Are you an ESL teacher looking for an interesting science experiment to do in your next ESL lesson? At Step by Step Eikaiwa in Japan, we’re always looking for fun and interactive ways to teach English in our ESL classes. One popular activity that we sometimes do is make baking soda and vinegar volcanoes. Over the years, we have made many of these in our kids classes, at events, and even in our adult classes. The best part about doing this craft in your ESL class is that it only takes 10 minutes to make, and you can do the eruption right away!
Of course, this is more than just a fun craft and science experiment. It’s an English lesson as well. We recommend that you take some time before building your volcanoes to teach your kids some English words about volcanoes (volcano, lava, eruption, etc.), some words about the ingredients and materials (baking soda, vinegar, food coloring, clay, etc.), and some verbs that you’ll use (Can I have a ____?, Put the ____ on the ____, Pour the ___ in the volcano, etc.).
We usually have a slide show with vocabulary and pictures of real volcanoes. We also have a video showing how to make a science experiment volcano in less than 10 minutes on our YouTube channel.
Here’s what you’ll need to make your own ESL craft volcano in less than 10 minutes. We usually get most of our supplies at the 100 yen shop here in Japan, but you can also find supplies at your local supermarket, hardware store, dollar store, online, or maybe even lying around your house.
Shape the clay into mountains around the bottles attached to the plastic tray.
Add plastic plants. Cut them to size however you like. It’s easy to stick them into the soft clay before it dries. Next, add dinosaurs on and around your volcano. (It’s good if you can let the clay dry overnight, but if you don’t have time, you can just be careful when you rinse out the lava later.)
Pour baking soda mixture into the volcano (about 2 tablespoons)
Pour vinegar mixture into the volcano (about 1/4 cup) and enjoy the erupting volcano.
Carefully pour the baking soda and vinegar mixture out and rinse the volcano. Let it dry overnight and repeat the experiment any time you want!
Depending on how many kids you have and how old they are, you might have to help them add the baking soda into the volcano. Of course, if possible it’s fun for the kids to add the baking soda and vinegar themselves.
This experiment can be done over and over, countless times once the clay has dried. Kids really love to try out different ratios of baking soda and vinegar to see the different results. The great thing is, all you have to do is rinse out your volcano with water and repeat again and again. We hope you have as much fun as we do using this fun and engaging ESL science experiment in your next English classes.
