Volcanoes
Earlier this year we spent a good bit of time investigating volcanoes and how they worked. One thing we did was to build this model from Canon as well as the inevitable Vinegar Volcano.
We had a lot of fun with various aspects of this topic including examining how the world was formed by making a plasticine landscape and filling it with water to watch mountains become island, something that tied in nicely with our sea project.
Another place to that two interests tied together nicely was with the Romans and Pompeii. We plan to revisit this soon as we want to do more on the Romans and also read this book as part of the winter “sofa-ed”
We are also going to read (again! its already been popular!) a book from Sonlight called Hill of Fire which is about the volcano El Monstruo or Paricutin in Mexico which erupted in a field and grew to a full sized volcano in a matter of days. Its been extremely popular here! (Rather more so than in Mexico i imagine!)
Some books which have been invaluable have been
Incredible Earth (Inside Guides) a truly impressive book which taught me A LOT neverm ind the kids and
Volcanoes Blow Their Tops: And Other… which is part of a series of books that answer great questions. We also used
I Wonder Why Mountains Have Snow on Top:…
and
I Wonder Why the Sea Is Salty: And Other…
My brother is a geologist, (with a volcano fetish) and has spent time with the girls playing with pieces of lava and giving them “guided tours” of volcanoes he has visited. he has promised me photos of his exploits for MuddlePuddle soon. In the mean time, here are some links he found for me.
3D Panoramic views of loads of volcanoes – this is an amazing site.
A fabulous place to visit is Dynamic Earth in Edinburgh. This is a walk through experience of Earth since the dawn of time. i don’t have photos of the exhibits, because it was too interesting to bother but i have fond memories of the shuttle back through time, the incredible explanation of evolution, a huge lump of ice, the rainforest and of course, the play area afterwards!!!!
A great day out, hugely worth the money!