Year 4 experiment with exploding volcanoes

This week we had lots of fun creating our own exploding volcanoes! After making a model volcano, the children added warm water, baking soda, food colouring and washing up liquid to the bottle hidden inside. Finally, vinegar was added to start the eruption! This demonstration showed an acid base reaction where the acid (vinegar) chemically reacts with the base (the baking soda) and the two release carbon dioxide gas, which bubbles out. The liquid soap helps make the “lava” extra foamy!

We have also been working hard to make our very own volcano booklets, which will soon be proudly displayed in our classrooms. These combine what we have learnt about the structure of the Earth, plate tectonics and volcanoes, with our current English focus on explanation texts. After looking carefully at the features of these texts, we planned how to organise our writing and tried to include: titles and subheadings phrased as questions, causal and temporal conjunctions to explain how and why, technical vocabulary specific to the topic and clearly labelled diagrams to aid the reader's understanding. Our colourful booklets will include some great explanations of the different parts of a volcano, how a volcano erupts and the different types of eruption.

We are all looking forward to an exciting trip to The Natural History Museum next Wednesday, where we will discover lots more about earthquakes and other natural disasters. We will also begin to investigate rocks and soils, as this will be a science focus after half term. Look out for news and pictures from this visit next week!