How to make a soda volcano for children: with your own hands, at home

Volcano - this craft is often used as a visual aid in educational and research lessons. But you can make a mountain spewing lava with your own hands at home from the most common materials - paper, plasticine and even polyurethane foam. In addition, such a layout will definitely attract attention at a competition or exhibition at a school or kindergarten, especially if it is “put into action.”

A bit of geography

Beneath the ground lies magma, molten rock that seeps to the surface through small holes in the ground or erupts through craters. Volcanoes are located on the border of tectonic plates, in the mountains. But there are known cases of their appearance in areas with flat terrain and over a short period of time. Active volcanoes are generally portrayed as huge and regular in shape, but this is not the case; in fact, there are different types. Volcanoes can be tall or very small and disproportionate.

An eruption proceeds as follows: gases and magma located underground are pushed upward under strong pressure. Sometimes there are even explosions; sometimes volcanoes erupt lava, gushing like geysers.

A needle does not sink in water

Archimedes' law gives a clear answer: a steel needle is almost 8 times heavier than an equal volume of water - it must sink and fall to the bottom. However, let's rub a dry needle between our fingers (i.e.

cover its surface with a thin layer of fat that is not wetted by water) and carefully place it on the surface of clean water in a plate. Must be placed horizontally

To do this, you can first put the needle on a piece of blotter and then on the water. The paper will get wet and sink, but the needle will float. It is held in place by the surface tension of water. If you add a concentrated solution of a wetting agent (soap, shampoo) to the water, which lowers the surface tension of the water, the needle will soon sink, because the fat layer is neutralized.

Salt dough volcano

For the experiment you need a minimum of materials and a little patience. To make a volcano model with your own hands, you will need:

• Tray;
• Plastic bottle;
• Food paint;
• Foil;
• Dishwashing liquid;
• Salty dough;
• Vinegar;
• Baking soda.

After we have found everything we need, we begin modeling. Let's get started by following the instructions:

1. To begin, take a plastic bottle and cut it into two equal parts. Place its upper part on a tray with its neck facing up.
2. Take the foil and cut it into strips, wrap them around the bottle so that you get a mountain.
3. Then make the salt dough, divide it into 3 parts and carefully place it on the foil, completely cover the foil with the dough. To make the volcano more realistic, paint its mouth with food coloring.
4. Next we will do the experiment itself. To begin, take a few teaspoons of baking soda and pour the baking soda into the bottle, then add one and a half tablespoons of dishwashing liquid.
5. Take a glass and pour a little vinegar into it, after tinting it with food coloring.
6. Pour the resulting liquid into the volcano and colored foam should flow from the crater. The kids will definitely love the result.

How to inflate a balloon without hands?

What will you need for the experience?

How to conduct an experiment?

Prepare all materials and place them at an accessible distance. A solution of soda and water should be poured into a glass bottle. Then pour vinegar into the bottle and quickly put a balloon on the neck of the bottle. It is important to secure the ball well on the neck with tape so that the ball does not rip off. Almost immediately you will notice how carbon dioxide fills the balloon, inflating it.

From baking soda

To make the product, you will need: water, vinegar, diluted food coloring, dishwashing detergent, baking soda.

Procedure for creating a volcano:

1. To begin, take about a glass of baking soda and add three tablespoons of water to it, thus obtaining a mixture for sculpting a volcano. If you want to make a big volcano, then add more water.
2. Mix the baking soda well and make a mountain. Let it dry, this will take some time, about 3-4 hours.
3. Then color the craft with food coloring.
4. Place the product on the container, add a little vinegar, about a teaspoon and a tablespoon of detergent. As a result, foam and hissing will pour out of the volcano.

rushing river

To create a river that will boil you will need:

• Plastic pipe.
• Sodium bicarbonate.
• Vinegar.
• Water.
• Food coloring

Do the following:

1. Take a plastic pipe and cut it lengthwise.
2. Place a makeshift river bed in the bathtub.
3. Mix soda and citric acid in a 2:1 ratio.
4. Prepare a vessel with water.
5. For added color, you can add food coloring to the water or soda mixture.
6. Pour baking soda and vinegar into the channel.
7. Gradually add water.

From the actions taken, the water will run and foam. If you close the drain, the bath will be a kind of colored lake.

Made from plasticine and paper

It will be even faster to model a volcano from paper and plasticine. First, let's create the shape of the product. Take a piece of cardboard, fold it to form a cone, and cut off the top of the resulting cone. A model of a volcano made at home.

Now stick plasticine on top of the resulting model, you should get a mountain. Place the layout on a tray or platter. Place the lava mixture (food coloring, paint, soda) into a jar and place the jar inside the craft. The homemade volcano is ready. You can make such a product quickly, simply and without much expense.

colored lava

You can also make many volcanoes with different colored dyes.

To organize the experience you will need:

• Small cups or baby food jars in the amount of 6 pcs.
• Gouache of different colors.
• Sodium bicarbonate.
• Water.
• Vinegar.
• Tray.

The following actions are performed:

1. Balls of 6 different colors are rolled out of soda and gouache.
2. Place the vessels on a tray.
3. Pour vinegar into them.
4. Place prepared balls into each vessel.

Recommended for you:

How and why to treat eggs with soda

A colorful violent reaction will occur. You can also watch how different colors are mixed on a tray.

Reusable craft

This option is very convenient, because you can return to the created volcano again and again. To create a craft you will need:

• Paper;
• Plastic lid for mayonnaise or sour cream;
• Foil;
• Gypsum plaster;
• Regular tape and masking tape;
• Acrylic paint;
• Basis for the product;
• Regular 1.5 liter bottle.

Next we follow the instructions. We do the following step by step:

1. Cut the top of the plastic bottle so that you have a mountain of a suitable height, place it in the lid and secure it with tape. The result was a strong foundation for the volcano.
2. Attach the resulting craft to the plywood with tape. You can also use a plastic backing as a base.
3. Then you need to give the bottle a cone shape. Take some foil and wrap it around the bottle and secure it with masking tape. We take the paper, tear it into small pieces and secure them with masking tape around the product.
4. Dilute the gypsum plaster with water to a thick consistency and pour it onto the product. Correct the necessary places.
5. Wait two to three hours, let the product dry thoroughly, then decorate it to your liking.

For the eruption you will need: vinegar, a little baking soda, red food coloring, a little dishwashing detergent.

Now the most interesting stage has come. Place a little baking soda inside the crater, add a little dishwashing liquid and add red food coloring. If required, add a little water. Add a little vinegar to the crater of the volcano, and the eruption begins!

Eruptions in 2022

Information about the sleepless fire giants this year comes from different parts of the world.

The North Kuril volcano Ebeko on the island of Paramushir throws out columns of ash. On February 26, the Ministry of Emergency Situations recorded a release to a height of up to 3 kilometers. The plume spread up to 5 kilometers to the south. There is no threat to local residents. But the area has an orange danger code for aircraft.

Ebeko volcano crater, photo: Wikimedia

Ebeko has been erupting with varying intensity since October 2016. According to the Sakhalin Rapid Response Team for Volcanic Eruptions, 561 eruptions were recorded on Ebeko in 2022, 63 of them to a height of more than 3 kilometers. And the volcano reached its greatest activity in the period from August to December 2022. At the same time, an unofficial record for the height of the ejection was recorded - over 6 kilometers.

On January 19, 2022, the Shishaldin volcano in Alaska ejected a column of ash to a height of more than 9 kilometers. The volcanic cloud spread within a radius of 150 kilometers from the volcano, the Alaska Volcano Observatory reported. Traces of ash were found in the town of False Pass in the Eastern Aleutian Islands of Alaska.

In the southeast of the French island of Reunion in the Indian Ocean, the Piton de la Fournaise volcano began to erupt on February 10. The Volcano Observatory reported on Twitter that activity was recorded at an altitude of two thousand meters on the eastern slope of the volcano. The height of lava fountains does not exceed 10 meters.

Taal Volcano in the Philippines erupted in mid-January. It released a column of ash 1 kilometer high. The eruption was accompanied by noticeable earthquakes; seismologists recorded 75 tremors.

Taal Volcano is located 70 kilometers south of the capital of the Philippines, Manila, on the island of Luzon, in the center of the freshwater Taal Lake. It is one of the world's smallest volcanoes, but seismologists call it "complex." This means that the volcano has more than one channel or crater: in addition to the main one, there are several more craters (eruption channels) on the slopes of the volcano, the location of which changes over time.

Taal Volcano in January 2022, photo: Wikimedia

There is a video online taken from a helicopter after the January eruption: the entire island is covered with a thick layer of volcanic ash. Residents of the cities closest to the volcano were evacuated. About 70 thousand people were housed in crisis centers. The possibility of a repeat and even more powerful eruption of Taal still remains. The Manila Bulletin newspaper reported that the Philippine authorities will provide residents of the island with housing to relocate to a safe distance from the volcano, and they want to prohibit living near the fire-breathing bowl.

The largest volcano in Mexico, Popocatepetl, continues to erupt. In the Aztec language, this name means "smoking mountain." The volcano is located 50 kilometers from Mexico City. Video footage of lava coming to the surface on February 26 was published by the Mexican national center for the prevention of natural disasters, Cenapred. According to the center, falling fragments were recorded at a distance of a kilometer from the crater. Earlier, in January, it was said about the emission of an ash column up to 3 kilometers high. NOAA's GOES 16 satellite captured the eruption from space.

Popocatepetl volcano in Mexico, photo: Pxhere

The activity of the volcano is indicated by the second phase of the “yellow level” of danger: it does not imply the evacuation of residents in surrounding areas or the stoppage of their work activities. Authorities prohibit approaching the crater closer than 12 kilometers.

An interactive map allows you to view information about the activity of a particular volcano in the world. In the top line you can configure the display of objects with a certain aviation alert status: green - normal state; yellow - signs of increased activity above the normal background; orange - increased activity with a high probability of eruption; red - eruption with ash release.

Big Bang

Children will especially like this drink. To simulate a big bang, you need the following:

1. You will need a coating that is not afraid to get dirty, so get ready for a mess.
2. You will need a decent sized container, such as a liter plastic bottle.
3. To shape the appearance of the product you will need clay or foil, you can use plasticine. To add realism, paint the volcano black and brown. It will take some time for it to dry.
4. Add hydrogen peroxide. You need 6 percent peroxide, pour half a cup of peroxide into the container located in the product. Be careful and careful when using peroxide. If you come into contact with hydrogen for a long time, you can get hurt, or the peroxide can get into your eyes and harm them. Children are not allowed to use peroxide. To make the eruption even more spectacular, you can use a 30% peroxide solution, but it will be extremely difficult to obtain.
5. Mix about 3 drops yellow food coloring and 7 drops red. Then add two tablespoons of dishwashing detergent to the resulting mixture.
6. Stir a tablespoon of dry yeast in a small bowl with 3 tablespoons of water.
7. Pour the yeast into the resulting product and step away.

Making a fairytale island

You can build an island in a large plastic container. Pour real water and line the bottom with round pebbles. Make a container for the volcano from a baby food jar or an old glass. For the mountain inside which the container will stand, you need to make a cardboard model; your child will be happy to cover it with plasticine.

The sequence of making a volcanic mountain:

• cut out a circle of the required diameter from thick cardboard;
• make a cut from the edge to the center of the circle;
• roll up a cone;
• the edges of the cone are fastened with a stapler or tape;
• cut off the upper part of the cone at a height equal to the container chosen for the volcano;
• place the container inside the cone.

I coat the top of the mountain with plasticine. To do this, roll out small brown plasticine cakes and stick them to a paper cone, completely covering the cardboard. The top of the volcano can be made of red plasticine, which will imitate hot lava.

They place a volcanic mountain on a dry island of pebbles. They are seated around small rubber animals that are among children's toys. Multi-colored amazing dinosaurs or wolves, foxes, bunnies, bears and other inhabitants of the forest and jungle. Depending on what animals were planted, vegetation for the island is selected. Large tree ferns and horsetails for dinosaurs, and ordinary fir trees and birches for bunnies and foxes.

Plastic plants are also often sold in sets for children's games. You can use a leaf of a living fern and twigs of plants if it is summer outside.

Plants can also be molded from plasticine, made from threads and beads or ordinary cardboard.

You can make small houses out of cardboard for plastic Indians and soldiers. It is better to use cardboard to make plants and houses when the island is in a container with blue-dyed sand instead of water or on a blue plasticine sea.

Using liquid nitrogen

A little dangerous, but no less interesting way. An even bigger spectacle will be achieved if you do the following:

1. It is recommended to conduct research only in the open air, because the eruption will be simply huge and will require a lot of space. The experiment can only be done by adults, as it is extremely dangerous, let children watch the experiment and be delighted. Believe me, this is very dangerous, even adults need to be careful.
2. To carry out the experiments you will need a couple of assistants, preferably even three. You will need to wear loose clothing and cover your skin. For the experiment, you will need liquid nitrogen, which is very dangerous for human skin; you must remain attentive and careful when conducting the experiment. Those conducting the experiment must wear glasses, and they will not interfere with the spectators.
3. You will need a plastic bucket of excellent quality and large size so that it does not break during the experiment. The bucket should be thick and very durable, buy a new bucket. It needs to be installed on a hard surface in the fresh air. The covering can be cement or brick.
4. Fill the bucket 80%. If desired, you can tint the water. Use tennis balls to simulate falling boulders.
5. You will need a liter bottle, attach a brick to it on both sides using tape.
6. Place the resulting product on the ground, let an assistant hold the funnel over the bottle. Pour some liquid nitrogen into the bottle, but do not overdo it. The second assistant should immediately close the bottle. You need to put the bottle in the bucket in 5 seconds, hurry up.
7. Quickly place the bottle in the bucket and run away from there. In about 20 seconds the eruption will begin.
8. Enjoy the results. Observers are advised to stay no closer than 9 meters from what is happening. The result is a scaled-down model of the Plinian eruption often associated with ancient Vesuvius. First, the water is thrown up and falls as rain. The eruption will be truly huge. If after three minutes of waiting nothing happens, then the experiment was unsuccessful, do not despair. Try again, there may be something wrong. For example, the lid was tightened too loosely or too late.

Precautionary measures

The eruption of a domestic volcano is primarily a chemical reaction. When conducting such experiments, especially with children, certain precautions must be observed:

1. When preparing and conducting the experiment, the presence of adults is required. It is necessary to explain safety rules to children. They should simply observe what is happening or perform simple operations under adult supervision.
2. Conduct the experiment on a surface that limits the spread of foam - on a large plate, tray, etc. Have napkins or towels ready in case you accidentally spill vinegar outside the experiment or the “eruption” doesn’t go as planned.
3. If an adult child is working with acetic acid or you have sensitive skin, you must wear gloves when doing the experiment. Try to conduct chemical experiments near water (in the kitchen, in the bathroom) so that you can quickly wash your hands or rinse off excess ingredients.
4. During the “eruption” of a volcano, you should not come close to it, much less bend over it.
5. After completing the experiment, the used materials must be immediately removed, any remaining chemicals must be removed, the area must be washed, and hands must be washed with soap.

Important! In order for the soda to “boil”, ordinary 9% table vinegar is enough. Therefore, for safety reasons, you should not use solutions of acetic acid of higher concentration!

The eruption of a domestic volcano is not just an entertaining spectacle. Making a model together with adults or independently develops creativity and fine motor skills in children. Knowledge about the chemical properties of substances and the principle of their interaction broadens one's horizons. While having fun, children receive a lot of new and useful information.

Small tips

When creating woodcan at home, use your imagination. Here are some tips:

• If desired, color the product.
• Add the ingredients carefully to avoid messing anything up.
• To enhance the eruption, add mints and soda.
• Be sure to wear goggles and gloves.

As you can see, making a volcano at home is simple and fun. The product will give an unforgettable experience to both children and adults. Making a volcano can be combined with a geography or chemistry lesson for children, and adults will simply have a good time doing this activity.

Originally posted 2018-08-29 09:26:24.

Experience . Boiling Lake

You need to use your imagination, imagining that a bowl of water is a huge body of water and tell your child about it. Children are dreamers and can easily be drawn into play. For the experiment you will need:

• Dishes.
• Soda.
• Vinegar or citric acid.

How to make a “boiling” lake:

1. Add a little soda and citric acid to the water and the pond will begin to bubble.
2. Give your child the opportunity to do it himself - he will like it.
3. Throw in the components one at a time, changing their sequence to cause further “boiling” of the liquid.

The boiling lake actually exists. It is located on the territory of Kunashir (Kuril Islands) and is heated by volcanic gases, hence the name of the reservoir. The most interesting thing is that it is connected by an artificial canal to a lake called Goryacheye.

Another option

We will not give a detailed master class for making a volcano from plasticine, since the difference with the previous method is only in the material from which we make the volcano relief. Accordingly, instead of salt dough, we take plasticine and use it to fashion a volcano.

For a more realistic look, you can take plasticine of different colors (gray, brown, black, etc.) and mix them to create a mountainous terrain.