Eureka Volcanoes

I feel so blessed that I have the opportunity to volunteer as much as I want at the kids' school. Their school has developed a science enrichment program called "EureKa!" It's designed to get students excited about science through fun exploration experiments; each student attends five sessions throughout the year. This week was one of Will's, and it was hands down the coolest session ever: after the teaching portion where they went over the anatomy of volcanoes, we made our own. Now most homemade volcanoes are just pouring vinegar on top of baking soda. Big reaction + over quickly = boring. Not this one: in a tapered glass jar, we layered baking soda, then a few squirts of dish soap, chocolate syrup, ketchup, some Kix, Cocoa Krispies, and finally some red glitter. We then built a newspaper/cardboard/tape "mountain" around the bottle and covered it with sand. Only *then* did we add vinegar to the glass bottle, and the reaction was perfect: it took a few seconds to begin and lasted for five full minutes! It was so cool to see the cereal "rocks & debris" come out in the "lava" flow. We were all pretty enthralled:

PS - *NOTHING* is so precious as having your 3rd grade son snuggle up as close to you as he can & hold your hand while you help out at his school... ♥ I am sooo thankful he's not too cool for me, yet!!!