Supplies needed:
1/2 tbsp dish soap
1/4 cup white vinegar
1/2 cup baking soda
Red liquid watercolor or food coloring
Tray or cookie sheet
Cylinder shape container for the "volcano" (i.e., toilet paper tube, plastic soda bottle with the top cut off, or a can
Process:
In a measuring bowl, mix the vinegar, dish soap, and a few drops of food coloring together.
Place the cylinder on a tray or cookie sheet and place the baking soda at the bottom of the cynider container.
When ready, begin pouring the vinegar mixture on top of the baking soda. Stand back and see what happens.
Suggested adult interactions:
Encourage children to try experimenting with the recipe -- what happens if you add more or less of an ingredient, or compare recipes without soap and with soap. Make predictions as to what will happen.
Try batches with different food coloring and see what color they make when they mix.
Discuss what the children think is happening when the baking soda and vinegar mix.
Skills developed:
Early science of cause and effect, predictions, and experimentation
Reading books:
National Geographic Readers: Volcanoes! by Anne Schreiber
Voyage to the Volcano by Judith Stamper and John Speirs
Adult references:
More Than Magnets by Sally Moomaw and Brenda Hieronymus
202 Oozing, Bubbling, Dripping and Bouncing Experiments by Janice VanCleave
Next time you visit the Museum:
Check out Dinosaurs: Land of Fire and Ice for your last chance to travel back in time to explore the late Cretaceous Period (when the last dinosaurs lived). Closes May 31!
Have you made a volcano at home before?
What are some of the best variations you've tried?
Last week, we wrote about ways to help encourage children to explore their world. Bring the following list to your local library to open the door through books, and prepare for a trip through the newest exhibit at the Museum, The Children of Hangzhou: Connecting with China:
- Moonbeams, Dumplings & Dragon Boats: A Treasury of Chinese Holiday Tales, Activities & Recipes by Leslie Swartz and Nina Simonds
- Lion Dancer: Ernie Wan's Chinese New Year (Reading Rainbow Books) by Kate Waters and Martha Cooper
- Chinese Children's Favorite Stories by Minamei Yip
At Minnesota Children's Museum, we support children in developing a positive view of themselves and their own culture. We also engage children in exploring other traditions so they can interact effectively with a variety of people.
Developing cultural competence results in an ability to understand, communicate with, and effectively interact with diverse people. One way the Museum supports these skills is by hosting exhibits such as Children of Hangzhou: Connecting with China, which opened earlier this month.
You can help your child build positive attitudes and cultural skills at home.
- Compare your family traditions with those in other cultures such as China. What and with whom do you celebrate? How are the celebrations alike and different?
- Try foods from other countries. Visit a restaurant or find an ethnic recipe to make at home. Use chopsticks at home and read the book How My Parents Learned to Eat by Ina Friedman, which tells how the author's Japanese mother and American father adapted to new cultures.
- Attend a cultural celebration.
- Look for experiences in which children encounter familiar things in new ways and new things in familiar ways.
Ann Boekhoff
Director of Special Projects, Minnesota Children's Museum
Two young visitors chatted with us while playing in the new exhibit Dinosaurs: Land of Fire and Ice.
Share any videos you may have taken from the Dinosaurs exhibit!
Tomorrow, the Museum opens a new exhibit called Trash Bash. The exhibit encourages visitors to increase their knowledge, skills, attitudes, motivation and commitment toward sustaining a healthy environment. Children will use recycled and reused materials to create art, music and imaginative play activities.
It makes us wonder here at the Museum -- how much do we know about our trash?
Last month, the New York Times had an article about tracking where trash goes -- literally following paper cups, a can of beans -- to their "final" destinations. The article cites one woman's musings that perhaps the key to sustainable living is emphasizing reducing rather than recycling.
A new exhibit called Out on a Limb opens tomorrow, September 19. It promotes nature-play through a sculptural, interactive design and incorporates nostalgic settings, such as a tree house and a fort-building area.
Out on a Limb was designed to inspire children and their caregivers to learn to explore nature by using their senses. More than simply seeing the beauty of a tree, the exhibit encourages visitors to hear the sounds of the forest, use leaves to make beautiful art, and build big and little structures from bark and limbs.
The whimsical atmosphere of Out on a Limb is created in part by children’s nature-themed artwork that makes up the faux bark and leaf canopy of the centerpiece tree. The individual exhibits, Whirlwind, Light Play, Forest Jam and Gnome Home, further enhance the magical scenery and are tools to enhance exploration. For example, individual activities encourage children to experiment with light and shadow, patterns of leaves, music of the forest, and the effects of the changing seasons. The exhibits also provide practice with the physical skills of climbing and balancing, which helps children to develop self-confidence in outdoor play.
For children, Out on a Limb provides a unique space for unstructured play, where they can create a connection with nature on their own; while for parents and caregivers, the exhibit represents an opportunity to reminisce about their own childhood experiences in the outdoors and to re-connect with nature exploration with their children. For visitors of all ages, there are places for building, climbing, listening and exploring -- all designed to inspire a love of nature.
Inspired in particular by works from environmentalist Rachel Carson, philosopher Henry David Thoreau, and author Richard Louv, Out on a Limb’s distinctive design delivers on its promise to use natural artistic materials and full-sensory activities to nurture children’s inborn curiosity about and love for nature.
Few things can get children excited like dinosaurs. These giants from long ago have a unique way of capturing the young imagination. Dinosaurs: Land of Fire and Ice, which opens December 19, will take visitors back in time to explore the late Cretaceous Period when dinosaurs last roamed the earth. Once in the exhibit, they will discover dinosaur habitats to better understand how these mysterious animals lived, and use inquiry skills to examine what the dinosaurs left behind.
Typically, children encounter dinosaurs on the pages of a book or as petrified bones behind a glass wall. At Minnesota Children’s Museum, they’ll see them face-to-face, literally able to immerse themselves into an entire prehistoric world. A key component of this exhibit is the construction of two sculpted dinosaurs, a Troodon and the larger Edmontosaurus. These original pieces will give children the rare opportunity to have a true hands-on encounter with life-sized and life-like dinosaurs.
“The exhibit builds on children’s fascination with dinosaurs,” states Mary Weiland, the Museum’s exhibit developer. “It combines large motor skills with dramatic play for unique whole-body, age-appropriate activities, like sitting in a nest of Troodon eggs; clambering through a bog walk; touching large, realistic, sculpted dinosaurs; and donning vests and goggles to uncover fossils.”
What do a bagel, a ball and a banana all have in common? Cut them through the center, and each one has a circle inside! Our upcoming exhibit, Secrets of Circles, allows children to explore the math, science and engineering of circles. Read more about Secrets of Circles. What kind of exhibit would you like to see at Minnesota Children's Museum?
