The Volcano Experiment

My daughter came up to me Friday morning and asked "Mommy what do you use in Chinese noodles?" 
I did not get her question at first. I answered "Soy sauce, dear."
She said "No, no, mommy! It looks like water and tastes sour, smells bad too."
Then I got to what she was asking about, "Its vinegar. Why are you asking? Do you want momma to cook noodles?"

She shook her head to a no and told me she wanted to make volcanoes??!!

VOLCANOES?
My daughter has been learning about volcanoes in her exploration room at her school for the past two days, and took fancy to the volcano experiment.

So, that's what all this was about.

Now what do I do? Remembered this science class experiment from long ago.  So packed up the ingredients and buckled up my 4-year-old in her car seat and off we went to learn more and have fun.

No, no I did not take her to see a volcano. There's nothing remotely resembling a volcano in Dubai.

We headed to the beach in this beautiful winter morning.
See what happened next.

DO NOT FORGET THE INGREDIENTS:

Baking Soda
Water 
Vinegar
Red food coloring
Dish washing liquid
Tomato Ketchup
Empty bottles or cups

Let's build the volcano first.
All we had to do was dig up a bit of the beach sand and plant the cup/bottle firmly into it. Then build up the volcano, just like you would do a sand castle. You may add rocks, for a better effect, or even shells, if the little one fancies that.

We then went on to make the lava/magma, which is a mixture of the following:
Water + Vinegar + Red food coloring + Dish washing liquid + Tomato Ketchup

We had this mixture filled and divided into about three bottles (for easily repeating this experiments, if my daughter wanted to go at it again and again).

Once done, pour in the baking soda and watch the volcano explode!!

• Baking soda reacts with the acetic acid in vinegar to produce carbon dioxide, hence producing the fizz. 
• The dish washing liquid helps with the bubbles. 
• Adding tomato ketchup (has vinegar as an ingredient) gets the reaction going slow, for a longer timeand realistic. 
• And the red food coloring adds the right bit of color. 
• The projectile of the lava also depends on the diameter of the mouth of the bottle used/ cup. 
• You can build a volcano to simulate any of its types, may be conical, gently sloping or the dome shaped ones. This also affects the flow of the lava mix.

You can experiment with various ratios to get an oozing out lava or a volcanic explosion. I played it safe and had lava making its way out slowly for a longer time.

Perfect.

Now hand over the rest of the bottles you have mixed to the little one and relax. Perfect weekend!

The little one grasped the entire concept magma, lava and the volcanic eruptions. Here is a helpful video for your kids.

Caution : Highly messy. Use a tray to contain the mess. Or still better, simply head outdoors like I did :-)
Never leave little children experimenting chemical reactions alone. Always to be done under the watchful adult eyes. 

Have fun!
FARZ

This post is linked to 
The Kids Coop Link party @The Sensory Seeker.com
Link and Learn @ No time for Flashcards

Learning Kid link Up - 11 @ Tree Valley Academy.com



Let kids be kids Linky

Whatever the Weather - Linky 12