Volcano Busy Bags

Last week Mount Etna erupted so I decided to do a little volcano activity with the children. I like to use real life events for inspiration for craft projects. It gets the children involved in what's going on around the world and gives them some general knowledge along with all the fun stuff.

I found some videos on You Tube showing the volcano erupting. The kids found them  fascinating.

We made a volcano Collage using tissue paper for lava.

My little boy loved decorating the volcano so I decided to make him a Volcano busy bag.

Firstly I stuck a volcano on a piece of white paper

I then shredded some orange tissue paper and cut out other scenery shapes that can be used to decorate his volcano. I found an old biscuit tin to store them in so he can put them away and get them out to play with whenever he likes.

Here is little mans first creation. 'There's lots of fire, its HOT HOT HOT' he shouts. 'That's why there is lots of smoke'

 'Watch out Mr Dinosaur the lava is coming to get you' 

Add a few more sceneries and items to your box. They can come in handy when you need to occupy them for five minutes or to keep them quiet while you answer the phone :)

Here are some other Volcano projects we have done :)

http://amazinglittleminds.blogspot.co.uk/2012/08/erupting-paper-mache-volcano.html

http://amazinglittleminds.blogspot.co.uk/2012/08/mountvesuviuserupts.html

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This day in history - Mount Vesuvius erupts

On the 24th August 79Ad Mount Vesuvius erupted and buried Pompeii

pompeii is in Italy. The country shaped like a boot.

The flag is green,white, and red.

We made a volcano and made it erupt. To find out more check out my post by clicking on the image caption.

erupting paper mache volcano

I explained that Mount Vesuvius erupted and buried a whole city called Pompeii. Everyone forgot about the city and it was not discovered until nearly 2000 years later by a archaeologist.


What is a archaeologist?

An archaeologist is someone who tries to find out about the past by looking at things people left behind. They look at  skeletons and fossils and artifacts.

These are the things archaeologists found in Pompeii

Setting up a  Archaeology dig 

We made some clay (4 cups of flour, 1 cup of salt, and 1½ cups of water) and made a city. My children are really young so they were basically balls with there thumbs pressed into one side to make a door but they were aware of what they were and thats all that matters. We also made some bracelets and some vases that were broke in half (so they can be pieced together at the dig). We placed them in the oven  at 180°C for 1 hour and then painted them.

I placed the houses in the bottom of the sensory table and covered them with sand. I then buried the other pieces we made along with lots of 2p and 1p coins. I kept half of the table empy so that they could move teh sand across later.

City before we buried it.

Becoming Archaeologists

A true archaeologist needs the right outfit and tools. We made some cardboard fedora hats using this fabulous tutorial by justjonty on instructables and equipped ourselves with spoons and toothbrushes.

Unfortunately I did not have time to paper mache and paint our hats but we will definitely be doing this later. These are fab to add to the fancy dress box. The children did not seem to mind they were quite happy with just the cardboard.

The dig!

We used the spoons to search the sand and used the toothbrush to rub the sand of the items before putting them into a tub. I explained that digging at a site is slow and careful work to make sure they don't miss or damage anything

I originally set up a archaeologist tent using a hula hoop, shower curtain, and ribbon. Inside was a table with boxes for them to sort out the things they find. It was too windy to use the tent so we had to make do with just the table :(

We used the pink tub for items and the black for coins. Once we got near to the bottom we started to uncover the city. We had to be really careful. We used our hands and the toothbrush to brush the sand away from the buildings.

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Erupting paper mache volcano

For the base I used a box with a small edge to catch the lava when we erupt our volcano. I then sellotaped  a small box in the center to give the lava chamber height. I made the lava chamber by cutting a milkshake bottle in half.

We then glued loosely scrunched up newspaper around the frame and then secured it with masking tape.

We mixed some paper mache: 2 cups of flour mixed with 2 cups of water. We then used it to stick strips of newspaper all over the volcano. We covered it in 6 layers. We applied the first three layers on day 1 and left it to dry a little next to a hot radiator for a hour between applying each layer. I then left it to dry properly over night. In the morning it was completely dry and we did the same with the last 3 layers.

After painting it and allowing it to dry we took it outside to make it erupt. We filled 1/4 of the center with  baking powder and then added  4oz of vinegar, and a drop of red food dye.

When the lava dried it gave the volcano a awesome effect.

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