The bubbling volcano
Teacher Lize has a surprise for her Class: today they’re going to make a volcano! With bubbling ingredients and curious questions, the children discover how science can be fun, and full of wonder.
“We are going to enjoy a wonderful day at school, today.” Teacher Lize said one Monday morning to her Bear Class. Some of the children are still a little heart sore, because it was weekend and they slept later than usual. This morning they had to get up early.
“What are we going to do, Teacher?” Ethan asks. Everybody is listening very carefully. They are very curious.
“We are going to do an experiment. We are going to make a volcano.”
“What is an experiment?”
“What is a volcano?”
The teacher must quickly think to answer all of the questions. They are very excited.
“An experiment is when we combine a few ingredients to see what will happen. A volcano is a mountain which sprays lava from its top as soon as the earth is boiling hot.”
“What is lava?”
“Lava is something like mud, but it is boiling hot and it bubbles from the mountain’s highest top. The volcano we are going to make is not a real one, but we would like to show you what happens and how it looks like on a smaller scale.”
“What are we going to do?”
“We use vinegar, baking soda, dishwashing liquid and food colouring to make our volcano.
Can you see, I do have all the ingredients in my basket? We are going outside to do this experiment. Let’s walk in a straight line to the sand pit. We cannot do the experiment in the class as it makes a huge mess.”
The toddlers are as quiet as mice while walking with Teacher to the sand pit. They sit in a circle around her, so that they can see what she does. For a while everyone is quiet. It is a big moment for all of them.
“I will pour all the ingredients together and then you will see what happens.”
The moment when Teacher pours the vinegar into the mix, it bubbles and sizzles and then cooks out into the sand pit. The toddlers watch closely and suddenly it is chaos: Everyone wants to tell what they see; some wants to make their own volcano: others are a little scared after seeing what happened.
After they helped Teacher Lize to clear up, Teacher asked them to draw a picture of what they saw. They use paper and wax crayons and then drew the most beautiful volcanoes, ever!
That afternoon when their mommies picked them up, they still are extremely excited and cannot stop telling the story of the big, bubbling volcano.