There are sure to be at least one or two eruptions in your household over spring break, so why not make your own!! Here’s a great way to pass the morning with your kids while on spring break. Once the volcano is built, you can make it erupt over and over again – we kept ours around for a few days!
To make your volcano, you will need:
Salt Dough:
- 3 cups flour
- 1 cup salt
- 2 tablespoons oil
- ~ 1 cup water
Volcano form & lava:
- warm water with a few drops red food colouring
- 2 tbsp baking soda
- 1/2 cup to 1 cup vinegar
- large baking sheet with a rimmed edge (could use a 9×13 cake pan instead)
- Clean, empty soup can (10 oz) You could use an empty pop bottle instead, but we liked the can because it was easy for my son to manage building around it and pouring ingredients in the wide opening without any help, and it’s small enough to get a quick ‘eruption’
Mix the salt dough:
Measure Dry ingredients
Add the wet ingredients
Stir to combine, then knead until smooth. You may need to add more flour or water if too wet or too dry
Play Dough ready for modeling our volcano
To make the volcano:
Place clean can in centre of baking sheet. Form dough around can in a cone shape
My guy decided to carve some flow lines into his volcano (from where it had previously erupted, he explained)
Fill can with warm coloured water to ~ 3/4 full
Add 2 tbsp baking soda and stir to mix. Now for the fun part:
ADD VINEGAR!
Watch the lava flow over the volcano! You can add more vinegar once the eruption settles down. We did this over and over again! Might have to dump everything out and start with more baking soda if your volcano no longer erupts.