By Nolan Caruso, Miss Marois’s Fourth Grade Class
Story author Nolan Caruso is seen at left pouring the mixture. Photo courtesy Julia Bancroft School
In science we learned about volcanoes. We started to get many lessons about volcanoes. We went to the computer lab to create our own virtual volcano and erupt them. But we weren’t finished yet! We still had to make real volcanoes.
In science class, we cut a whole in a red paper cup and tapped it to a paper plate. When we went to art the next day, we found that each table had two small tubs of glue. There were piles of shredded newspaper next to the glue. Mrs. Bieksha told us to put the newspaper into the glue and then put the sticky newspaper on our cups and plates. We covered the cup and plate from head to toe in sticky newspaper.
The next time we went to art, the paper was dry! We got to my favorite part of making the volcano; painting! I chose to paint my volcano black. We could paint our volcano black, blue, or brown. We were also using yellow, red, and orange for the lava. All the materials we used were designed for the experiment to be done multiple times.
JB students prep for volcano “eruptions.” Story author Nolan Caruso is seen at left pouring the mixture. Photo courtesy Julia Bancroft School
The next week, we took our volcanoes back to our class. We waited until Halloween to erupt our volcanoes. My class was the first outside. We formed a straight line and waited for the other classes to come out. When the square of students was formed, it reminded me of the Ring of Fire like we had learned about in Science.
One by one, each student poured their cup of vinegar into the volcano. It mixed with the baking soda already placed inside the volcano. The volcanoes started sprouting out fizz and bubbles that poured over the side of the volcano. It sure was fun! Everyone enjoyed the bubbly, foamy, fizzy liquid coming out of our volcanoes. I can’t wait to do the experiment again! BOOM!
Students experiment with model volcanoes. Photo courtesy Julia Bancroft School