summer crafts: volcano!

When we haven't been out enjoying the sun and dirt and trees, I've been trying to do some crafts with the kids. I admit, this is partly to make up for the fact that it will soon be schoooooooooltime, and I'm bad at doing school mess and craft mess in the same day, so I thought it best to get lots of craft mess in over the summer. Sort of stock up on it and hope it holds us over through the fall. (I mean special craft mess. There's always marker-and-paper-and-tape-and-scissors-and-stickers mess around here.) 

One of our best crafts so far has been making a volcano. I was inspired by this post. The best part was that the kids loved doing it. The worst part is that after we exploded it (with baking soda and vinegar, of course) and I let the kids fill the pie pan with water, the water and vinegar mixed with the playdough and we had goop everywhere.

Still, it was beautiful while it lasted:


If you look closely, you should be able to see the plastic sandwich baggie I rubber-banded onto the juice bottle top. That was to put the baking soda in for the explosion that was to come.
Adding the playdough was the part where the kids really got to do their thing. I showed them how to take little pieces and pat them on one at a time. It took awhile, but we covered all the cardboard, duct tape, and foil:
Then we had to get some denizens for our volcanic plain. Bring on the dinosaurs!
This last one is just post-explosion. Do you see how shiny that playdough is starting to get? It's about to turn completely liquid.

I feel for the poor dino stuck headfirst down the crater. I really do.

Peace of Christ to you,

Jessica Snell