We had a chapter on volcanoes and isn't it convenient that we have a volcano right in our back yard? How many people have a dormant cinder cone and lava beds in their own neighborhood? And if we wanted to make the four hour drive, we could go take a look inside Mt. St. Helens. We can at least get a view of it on a clear day from Portland. Maybe next summer we'll drive out to the blast zone.
In the mean time the chapter ended with the typical volcano project so we fell for it. I made some play dough for the boys. Peter took one look and declared it looked like a pile of horse "banure." He clearly doesn't know what horse "banure" looks like, does he? No, I said. I looks like a lump of.....cookie dough! Yes, ginger spice cookie dough! Isn't that nice?
So they proceeded to sculpt their lump of cookie dough into a volcano-like shape.We then left it out for a couple days, hoping it would harden.
It didn't.
Oh, well. Phase Two. Peter took the baking soda and water....
...and Sam took the vinegar and food coloring.
And they put these two highly volatile ingredients into their pile of cookie dough that was now shaped like a cinder cone with side vents.
And you know what happened.
Sam, who was a little grumpy that day said, That was boring....
...let's do it again!!