VOLCANO DAY
Welcome to our “Adventures in Nature Week” – an at home camp filled with days of relaxed learning and fun themed activities all themed to exploring nature – rainforests, mountains, caves, volcanos and more! For this day, we focused on volcanoes, how they form, and how they erupt! Read on to check it out!
A TYPICAL DAY
All kids are different and you can definitely vary your day with whatever works for you 🙂 But the gist of our day is having our kiddos focus on some work books or online learning tools in the early morning, an intro to the day’s theme after they were done, some videos around lunch time, and themed activities (reading time, writing time, crafts, food crafts/snacks, and games or experiments) in the afternoon. Feel free to pick and choose whatever works for you 🙂
INTRO
What school-aged kid doesn’t love (or at least hasn’t heard of) the age-old science volcano explosion experiment! We just had to add in a day of volcanoes during our Adventures in Nature week!
If you need a few references, here are a few web pages created for kids – they’re easy to follow for kids who are at reading stages and great to read to for little ones as most have some nice visuals/pictures as well!
- Volcano by kids.britannica.com
- 17 Explosive Volcano Facts by www.natgeokids.com
WHAT TO WATCH
We find that mixing in a short video themed to our day is a great way to add some learning fun! We try to pick informative videos OR mix in a cartoon favorite (where they don’t even realize they’re learning). Below are some of the videos we picked from for the day:
- The Magic School Bus Blows Its Top S02E01
- All About Volcanoes: How They Form, Eruptions & More! By SciShowKids (3m)
- Volcanoes for Kids | A fun and engaging introduction to volcanoes for children by Learn Bright (7m)
FOOD CRAFTS / SNACKS
What’s more fun than taking a break and having a simple snack??? Including the snack in your theme of the day! We find that our kiddos are more than happy to eat the snacks they create especially when they can arrange them into fun shapes and scenes!
For our snack of the day, we made some sandwiches and cut them into triangles. Then we added some carrots for lava (sliced red peppers would work too but we didn’t have those handy).
READING
It’s no secret that reading helps prevent that summer slide. Some even say this is the most important. For our older ones, we have them fill out some worksheets (or let them create some of their own comics) to describe what they read and/or learned!
- Step Into Reading: Volcanos
WRITING & WRITING PROMPTS
Just like reading, writing helps prevent that summer slide by both encouraging their creativity but also their motor skills and penmanship.
If you’ve got a little one, have them trace words rel hiated to the theme: NATURE, EXPLORATION, VOLCANO, LAVA
If you’ve got older children, have them write a sentence or two up to a page or two (depending on their age). Encourage them to be creative AND give reasons for why they made certain choices. This was our writing prompt of the day (and we offered up some examples as well) but definitely pick something your kiddo might be interested in writing about!
- Create your own myth about a volcano. Make sure it explains why lava shoots out of it?
CREATE & CRAFT
If you’ve got a crafty little one, a simple craft is a great way to keep them interested in the topic. While their creative juices are flowing, you can also chat about what they’ve learned so far or ask them what else they’re excited about learning!
- Paper Volcanos: Paper Plate Volcano from cindyderosier.com
- Volcano Kit: This one is actually part craft / part science experiment: National Geographic Volcano Kit. Since the kiddos have to create and paint the volcano, you can either start with the craft portion OR have the craft portion done and focus on the science portion for the day. Our little ones decided to go an extra step and add in some figurines and dragons to “complete the scene” 🙂
STEM & STEAM ACTIVITIES
While crafting and writing get their creativity and imagination flowing, we also like to add in an activity that gets them thinking along the lines of science, technology, engineering, or math! These engaging activities or experiments are a great way to keep them learning!
For our science activity, we picked up a National Geographic Volcano Kit. It was a fun activity but definitely requires more than a day as the mold needs to set overnight. The kit does contain some items to create the “volcanic explosion” but you may want to have some baking soda and vinegar handy for multiple attempts 🙂 It’s also a great time to talk through why the reactions occur.
THANK YOU!!!
Thank you for checking out our at home camp article! If you enjoyed this post, please let us know what you think in the comments below and/or follow us on Pinterest
Also, if you haven’t already, check out some of our other Nature-Themed Day, as well as our DIY At Home Camps!
Happy Learning!
