Erupting Rainbow Volcanoes

Kids LOVE science experiments. My kids can never get enough of them. Whether it be concocting two liquids together to create a separation between them. Or making slime that creates a magnetic force when played with!! Or how about mixing just a couple of everyday household items to create erupting volcanoes?

This is one of our favourites and the kids never tire of it. Its simple yet fun and gives the kids lots of hands on learning when it comes to science.

Household Items

So long as you have vinegar, baking soda and food colouring/colour tablets you can create a ‘volcano’ 🙂

For the colour part, we used small colour tabs. You can get them in craft kits or in the craft stores. We had some from easter time that were to decorate eggs with. Most of these dyes are non-toxic but be sure to not have your kids eat them- just in case! Ours were non-toxic. You can also use regular food colours but the tabs were great for this activity.

Secret Colour Volcanoes

For our volcanoes I hid a tablet into a small pot and covered it with a small amount of baking soda. The tablet was well hidden so the kids had no idea what colour their erupting volcano would be.

I filled a plastic bottle that could be squeezed, with white vinegar. then the small pots were lined up ready to fill.

Ready, Set, Squirt!

Then we went to town pouring the vinegar along the line and into each pot. The kids had a blast squirting the vinegar into the pots and watching them erupt. You could hear the baking soda fizz as it made its way to the top of the pot! The colours didn’t all show through at first so we stirred them all until they revealed their colours. And oh wow, amazing!

We just kept adding more vinegar to the baking soda and it kept erupting more. Sometimes the baking soda will settle at the bottle but once you stir it, it’s usually fine.

It was so fun to watch them overflowing! The kids commented on how one looked like a mushroom head when we took pictures lol!

Even after the vinegar and baking soda had settled and the fizzing stopped, it was amazing to see all the colours blending into each other. It looked so pretty. The kids played with it for a while and my son even started adding oil to each pot to see what reaction it would have with the vinegar.

For such a simple activity the kids had a blast with this one. You can always take notes and perhaps do a before and after scenario;

• What will happen when we pour the vinegar?
• What colours do you think will appear?
• Which volcano will erupt the most?
• What happens when you add oil?
• What does it sound like when it erupts?