Paper volcano. Experience for children: how to make a volcano erupt

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Children are constantly interested in everything new. They are interested in the world, the structure of nature. They dream of seeing a tsunami, earthquake or volcanic eruption. They wonder where the mountains came from and why trees grow. You can’t explain or show everything, but you can offer your child an interesting activity together - make a homemade volcano with your own hands, regardless of what class he goes to.

We bring to your attention several ways to create simple layouts. Any student can complete this project for a geography lesson independently. Younger kids will need your help; you can turn the construction of a volcano into a real exciting game. It will be useful for preschoolers to take part in creating the layout. They will be able to learn how to work with plasticine, papier-mâché, plaster and any other materials that you choose to bring your project to life.

Before starting work, it will be interesting and useful for children to learn what a volcano is and what parts it consists of.

Volcano - mountainous formation, which appeared naturally over faults in earth's crust, through which lava comes to the surface. Lava is magma that has come to the surface and has gotten rid of its gases. Magma is the liquid, burning component of the earth's crust.

A volcano is most often represented as a high mountain, from the mouth of which steam pours out and lava bursts out. This is not entirely true, it can not only have the shape of a mountain, but also be very low, like a geyser or a small hill.

Pay attention to the cross-sectional diagram of the volcano. Hot magma rises through the crater to the surface, where it turns into lava, escaping through the crater. During an eruption, being nearby is extremely dangerous.

In our article, you will get acquainted with the creation of various volcano layouts. You can make a cutaway model. This kind of work will be good teaching aid for children.

Gallery: DIY volcano model (25 photos)

How to make a volcano with your own hands

In this article you will learn how to create models from various materials, such as plasticine, paper, polyurethane foam, plaster. You will also learn how to turn your homemade volcano into action and will be able to demonstrate this phenomenon to children and friends.

Model made of plasticine or salt dough step by step

To create a volcano in the desert you will need:

plasticine of various colors or dough: brown for the mountain, green for the grass and red to depict lava;
cardboard (will be a stand);
base for a volcano, it can be a bottle or a paper cone.

Let's get started:

Creating a model from plasticine is one of the easiest ways. Even preschoolers can cope with this task.

Paper mockup

We make a model of a volcano out of paper. You can use newspapers, old leaflets, etc.

For a paper layout we will need:

Let's get started:

We cut off the neck of the bottle and attach it to the base (cardboard) with tape.
We make a frame. Attach one side of the cardboard strip to the top edge of the bottle, and the other to the base of the future volcano.
Once the frame is ready, begin to form the mountain. Crumple the paper into lumps and distribute it inside the frame.
When there is enough padding and the structure becomes dense, give it shape by wrapping clean sheets paper
Your work is almost finished! All that remains is to take the paints and beautifully design the resulting model.

In a similar way, you can make a model of a mountain out of paper. You just need to add a cone-shaped top, because mountains don’t have vents.

Have you accumulated a lot of unnecessary waste paper?

To make a papier-mâché volcano you will need:

Let's get started:

Cut off the neck of the bottle, cut whatman paper into equal long strips.
Glue the bottle to the cardboard. You can use glue or double-sided tape.
Make a frame using strips of whatman paper.
Then glue the same strips horizontally to make the frame more dense.
Tear newspapers and paper into pieces and soak in water or paste. Cover the frame with wet paper, coat it with glue, and sculpt the next layer. For strength it is better to make 5 layers or more. Last layer make from pieces of white paper.
Let your design dry. This design will take about a day to dry.
After the model has dried, it can be decorated with paints.

Vulcan in section from polyurethane foam and polystyrene foam

The cross-sectional layout will serve as a good teaching aid in geography. And creating such a model yourself is a fascinating process.

To make a volcano in section we will need:

From polystyrene foam we form the base and the volcano cone itself. We glue pieces of foam plastic onto the base in layers. Each layer should be narrower than the previous one.

When the base for the volcano is ready, using polyurethane foam to depict flowing lava, let it harden.

After the foam has hardened, all you have to do is decorate the model and cover it with a layer of varnish.

Plaster model

A model of a volcano can be made from plaster. To do this you will need:

gypsum;
water;
paints.

Let's get started:

Dilute the gypsum in water according to the instructions.
Form the body of a volcano from the resulting mass and leave the craft to dry.
After the plaster body has dried, paint it with paints.

Lava from dishwashing detergent and gouache

Let's get to the fun part about creating volcano models. Eruptions!

We offer you several options for making lava.

We offer an unforgettable experience for children, “Volcano Eruption,” which can be easily done with your own hands at home. The chemical experiment will be especially interesting for preschoolers and elementary school children.

You can purchase a ready-made set for the experiment (on Ozon.ru, on My-shop.ru) or make a volcano from available materials, which are in every home. Let's consider two experiments.

Attention! All chemical experiments are carried out under strict adult supervision!

Salt dough volcano

Necessary materials:

salt dough (recipe);
foil;
plastic bottle;
baking soda;
vinegar;
dishwashing liquid;
food coloring (optional);
a rimmed baking sheet or container.

How to do

Source: jugglingwithkids.com

Cut the plastic bottle in half.

Place top part from the bottle on a tray with the neck up. Cut strips of foil, wrap around the bottle and create a volcano shape.

Prepare salty dough, roll out, divide into three parts and carefully place on top of the foil.

For realism, color the volcano's mouth with red food coloring.

How to conduct an experiment

Pour two teaspoons of baking soda into the neck of the bottle and add a tablespoon of dish soap.

Pour vinegar into a glass and color with food coloring. Pour the liquid into the volcano and see thick colored foam flow from the crater. Children will be delighted by the spectacular volcanic eruption!

Colorful volcano made from soda and vinegar

Necessary materials:

baking soda;
vinegar;
water;
dishwashing liquid;
liquid watercolor or diluted food colorings.

How to do

Most likely, I won’t be mistaken if I say that the “Volcano” experiment made from soda and vinegar is one of the most spectacular and favorite experiences among kids. Children can repeat it endlessly. But I don’t want to do it using the same template every time. As it turned out, with the same ingredients - soda, vinegar (citric acid) and water - you can come up with quite a few variations of the well-known experiment. We'll tell you about them.

Required Ingredients

Just in case, let me remind you of the ingredients that will be needed to conduct the “Vulcan” experiment:

soda,
vinegar, acetic acid or citric acid,
water.

Ingredient ratio:

100 ml water, 1 teaspoon vinegar, 1 teaspoon soda;
1 glass of water, 2 teaspoons of soda, 1 teaspoon citric acid.

I often use citric acid, since it has no odor, and conducting experiments with it is much more comfortable and safer.

There are several secrets on how you can add variety to the reaction:

To make the experience more vigorous, you can use sparkling water instead of water.
To delay the onset of the reaction slightly, do not mix water and citric acid directly. Pre-dissolve citric acid or vinegar in water, and pre-wrap soda in paper napkin or paper towel.
The reaction will be more effective if you add dye to the ingredients (you can use gouache, but dry food dyes are more suitable for easter eggs or liquid dyes for homemade soap).
For a thicker and more stable foam, add a drop to the volcano detergent.
Also, the reaction will be more interesting if glitter or small sequins are added to the volcano mixture. The foam coming out of the volcano will also pull out the sequins. In the same way, lava coming out of a real volcano brings stones from deep within to the surface of the earth.

Although the Vulcan experience is the same ingredients each time, albeit in different containers, there is something to think about in each case. I have divided questions that you can ask your child or think about together into “Things to Think About” blocks.

Classic volcano - almost like a real one

The easiest option is to make a volcano from plasticine or salt dough. It is not at all necessary to use new plasticine; plasticine that was used previously, but has now turned into a gray mass, is quite suitable. We added sequin stars to the volcano you see in the photo below. To bring them to the surface, we had to awaken the volcano several times, each time increasing the amount of ingredients. In the end, everything turned out with 3 teaspoons of soda and 1.5 teaspoons of citric acid. And another tip: it’s better to pour the sequins last. And if you have them under the reagents, after adding water, quickly stir them in the crater of the volcano with a wooden stick.

Another option is a glass or plastic bottle with a tall, narrow neck (I prefer glass as it is more stable). It is very interesting to watch how the foam rises up the narrow neck from the inside, and then flows down the walls of the volcano.

Having carefully examined our kitchen, we noticed that the funnel was very similar to a volcano. Bottom part The funnels need to be covered in several layers with cling film. The top of the funnel can also be covered with a layer of foil. And to avoid surprises, it is better to place the funnel covered with film on a tray.

Something to think about. If you don't skimp on the ingredients and the reaction turns out to be violent, you'll end up with a spitting volcano. Discuss with your child why? What makes a volcano spit in a crater?

Answer. The neck of the funnel is narrow, carbon dioxide is released rapidly and in large quantities. In a hurry to leave the funnel, carbon dioxide takes water with it.

If you don’t have a funnel at hand, you can use the top from it instead. plastic bottle: cut off the top part of the plastic bottle (the cut part can be 7-10 cm high), cover the bottom in several layers with cling film or foil. The volcano is ready - you can make the filling.

A volcano in a glass, or how to make water boil without heat

If you don’t want to sculpt a volcano, but you don’t have a funnel or a plastic bottle at hand, you can make a volcano in an ordinary glass or jar and play with it in an interesting way. For example, tell your child that you can make water boil without using an electric kettle or stove.

Dissolve 2 teaspoons of baking soda in 1 glass of water (the glass should not be filled to the top, otherwise your volcano will burst its banks). Pour 1 teaspoon of citric acid into a glass. The water in the glass will “boil” - it will begin to bubble. Invite your baby to touch the glass. Is he hot? Is the liquid in it hot?

Instead of soda water in this experiment, you can make a solution of vinegar or citric acid (for 0.5 liters of water - 2.5 teaspoons of citric acid or vinegar). Then you will not add citric acid or vinegar to the glass, but soda.

Things to think about 1. Now pour water into another glass and add 1 teaspoon of citric acid. Nothing will happen. Let the child express his guesses as to why this happens and what the magic of water is in the first glass.

Add 2 teaspoons of soda to the second glass, now the water will “boil” in this glass. Discuss with your child what is happening, what reaction makes the water “boil”.

Answer. When found in water, soda and citric acid interact. This releases carbon dioxide. Since gas is lighter than water, gas bubbles rise to the surface of the water. Here they burst, thereby causing the water to “boil”.

If, before putting a spoonful of citric acid into glasses of soda water and ordinary water, you pour a little liquid from each glass, you will have another way to show that the liquids in the glasses are different - add red tea to them. In a glass of regular water, the tea will become a little paler, and in a glass of soda water it will turn blue.

Something to think about 2. Mix baking soda and citric acid in a cup. Watch, is anything happening? Nothing.

Answer. To start a reaction between soda or citric acid, the presence of water must be present, or one of the components must be in the form of a solution.

Things to think about 3. Pour the same amount of citric acid solution into two glasses. Place the entire spoon in one glass, and carefully pour the soda from the spoon into another glass. In which glass will the volcano be more violent?

Answer. The volcano in the glass where you lowered the entire spoon with soda will be more violent, since in this case they meet, connect and react immediately larger number molecules.

You can also compare volcanic eruptions based on soda water and lemon water. Given the same amount of ingredients, which one will be more stormy?

Boiling Lake

What I especially like about this option: you can give your baby two teaspoons, a container of soda and citric acid, and give him the freedom to experiment for a while.

You will need: a bowl of water, citric acid, soda, 2 teaspoons and a larger spoon for stirring. Let the water in the bowl be a lake. Show your child that if you add a little soda and citric acid to the lake, the lake will boil. Repeat and let the baby try it himself. And I assure you: until the containers with soda and citric acid are empty, the baby will be busy, and you will have time to do some of your business.

Something to think about. Try stirring your lake with a spoon or a stick. Will the lake boil more or less?

Answer. A volcano that is disturbed erupts more strongly, because by mixing the water in the lake, we help the molecules of soda and citric acid meet faster.

Something to think about. Add citric acid and soda to the water not at the same time, but one after another. Let's start with citric acid, then add soda. The lake will boil and stop boiling. Add a little more soda - nothing happens. What should I add? Citric acid. Added. The lake is boiling again. It stopped. Let's add more citric acid. Nothing. What should I add? Soda. Added. The lake is boiling again, etc.

Answer. Only a certain amount of soda and citric acid can meet and react. If there is too much soda in the water, after the eruption ends, the excess will settle to the bottom. If there is too much citric acid in the water, the lake will eventually fall asleep too. To “wake up” the lake again, you need to add what is missing.

Rough River

We had a boiling lake. Why not create a boiling river? Ideally suited for this purpose are the “Fun Slides” construction kit from Bauer or “Marbutopia”. This will be the river bed. If you don’t have such a constructor, you can cut either a plastic or foam pipe lengthwise. Let's set the bed of our river in a basin or bathtub.

Prepare a mixture of baking soda and citric acid (ratio 2:1) and a jug or bottle of water. You can add dye to a mixture of soda and citric acid or water. We pour this mixture into the bed of our river, then begin to pour water from above. The water moves down and the river begins to rage.

If you close the bathtub opening with a stopper in advance, you will get a colored lake below. Let it be blue, for example. Follow it with a red river and your lake will turn purple.

Do you want to play with your child easily and with pleasure?

Bombs

Bombs are balls made of soda and citric acid that begin to bubble when dropped into water. Except

4 tablespoons of soda,
2 tablespoons citric acid

to make bombs you will need

1 teaspoon oil (sunflower or olive),
water in a spray bottle.

You can add dry or liquid dye.

Mix the baking soda and citric acid well, add the oil and mix again. Flakes will appear. Try making bombs; if they don’t form well, lightly spray the mixture with water from a spray bottle. A reaction will begin, but it's not scary. The main thing is not to overdo it with the amount of water, otherwise an active reaction will occur and your bombs will turn out to self-explode.

We make bombs with our hands. If you want to make large bombs, snowflakes or transparent blanks for creating Christmas tree decorations are perfect for this purpose.

Bombs made from soda and citric acid explode in ordinary water.

By the way, these bombs can also be used for playing in the bathroom. And if you add to the ingredients sea salt and a little bit of your favorite essential oil, you can arrange a bath with bombs not only for your baby, but also for yourself.

You can make bombs simply from soda with the addition of oil or ordinary water. As you understand, such bombs will explode only in water to which citric acid or vinegar has been added.

Something to think about. Make bombs with your baby from soda with the addition of oil or plain water. Place two containers of water in front of the baby, add vinegar or citric acid to one of them in advance (for the cup we have, I added 2 tablespoons of vinegar or 2 teaspoons of citric acid).

Throw bombs into two containers at once. The bob will explode in only one of them. Ask your child why? You can ask the question differently. For example, like this: “Although the liquid in both cups looks the same, in fact, different liquids are poured into the cups: one contains water, the other contains a solution of citric acid. Can you determine what is in each cup without testing the water? Bombs will help you."

By the way, do not rush to pour out the water into which you dropped the soda bomb. A soda solution will come in handy when washing dishes!

Ice volcanoes

Did you know that on one of the satellites of Saturn, on one of the satellites of Pluto and other objects solar system have ice volcanoes been found? (If you want to learn about ice volcanoes and much more, come with us to .) To see ice volcanoes, you don’t have to fly that far on a spaceship. Everything can be done at home.

Prepare a soda solution in advance and freeze it in small cubes. You can add dye. Before starting the game, prepare a lemon solution and a syringe. Place a few soda cubes on a flat plate and pour lemon water over them from a syringe. The ice will melt with hissing and bubbles. You can do the opposite: freeze lemon water and pour water from a syringe.

Something to think about. Do not reveal to your child the two main secrets about what water the ice cubes were made from and what water the syringe is filled with. If you've played with volcanoes before, your 5-year-old can probably figure it out on his own.

Something to think about. Before freezing soda or lemon water, add coloring to it. It’s very good if you get cubes of red, yellow, blue, white flowers. When placing ice cubes on plates for your baby, place yellow and red, yellow and blue, red and blue next to each other. When the volcanoes melt, pay your child’s attention to what color puddles are left behind.

As you can see from the photos, we had clear, blue, and red soda water cubes. While watching the volcano erupt, we saw pink, yellow colors and a lot of green. These are the miracles! and that's all!

You can also create an ice volcano in a glass: pour water into the glass (not to the very top, otherwise the volcano will immediately overflow its banks), add citric acid or vinegar, throw a cube of frozen soda water into the glass. (You can freeze lemon water and make soda in a glass.) The eruption will begin immediately and will continue for quite a long time - until the entire soda cube has melted. If you color the soda cubes, you can visualize the eruption of an ice volcano. Don’t forget to draw your child’s attention to how the color intensity of the liquid in the glass changes as the ice volcano erupts.

The duration of the eruption and visibility are the main advantages of an ice volcano compared to the method when we simply add soda to a solution of citric acid, or vice versa.

You will find more experiments with ice in the article.

Rainbow volcanoes

Volcanoes look very impressive when there are several of them and they are colored. It is convenient to make such volcanoes in containers of the same size. We fill them with a solution of vinegar or citric acid, add dry or liquid dye, a drop of liquid detergent for a thicker and more stable foam, add soda and observe.

Young researchers will probably be interested in how to make a volcano from plasticine with their own hands. The volcano craft can be either static or active. For static it is enough to reproduce using plasticine appearance"smoking" mountain. The existing craft will look much more impressive and entertaining.

The model of an active volcano will interest not only schoolchildren, but also young children. Perhaps sculpting and testing a volcano will awaken an interest in geology, geography and chemistry.

Let's start the craft

It’s very easy to make an active volcano at home. For the surface of the volcano, you can use not only plasticine, but also salt dough or paper. Main secret- This is the chemical interaction of soda and vinegar. To make the “eruption” process more interesting, you can add a natural dye. But first things first. First you need to understand how a real volcano works.

Before starting the craft, it is recommended to look at pictures and diagrams of the structure of the volcano, as well as documentary photographs, with the children. After all, such a project is not so much developing imagination and motor skills as it is educational. Children can learn a lot about the structure of the Earth and natural phenomena.

Here is the basic cross-sectional diagram of the volcano:

As you can see from the picture, magma rises through a thin vent before exiting and becoming lava. Therefore, in order for the experiment with a volcano to work at home, you need to create the same conditions: a wide reservoir for the “magma” and a narrow neck as a vent.

It is most convenient to construct a home volcano from plasticine and a bottle. In addition to these materials you will also need:

large format plywood or thick cardboard (approximately 50x50 cm or more);
acrylic paints and brushes;
scotch;
dishwashing liquid;
soda;
food coloring (red or orange);
vinegar.

Plywood is needed for the base. It can be replaced with an unnecessary basin, tray or tray. The main thing is that the size of the volcano does not exceed the size of the base. The mountain should rise approximately 20 cm from the edges of the plywood.

Let's look at the process of creating a volcano step by step.

We form the “mouth” of the volcano. To do this, you need a bottle that can be used entirely or reduced to the desired size (depending on the height of the future volcano).

To create a small model, it is better to trim the bottle, i.e. cut off the top part with the neck and the bottom part with the bottom and combine these two parts with tape. After this, the bottle can also be secured on all sides in the center of the base with tape.

We begin to sculpt the mountain. For this, most likely, you will need a lot of plasticine. You can collect all the remains, include damaged plasticine and old figures into the total mass. The color of the volcano should be brown, gray and black, so mixing several colors will give just the right shade. It is better to knead it very well before sculpting.

The formation of a mountain begins from the bottom up. First, the base is fixed, and then plasticine is gradually applied on top, in layers. The volcano does not have to be perfectly smooth, as if taken from a potter’s wheel. On the contrary, relief and irregularities will add more realism. You can even lay gutters through which the “magma” will then flow.

Here are some photos of volcanoes made from plasticine:

From above, when the plasticine mountain is ready, you can make an imitation of flowing lava. For this you need yellow, orange and red plasticine. The pieces are combined into one lump, but are not mixed so that multi-colored stains are visible.

At the end, the craft can be treated with stacks and, if desired, painted.

We paint the plywood with acrylic paints around the volcano and make a landscape. To do this, you can use ready-made models of dinosaurs, palm trees, and trees.

After the craft has dried, you can begin testing. To do this, the following mixture is made:

1 tbsp. spoon of dishwashing detergent;
1 tbsp. spoon of soda;
a few drops (5-10) of liquid food coloring.

Pour the resulting mixture into the volcano through a funnel. After this, vinegar is added to the “mouth” and the chemical reaction. Vinegar must be added gradually until the reaction begins (foam appears). For a bottle with a volume of 2 liters, you need to fill in ¾ cup of vinegar.

If there is no liquid dye, you can use dry dye, but then it must be dissolved in vinegar. This is an additional component to give the foam the lava color. For a simple experiment, you can do without dye.

The model of the volcano can become great project for a school exhibition or geography homework. It can be used to demonstrate the eruption or as an exhibition piece.

At home, children can play with such a volcano during the “Mesozoic era,” when dinosaurs walked the earth and volcanic eruptions were a common occurrence.

It is also used in Big stories No. 1, and in itself when studying geographical objects and the theory of continental drift. Children really like this material, they are ready to work with it endlessly.

This model can be of three types.

Volcano model industrial production, soda, acetic acid, dishwashing detergent

Industrial volcano model

The simplest and at the same time attractive option is to look for and purchase plastic material at an educational toy store. In addition to the volcano cone assembly, it usually includes a tube and a syringe.

The model is poured baking soda and pour in a little liquid soap or dishwashing detergent, preferably red. They draw into the syringe acetic acid in a concentration of 3 to 9% or a similar solution of citric acid. Remember that 70% vinegar essence is very dangerous!

By connecting a syringe to a tube leading from below into the crater and squeezing acetic acid into it, we get an “eruption”: the foam formed in the crater begins to overflow and flow down the slopes of the volcano.

Interestingly, the tube and syringe are not only necessary to power the model, but also themselves demonstrate the role of the deep magma chamber in which magma is formed, and the volcanic conduit through which magma flows to the crater. The foam flowing down the slopes of the cone makes it possible to explain the principle of the formation of accumulative type mountains, consisting of layers of hardened lava from several eruptions.

Volcano made of cardboard and bottle

DIY volcano model from paper and bottle

If you were unable to purchase a ready-made layout, make it yourself. You can involve children in this activity.

We will need Glass bottle with a wide neck of approximately 200–250 ml, used for droppers. The volcano cone is made of thick paper or cardboard. The inner and outer radii of the cone pattern are selected on the basis that the upper cutout of the figure will be placed on the neck of the bottle, and the lower side will stand on the tray. The cardboard cone should be painted with radial strokes of brown and black. acrylic paint, which gives the paper water-repellent properties after drying.

To activate such a volcano, pour soda into the bottle to the top, add dishwashing detergent or liquid soap. Then you need to add a solution of acetic or citric acid directly into the “mouth”.

To make a durable structure, make a cone of construction foam around the bottle

Model of a volcano made from polyurethane foam and a bottle

The disadvantage of a paper model is the fragility of the cardboard cone. It gets wet and quickly becomes unusable. A durable structure can be made from construction foam.

We place the bottle in the center of the tray and carefully make concentric circles of foam around it. It is better to make such a model in the absence of children in a ventilated area, since the fumes from the foam are harmful. Also, children can get smeared with the material, and it is very difficult to remove from skin and clothing.

We leave the resulting cone to dry for a day, and then cut off the excess foam from the slopes of the volcano with a sharp knife, after which we paint it with acrylic paints.

This model is operated in the same way as the paper one.

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