Let The Volcanoes Erupt

As part of the third grade classes’ journey toward this year's Mid Autumn Moon Festival, the students created volcanoes. Although we usually briefly discuss volcanoes in third grade, the decision to create the volcanoes and erupt them emerged from an excited discussion one of the third grade classes had about Pompeii.  

The unit began with third grade studying the Earth and it’s layers. After discussing the depth and make up of each of the layers and creating a diagram, we discussed the tectonic plates and their movement. It was impressive to hear the students share information they had previously learned elsewhere about the names of volcanoes and their eruptions.

In groups of two or three the students followed a recipe to create play dough from flour and then molded it around plastic flasks to form their volcanoes. When the play dough dried the students used paint and other natural materials to make their creations look more realistic.

          

During the final step of the project, the students used their imaginations to write stories about a time when their volcano erupted and read them to the class as they erupted their volcanoes.