The Little Sewing Shop: Volcanoes and tectonics lapbook, unit study and playdate!

We learned all about volcanoes, tectonic plates, and a little about earthquakes!

We made some artwork, made a lapbook, and had a really fun volcano science playdate.

Some volcano artwork:

First, we did a dimensional piece using paper clay. I had the kids cut a volcano shape from paper, then mush the paper clay onto the paper. Paper clay is like a powdery paper, you just add water and it becomes a lumpy sort of clay, perfect for any project you'd use paper mache on. It dries hard as a rock!

Next, they painted their volcanoes with black and brown. We did this while the clay was still wet, which works fine but makes it take a bit longer to dry. I didn't get a picture, but the next step was to glue it down on black paper and draw lava with chalk and pastels. We added a bit of glitter flake too. Pictures of the finished art are below the next project...

Second volcano art project:

Paint a volcano shape on white paper.

Add a few drops of red, orange and yellow liquid water color (food coloring would work)

Blow the paint with a straw:

Here are the two finished projects! These were done by two 7yr old boys and a 3yr old girl - as you can see they look pretty similar, so these work for all ages.

Here Levi was learning about plate tectonics. He used his books to demonstrate the different ways plates move. (Convergent boundary here) - His shirt is an anatomy shirt I made him when he took a "human body" class.

We had some lava rocks in our fire pit, I let the boys hammer away, it kept them entertained for a long time!

Then we mixed the "ash" with water to demonstrate mud slides that can occur after volcano eruptions. The boys also spent a long time sweeping up the extra rock dust (more entertainment there!)

Next is our Volcano Science playdate:

This is a list/description of the 10 different "tasks" we did

This is the cover for the kids booklet

These are the rest of the pages

First, the kids labeled parts of a volcano:

We talked about the layers of the earth, colored in a "key" and made a model out of clay.
Recipe here

The little ones were entertained by lava slime , water beads (lava rocks?) , and baking soda in a box with vinegar to drip into it.

We peeled an orange, and tried to put it back on with toothpicks. This represents the tectonic plates and how things happen at the plate boundaries.

I demonstrated different types of eruption by squeezing a water bottle - little bits for, and then a big splash! The kids took turns trying afterwards.

I made volcanoes out of baking soda and enough water to make a clay like consistency. I shaped them into mini-volcanoes, and then froze them to keep their shape for transport. I showed the kids how to put in a drop of soap, food color, and then drip in vinegar. They really enjoyed this one!

We spread icing on foil, and then used crackers to represent tectonic plates, moving them to show the different way plates move.

We did the same volcano "blow art" project with water color paint.

I also did the "mentos and coke" demonstration for a big eruption. I should have bought more coke and mentos because they wanted to see it again 2 seconds after it was done (doesn't last long!)

I asked Levi to take a video, and all I got was this: