Teacher working with kids on a volcano project.

Instructing the students to make projects for the annual exhibition of our school was exciting, interesting and even sometimes a frustrating experience for me. As a primary school teacher I was responsible for the section where Geography projects would be displayed. A batch of five 8-9 year old students was making a volcano that would be active and lava would pour out of the main vent of that volcano. Amid a lot of giggling, quarreling and playing with PVA glue the making of the model started. A piece of cardboard was cut up and stapled like a funnel. A plastic tube with a one inch diameter and the length of the tube equal to the height of the funnel was taped to the hard board on which the volcano was to be made. Then the cardboard mountain was placed over this tube and with the use of tape the two were secured to the hard board base.

Then taking strips of newspaper and some PVA glue mixed with some water, paste the slips of paper all around the mountain. Apply some glue with a brush, stick the paper over it and then again apply glue over it. In this way go around the mountain pasting newspaper strips and give a certain shape to the mountain that you want. This might seem a tedious process but believe me the kids love this portion the most. Then the mountain needs to dry up completely. Initially paint the whole mountain white and after drying then use brown and green colors to paint the mountain. This makes the colors brighter. Fill half the vent or the plastic tube in the middle of the mountain with baking soda along with orange or red food coloring and while demonstrating the working of the volcano pour some vinegar into the vent that will result in a lot of frothing and red liquid along with bubbles pouring out of the mountain and wow a volcano is born!