What kid isn’t fascinated by volcanoes?! All throughout our rock unit study were mentions of lava (igneous rocks) and the kids were anxious to finish up rocks so we could move onto the exploding mountains.
Journey to the Center of the Earth
First, we had to look at what goes on inside the center of the Earth, and where this lava comes from. After consulting our go-to Usborne Children’s Encyclopedia for the facts, a “layers of the Earth” printable gave a simple visual of the different layers of the Earth.
{Layers of the Earth printable}
We also got our mess on as we created the Earth’s layers with play dough.
Books and Movies
Books make up a big part of our unit studies, and we gleaned several from the library and our personal collection. A few we enjoyed:
- Hill of Fire
- Vacation Under the Volcano
- You Wouldn’t Want to Live in Pompeii
- Magic Schoolbus Blows Its Top
- Volcano: The Eruption and Healing of Mount St. Helens
- Volcanoes (Let’s-Read-and-Find-Out Science)
The kids also watched a pre-recorded session of a Magic Treehouse online book club, discussing book #13, Vacation Under the Volcano. We’ve participated in a few sessions of this free online club–both live and pre-recorded versions. They really enjoy the interaction and extra facts they learn. It’s also a fun way to test reading comprehension.
A few volcano videos we enjoyed:
Reading Rainbow: Hill of Fire
Beakman’s World (Netflix: Season 1, Episode 1)
Magic Schoolbus Blows Its Top (Netflix: Season 2, Episode 1)
Model Volcanoes
The classic volcano science project–erupting baking soda and vinegar models. It’s one of the school projects I remember making and loving as a child.
{More details on creating clay volcanoes coming soon.}
We also made Lego volcano models with erupting tissue paper “lava.”
Auditory, visual, and kinesthetic activities all aid subject comprehension. It can be lot of work to incorporate so many different projects on the same subject, but I find the kids having more fun and gaining a greater understanding as we incorporate a variety of learning styles. And it just so happens I also have one kid with each learning strength! So I do what I can to cover our bases and cater to everyone’s best abilities when we’re doing a unit study.
For more fun, hands-on learning ideas that appeal to visual, auditory, and kinesthetic learners, follow Keeping Life Creative on Pinterest.