Mini Volcanoes

When I took this project off Pinterest it was called Mini Volcanoes... When we actually did it, there was nothing about it "Volcano-like" except the fizzing and bubbling which I'm assuming is supposed to be lava? I did the project two different times with both families- but only one child from each family participated (the other was napping or at school).

The left is G (5) and the right is K (4).

You can see in the pictures that I tried it two different ways, the first time with G and a cookie sheet and the second with K and a 12-well muffin tin. Personally I liked it with the muffin tin much better- mess wise and being able to repeat the experiment was much simpler this way.

I'm going to be explaining the muffin pan method to keep it simple but it's SUPER easy to adapt if you're going to use a cookie sheet or other type of tray instead.

Project Supplies:
-baking soda
-vinegar
-food coloring
-Droppers (pipettes) (purchased here)
-Some kind of a pan (again I prefer the muffin pan)
-Small Bowls (if you're not using the muffin pan for the colored vinegar)

(Sidenote: I have I storage bin of "nannying supplies" in the trunk of my car just in case the family doesn't have something in their normal pantry, like the pipettes. Also, because I have multiple families it's nice to have pretty much everything I would need for a "normal" project or craft with me at all times, I'll do a post on this another day)

• In 8 of the wells pour in baking soda- I only poured enough to cover the bottom.
• In four other wells pour in vinegar- I eyeballed the amount but it filled the well about 1/3 of the way.
• Mix food coloring into each of the vinegar wells. I had four colors so each color had it's own well. You can mix color's if you want to get fancy!
• Using a pipette, squeeze up some of the colored vinegar and empty it on top of some baking soda! Watch it fizz and bubble! Both boys were amazed by this for quite some time.

• After you use up all 8 wells of baking soda, you can pour some more baking soda to cover up the already used mixture and start again!

When I did it with K, we put it to the side of the kitchen and saved it for when his brother came home from school and refilled each well with baking soda! Even T, who is 7, thought it was cool and was entertained for a good 15-20 minutes. The younger boys G (5) and K (4) were both entertained for at least 30 minutes!

Just to put it out there, I did not come up with this project by myself. I've seen it posted on multiple blogs and all over Pinterest. I do not take any credit for the idea of this project.