The culmination of our dinosaur learning was the creation of volcanoes with more saltdough this week. For 2 days we had been making our own individual volcanoes, and a group one as well as the group dinosaur world.

We love group art activities for the possibilities they offer – interactions, sharing ideas and knowledge, the feeling of being important in the group, with our own special individual contributions valued and significant. We can’t learn to respect and consider others until we feel that we are valued and respected ourselves.

The children have also been playing out their own stories about dinosaurs and volcanoes, painting pictures, using the felt boards  and so on.

 

 

We did the experiment in a group – using the big volcano as our example – then each child had a turn at carefully pouring the bicarb soda, warm water, food coloring and washing up liquid into the bottle in their volcano, and then adding the vinegar. Even though they knew what was going to happen, it was still exciting!