A really fun activity for teaching your child about what happens underneath the earth and how many rocks (and mountains) were formed is by making your own volcano! Many of the rocks in this area (basalt, rhyolite, and in some areas, obsidian) were formed by volcanic activity.

To create your own volcano, you will need a cardboard box, old newspapers, aluminum foil, wet sand, an empty soup can, 1/4 cup of baking soda, 1 cup of water, 3/4 cup of vinegar, 1/2 cup of dishwashing liquid, 10 drops of yellow food coloring and 10 drops of red food coloring.

Put the box on top of the old newspapers to protect your table’s surface. Line your box with aluminum foil and fill the box with wet sand. Place the soup can in the center of the box. Form the sand around the can into a volcanic cone to complete your volcano. Make sure the can is completely hidden by the sand. 

Then pour the backing soda into the can. Measure out all the parts of the eruption mixture into one large measuring cup. To start the eruption, add the complete eruption mixture into the soup can and watch the lava pour from your erupting volcano! One word of advise…you might want to tell your child that it will be more of a lava “flow” rather than an “eruption”. My son was a little disappointed that our volcano didn’t look quite like the ones we saw in the pictures of the books I showed him about volcanoes!