A Day of "Eruptions"

Volcano day today, and boy did we have a blast today! (Get it?)

Since the Play-Doh in our dinosaur world was starting to harden, I thought it would be a good day to make the volcanoes in it erupt. At the beginning of the day I brought dino world to our gathering time. I gave each child a dinosaur figure to add to the display. Now it was time for some fun.

In each baby food jar, which represented a volcano, I spooned in some baking soda. I then added a few drops of red food color. Now the fun part--pouring in the vinegar. I did the first volcano for the children so they could see what would happen. Then I gave some other people cups of vinegar to pour in the other volcanoes. The effect never got old. They loved watching that "lava" pour out of the "volcanoes." I actually let them do this all during our free time as there was lots of baking soda in each jar. I never had to replace that. I did, however, have to keep filling cups of vinegar. (My picutres aren't that great, but believe me it is really neat to see.)

The next highlight of the day was milk volcanoes. "Milk?", you say. Yes, milk. This was just a way to be able to blow bubbles in our milk and not not get in trouble. Each child got a half glass of milk which we turned red(pink) with food color. I then gave them a straw and let them blow bubbles and overflow the milk from the glass--thus milk volcanoes.

Our craft project was rather dull compared to these two grand experiences, but they still couldn't wait to take them home. I had them cut out a large brown triangle to represent a volcano. I then let them rip tissue paper and glue it to the top of the volcano to represent lava. Finally, I had some dinosaur stickers that they could stick anywhere they would like. (Another great idea from No Time For Flashcards.)

The children got to take a lot home with them today: their volcano picture, their stegosaurus from yesterday which was dry, ( I would have liked to have more spikes for each dinosaur, but I didn't buy enough clothespins.); the fossils were also dry today so they went home; along with the photo I took of them on Monday.

Only two more days left to this week--way too fast!