Mt. Saint Clark Volcano

As the stages of quarantine have slowly each week been giving us a little more freedom back, I have rediscovered my love for the arts. I never actually lost my love for art, it just got piled on top with adult responsibilities. These last few weeks I have had the privilege of being able to give my nephews and niece art lessons. Nothing too intense.... one week we worked with pastels, the week before that we played with washable paint.

Now if anyone knows my nephew Grayson (Gray for short) he is a kid that is obsessed with volcanoes. I love kids at 3 and 4 years old, they get interested in something and start to learn every fact they can... (I don't think my brain ever lost that obsessive learning aspect). Now Grayson loves to tell me about the different types of volcanoes and even eruptions, his favorite being Mt. St. Helens. While being at their home a few weeks ago I saw that Gray had a nice collection of volcanoes that he told me about. Instantly my thoughts went to the early science projects for most children, a volcano made from paper mache.

As a kid I never did enter any science fair, nor did I ever do a paper mache project, but I am always game for something new. I thought it would be a great project that involved both science and art, and it would allow them to have a bigger volcano than the others he had.

I love how easy they are, and how out of a few homemade ingredients and paper along with a soda bottle, we could make a creation. To make it easier for the kids and their attention spans I tried to get a majority of it done beforehand so they could put on the finishing touches.

Below is the recipe for the paste for the volcano and also the recipe for the lava. After we let the volcano dry, the kids had so much fun painting it and putting their touches on it. This project was all worth it when I heard my little nephew say," That was so cool!" It's the little things in life that seem to be the most fun to me and make the most memories.

Paper Mache Paste

1 cup flour

1 cup of water

1/2 teaspoon salt

Mix thoroughly until it makes a paste/glue-like consistency. You do not want it too thick, so add a little water if needed. Mix well to remove lumps.

Steps to Create the Volcano Shape

After it dried for a week, we painted the volcano which the kids had a lot of fun doing. The lava for the volcano is super easy and with the tip of my sister-in-law of adding a little soap, we had the perfect bubbly eruption

Paper Mache Lava Recipe

1/2 cup of warm water

2/3 teaspoons baking soda

1/2 teaspoon red food coloring

1 teaspoon dish soap

1 cup vinegar

Mix the first four ingredients and with a funnel pour those into the volcano. When you are ready to have the eruption have someone carefully pour the 1 cup of vinegar into the volcano. Grab the funnel quickly and watch the lava flow out.

Lots of fun memories with the volcano project: