How To Make a Snow Volcano

It’s winter which means it’s time for snow storms and snow days! We recently had over 2 feet of snow dumped on our town so we had to come up with some creative ways to play with all that snow. In addition to the traditional sledding and snowman building, we decided to have a little learning fun too by making snow volcanoes!

There are so many amazing benefits to making a snow volcano! It is a great way to introduce kids to scientific concepts while also having fun. Making a snow volcano also helps encourage creativity as well as build problem solving, visual-spatial, and fine motor skills. Plus, kids can learn all about art by mixing colors and seeing what fun lava they can create. Here is how to make this exciting scientific experiment!

What You Will Need:

ingredients for snow volcano

  • Snow
  • Baking Soda
  • Liquid Dish Soap
  • White Vinegar
  • Food Coloring
  • Plastic cups
How To Make a Snow Volcano:
  1. Using the snow, create a mountain that looks like a volcano.
  2. Put the cups inside the volcano.
  3. Add a few drops of dish soap into the cup.
  4. Add a generous amount of baking soda.
  5. Add food coloring (any color).
  6. Pour in the vinegar and watch it ERUPT!

snow volcano

So easy right?! What’s fun about this experiment is that it can be done in so many ways. My kids made 3 different volcanoes, each with different color lava. You can also experiment with how much baking soda and vinegar you use. This is a fun way to introduce cause and effect as well as making hypotheses about what will happen. In addition, if it’s too cold or windy outside, a snow volcano can be made inside using a giant plastic tub or tray. The possibilities are endless!

Watch our video for step by step instructions:

You may also enjoy:

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How to Make Your Own Snow Ice Cream

Brain Boosting Activities Using Snow

Unique Ways to Have Fun This Winter

Encouraging a Love of Science

2 Comments

  1. Interesting fact: In Iceland, there are many active volcanoes buried under snow, ice, and even glaciers. When the volcanoes erupt, ash often covers the snow before the lava flow arrives. When hot lava meets snow and ice, hissing steam erupts into the air.  Try the same experiment using warm vinegar.   Ask your child whether he thinks it will make a bigger or smaller eruption and let him test to see whether he guessed correctly. (Chemical reactions happen faster when heat is added.)

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