with aluminum foil to shape the volcano/mountain. Then, cover that with clear plastic wrap and then cover that with paper, colored and textured to your liking. Good luck!
Take Care,
F.
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Hi! I used 2b a preschool teacher and we would make our volcanos out of wet sand. just experiment with the size, though. hope this helps!
This is what I found:
Supplies
soup cans
vinegar
water
baking soda
teaspoon
red food color
sand, soil, or leaves
clay (to be used to build a mound around your volcano)
What To Do
1. Place the can on the ground outside or on a paper plate or tray, if inside.
2. Build a mound around the can using soil, sand, leaves, clay, or paper to create your own image of a small mountain.
3. Fill the can 1/2 to 3/4 full with vinegar. Add a few drops of red food coloring, then a spoonful of baking soda.
4. Watch the lava flow down the sides of the volcano as the chemical reaction between the acid and baking soda occurs.
5. Repeat as long as the vinegar and baking soda lasts.
Dear Jay,
We will be expanding on our description of "How to Make a Volcano" in the near future in VolcanoWorld (step by step photos, etc.). Sorry I can't get to this in time to help withyour science project.
Here is an expanded outline of my previous description:
The best book for young people about geology is How the Earth Works (see reference below). It contains a few excellent demonstrations on how volcanoes work. It does not have plans for constructing a model of a volcano (it does contain a description of the types of volcanoes which is a good place to start).
I can suggest a few options.
1. You can construct models of the different types of volcanoes (composite, cinder cone, and shield) using clay. Sheets of clay would represent lava flows and small balls of clay (or layers of sand) would represent fragmented lava or ash.
2. You can make a cinder cone from cinders bought from a local garden store (maybe held together by gravity or spray glue).
3. You can make a generic volcano out of cardboard, newspaper, tape, and foil. Wad up small pieces of newspaper into balls 1-2 inches in diameter. Tape these to a 8x10 piece of cardboard and build up your volcanic cone (leave a crater at the summit if you wish). Once the cone is built, cover it with foil to make the surface smooth. If you want to jazz it up, paint it black, gray, or brown (what ever dark spray paint you find in the garage). You can even use spray glue to attach sand or cinder to the surface of the volcano.
4. Making the model erupt is a challenge. You can run a plastic tube up through the volcano and blow colored water out at the top (I wonder what would happen if you blew colored honey out of the top or better yet molasses). Perhaps the best way (and easiest) is the old classic, vinegar and baking soda. Bury a vertical tube in the volcano with the opening at the summit.
Many many years ago my daughter & I worked on one for a school project. We used simple modeling clay that we molded around a used toilet paper tube (which is where the "lava" went) but we used Alka Selter tablets with orange food coloring for the lava. Good luck with your project & enjoy VBS. Those camps are always a blast!
Blessings,
D. H.
