Quickest, cheapest volcano?

[amo_mea_filiis.]

Before I google, I thought I’d post.

 

My oldest extra kid has to make a volcano. Of course due tomorrow (honestly not her fault; parents lack executive functioning skills and will not buy supplies until crunch time. Sometimes even a day to a week late).

 

It has to erupt, or she wants it to, I forget. I have baking soda and vinegar. I can get food dye.

 

What is the quickest, easiest, and cheapest way to make an erupting volcano model? I don’t know how big it sound be, but I would imagine not too big or she’s not going to be able to get it to school on the bus.

[Lanny]

OK. DD and my wife are in the kitchen working on our Breakfast.  I seemed to remember DD making a Volcano. My wife said DD made 2 Volcanos.  DD can't remember the details, and she suggested that you do search on Google.  You begin with a small bottle (like a Coke bottle) and I'm not sure what you put in that, maybe the Baking Soda and Vinegar that you have on hand?  DD put newspapers around that to give it the shape of a volcano, sprinkled Sand on the newspaper and painted it Black.  Sorry for the fuzzy details, but that was probably 4 or 5 years ago.  Good luck with the project!  I hope you have Newspapers in your house, but if not, the Sunday newspaper is the biggest one and you will need to have one or more of those.  

[school17777]

Use a small glass jar or cup and use the Crayola air clay to fo the volcano around it. Paint it volcano colors. Send in the baking soda and vinegar in separate containers and she can add them at show time.

[JonesinIndiana]

I just did a quickie volcano a few weeks ago in a co-op class.

 

I used an empty plastic 12oz water bottle for the baking soda, vinegar, etc on an old cookie sheet. I secured it to the cookie sheet with clear packing tape. Then I covered the cookie sheet in parchment paper, using clear packing tape. (You could use newspaper for a lot of this but we didn’t have any. )

I put green plastic grocery bags around it, building it up to the top of the plastic bottle, then I used clear packing tape to keep it secure at the neck of the bottle. (Again, you could use newspaper to build it up to the top, then cover with green construction paper to make it look a little more real. )I taped the plastic bags to the cookie sheet using, you guessed it, clear packing tape.

 

It worked fine, we did the experiment outside and I had a big garbage bag to keep the “lava†contained but the cookie sheet did ok. I just wrapped it all up after and threw it all away. You could use a big disposable aluminum foil pan if you want, too.

Edited November 19, 2017 by JonesinIndiana

[displace]

If you google adding soap, the foam will last longer. But I'm not sure how much to add.

[EKS]

Plastic water bottle, paper mache sides.  Paint brown with red/orange top--we just used tempera paints that were on hand.  Vinegar and baking soda for the lava.  You could use a hair dryer to get it to dry more quickly.

 

Personally, I think that volcano models are ridiculous because they don't actually model anything.

[Lanny]

Not sure if my memory is correct about this, but I am wondering if that was the project when DD used Paper Mache to make the shape of the Volcano? 

[Carol in Cal.]

We used homemade playdough that we put a bunch of leftover coffee grounds in.  Maybe some coffee, too, I can't recall.

That made the realistic-looking 'earth' for the mountain.

We put a plastic water bottle in a roasting pan (hint:  Do no use aluminum; it might corrode through.).  We put baking soda in the bottle.  Then we plastered it with the 'dirt' playdough to build a mountain around it. 

 

We also made deep black playdough using black watercolor.

 

To set off the volcano, we mixed Dawn detergent, red food coloring, and a little water in another bottle, and poured into the first one through a funnel.  Gradually bubbles started to form and swell.  Once they came up over the top of the bottle and cascaded down the 'mountain', we quickly put black playdough wherever the 'lava' ran, to demonstrate how eruptions make volcanic mountains grow. 

[amo_mea_filiis.]

Thanks!

 

I ended up sitting my extra kid with my creative 16yo. She used cardboard, tape, plastic wrap, and paint. For the eruption, we cut a hole in the bottom (they did the volcano together without me, and forgot about the insides. Lol) and put a graduated cylinder in it. I packed her a baggie of baking soda and a little bottle of vinegar with some red paint.

 

I hope the written piece was the more important part! It doesn’t really look bad at all. But it’s obvious there wasn’t much effort.

 

She is in 6th grade, and got high honor roll for the first quarter. I have no idea how! She puts little to no effort in her work.