I admit that I have not done too many volcano projects with my kids over the years. In part it’s because I have reservations doing a chemistry experiment as part of a geology unit. Volcanic eruptions are nothing like the reaction between an acid and base, but I do confess, they are spectacular to do and oh so much fun. I picked up this kit Scientific Explorers All About Volcanoes from Tuesday Morning deeply discounted at only $4.00. I looked for more, but only found one. If you happen to shop there, I’d recommend checking the toy section for some fabulous finds on educational toys.

This kit came with a sturdy plastic mold with seven volcanoes modeled after real volcanoes. After painting and assembling the tubing, we set to work identifying each volcano using the included booklet for information and clues to determine which volcanoes were on the mold. This part was more challenging than I expected and at first, I was annoyed that a schematic of  plastic mold with the volcanoes already identified wasn’t provided. But, in the end, I was thankful that we had to do the work to figure it out. My 10 year old son and I worked on this project together with my five year old daughter helping with the painting. I highly recommend this kit in part because the mold was designed to represent real volcanoes.

I am very pleased with the outcome of the project and was impressed with the quality and durability of the kit. The booklet also has information on volcanoes, how they are formed and the different types and how to identify them. This was useful and practical information for the construction of the kit and really brought to life some of the information we’d been learning about volcanoes for the past several weeks.