science is cool.

Last week I made a volcano (Kilauea on the Big Island) and made it erupt for my preschool class.

Did you know I teach preschool? I didn't ever think I'd be teaching preschool. That's what people who go to school to teach little people do. Not me. I'm a graphic designer. *Surprise* I'm learning that as a mom, you learn to do a LOT of things you didn't think you would be learning to do.

Four awesome moms. Four crazy kids (plus 2 toddlers by default). Two days a week. We do fun things, like blow up paper mache volcanoes, go on a lot of outings, and to my astonishment, the kids have been learning a LOT. Success! And exhaustion. I'm always SO tired after teaching four crazies. Sometimes I think, "Wow, this is fun. I did a pretty good job today. Maybe I could be a teacher." long pause... "Uh, no. I don't have nearly enough energy (or patience) to be a real teacher." So to those of you who teach or have taught, well done. You have my respect. And appreciation.



So. The volcano. It's cool, isn't it? I was pretty pleased with how it turned out (thus the photo). I've never made anything out of paper mache before. I didn't have any newspaper, so I cut up four brown paper lunch bags into strips and made the glue out of flour and water. Then dumped dirt/gravel from the street over the top while it was still wet, glued a few plants on and painted ocean around the base. The kids got a kick out of the lava eruption (baking soda, vinegar, dish soap, food coloring).



Here are the details just in case you were wanting to build a volcano this weekend... ;)

1. I cut a hole in the bottom of the box large enough for my small gatorade bottle to fit through (so I could mix up 2 tablespoons of baking soda, red/yellow food coloring, a bit of dish soap and 2/3 of the bottle with very warm water. Then I popped the gatorade bottle into the volcano and poured in the vinegar from the top to make it errupt.)

2. With the gatorade bottle in place, I covered it with a plastic grocery bag (to give it a little shape and keep the materials from sticking to the bottle). I cut a hole in the top of the bag and started taping strips of cardboard around the top and down the sides using masking tape to make a web type frame structure for the volcano.

3. Cut 4 brown paper lunch sacks into strips. Dip into paper mache glue mixture (flour and water mixed together - consistency about like Elmers glue). Wipe off excess glue. Drape strips of paper across the framework and smooth out. Continue until volcano (and plastic bag is completely covered). I did not paper mache the entire cardboard box.

4. The girls got a shovel full of dirt/gravel from the street and we poured it over the top as the glue was drying. We glued a few plant pieces and rocks to the base to landscape it and painted water around the base to look like ocean (since lava from Kilauea on the Big Island runs right down into the ocean - and then we could talk about how our islands were formed by volcanoes). Let dry for 24 hours.

Ta Da. Volcano.