I’ve seen tons of postings about how to make volcano experiment for kids, we’ve tried it once by ourselves as welll as with one of science co-ops, and now we decided to document it and share the fun of it.

It required very easy preparation and ingredients, mostly are available at every home, even Max able to do it by himself.
You’ll need:
-small used plastic bottle
-2 sheets s of used newspaper
-tape
-scissors
-acrylic paint in earth color
-paint brush
-vinegar (any kind, we used cooking vinegar)
-baking soda
-water (to fill in half of the plastic bottle
-food coloring in red (to make the lava more dramatic)
-dough (ready playdough or homemade playdough)
-tray (to contain the volcano and the lava)

Step 1 : Get the volcano ready
Lay a sheet of newspaper so the mess will be more in control :).
Wrap the plastic bottle with the newspaper, to form a rough shape of a volcano, secure it with the tape, then place it on the tray.
Grab the dough and wrap the volcano surface with the dough to make it looks more realistic with the texture and all that.
Color the volcano with your desired color.
Let it dry up.

Step 2 : Erupt the volcano
Fill in the plastic bottle with water about half full.
Add red food coloring
Add baking soda
(Get ready for the eruption!)
Fill in vinegar, and viola!

Explanation:
It is basically a simple chemical acid-base reaction.
The baking soda or sodium bicarbonate act as base while vinegar or acetic acid act as the acid. Together they react to form carbonic acid to then quickly breaks apart into water and carbon dioxide. That is what appear as the foams erupts from the volcano.