Volcanos & erosion

One of our projects for science was to make a salt dough volcano and have it explode with vinegar and baking soda.  Since we did that not too long ago and we had just bought some colored clay at the store, we decided to create volcanos with that instead.  It proved to be a bit more difficult than I anticipated, but the boys still made the best of it!  

He's telling me about his creation.
The clay came in long tube like shapes...Chaycers had a hard time squishing and shaping the clay so you can still see those tube like shapes on his volcano. 

Can you see his lava?!

Vann had a little better luck getting his clay to do what he wanted it to.  

He made a volcano, a giant and some smaller islands.  

And a mini volcano on the back side!  He had a hard time getting his big volcano to stand up straight...we didn't have quite enough dark clay.  But he did the best with what we did have!

This project is the perfect example of how things don't always go as planned and that's okay!  They still had fun and it didn't stop us from talking further about volcanos and all they had learned about them that week.  

One topic we've talked a lot about in our science lessons is erosion and how there are many types...water, sand, wind, acid rain, etc.  These next pics are from a demonstration they did using chalk and vinegar.  It was showing how acid rain affects statues.  

Watching the bubbles on the chalk.

Recording their results.

I love these workbooks and reading what the boys write.  It will be fun to look back on someday!