Friday, September 11, 2009

Volcano's unit study

This week we will be learning about volcano's...we were introduced to volcanoes in our history part of our sonlight curriculium and Ricky was really interested so I decided to run with the theme.....
So I did a google search and found ...
How to make your own Volcano......
First you will need...

6 Cups Flour
2 Cups Salt
4 Tbsp Oil
2 Cups Water
In a large deep bowl mix all the dry ingredients together. Add 1/2 the water and 1/2 the oil and begin kneading the dough. Mix in the additional water and oil gradually working it in until the dough is smooth and firm. Add more water to the mixture if you feel it's too dry.
After your salt dough is done you're ready to build your volcano. For that you'll need:
Plastic soda bottle (2 liter is good)
Vinegar
Warm water
Red food coloring
6 Drops Liquid dish soap
2 Tbsp Baking soda
Cookie sheet
Next, start building the Volcano.
Stand the clean, dry soda bottle on the middle of the cookie sheet. Press and shape the salt dough around the bottle to look like a mountain/volcano. Make sure you don't cover the opening or drop any dough into the bottle. It will mess up the chemical reaction of the eruption.
If you really want to make a model volcano you can stop at this point and let the volcano dry for a couple of days, then paint it, being careful not to paint over, or drop any paint down into the bottle. You can stuff a clean, dry tissue partially into the hole to keep stuff out then pull it out right before you make your lava.
Once your baking soda volcano is ready:
Put a few drops of red food coloring in the bottle then pour in the warm water (tap water is fine) to almost fill the bottle.
Pour liquid dish soap into the bottle.
Add the baking soda to the soapy water mix in the bottle.
When you're ready for the lava to flow, slowly pour some vinegar into the bottle.
Once the baking soda and vinegar mix together you produce Carbon Dioxide gas, which will bubble up and force the "lava" up and out of the volcano.
Not bad consittering the science museum that we went to last week wanted $39.99 for a make your own volcano kit.

I also found a ton of info and projects on homeschool share... WE used this for our main lesson plan
vhttp://www.homeschoolshare.com/volcanoes.php

Also check out Enchanted learning ..
http://www.enchantedlearning.com/subjects/astronomy/planets/earth/Inside.shtml

For GREAT printouts chack this site out...
http://abcteach.com/directory/basics/science/earth/volcanoes/#6900

1 comment:

  1. Very cool! I am going to have to try this! I think my kids would love it!

    Thanks for the links! I am always on the look out for more homeschool things! Hope you are doing well! And have a WONDERFUL weekend!

    ReplyDelete

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