They say that toddlers soak up the world around them and that their brains are developing at the fastest rate they’ll ever be at. With that bit of information, I never want to miss a single moment to help them explore and discover something new.
While letting them free play is great (and necessary), sometimes things call for structured, adult-led activities to help them discover something new and spark some newfound interests. Be sure to subscribe to #JingkidsCrafts for more.
My little girl has discovered how much fun science experiments can be, and one of her favorites is now the volcano. On rainy days when we can’t go outside, she excitedly pulls me to the kitchen table to make her favorite volcano together.
This fun experiment takes very little prep time.
Here’s what you’ll need:
Things You’ll Need for Volcano Experiment for Kids:
- 100 ml of warm water
- 10 ml of dish soap
- 400 ml of white vinegar
- Empty bottle
- Red food coloring (optional)
- Super light molding clay
- Shoe box (to use as the base plate)
Step 1: Start by building your volcano with your empty bottle in the center. The kids can help build the volcano nice and tall and check if their structure is secure by adding more molding clay to the base.
Step 2: Make a baking soda slurry by mixing the baking soda, water, and dish soap. You can add a few drops of red food coloring to give your lava some color. Keep mixing until everything looks completely dissolved.
Step 3: Carefully pour in the vinegar and watch the volcano erupt! I highly recommend building the volcano in a shoe box as it can get super messy.
Want an even easier way to do it? Taobao sells the simplest volcano kit I’ve ever seen. It comes with all the ingredients for the eruption as well as a pre-made volcano if you’d like to skip right to the eruption step. Click on the link below to purchase a kit.
Images: Mina Yan, Taobao
