Bourne Elsea Park Church Of England Primary Academy
Striving For Excellence, Caring For All In a Loving And Caring Christian Environment.
Year 3 Get Ready To Rumble!
To begin our topic, Let’s Get Ready to Rumble, we were set the task of working in teams to create our very own volcanoes.
When Miss Ockwell introduced this challenge, she told us she wouldn’t be giving us any help at all, and that she would simply be overseeing the proceedings (intervening when necessary).
Once we were in our teams, we quickly began reading through the instructions we had been given. We had to collect the resources we needed (avoiding Miss Ockwell’s cheeky red herrings), and then we began carefully measuring the ‘ingredients’ we needed to make our volcano salt dough. We soon realised there were limited supplies of certain ingredients, and the whole class had to come together as a team to share, cooperate and coordinate.
When all the ‘ingredients’ were combined, we kneaded our dough and formed the perfect volcanoes.
Then, when we had added the final details, our volcanoes were popped in the oven for AN ENTIRE DAY to make sure they were well and truly dried out and rock solid, just like the rock on a real volcano.
Finally, once the cooking and cooling was complete, it was time to create our own chemical reactions that would simulate a real volcanic eruption.
Our first challenge was to fill the lava chamber with Spirit Vinegar. For some, this was easy, but for those who had created an enormous group volcano, outstanding teamwork, perseverance and swift hand movements were essential in order to create a substantial vinegar pool.
When we felt confident we had sufficient Spirit Vinegar, Miss Ockwell added a healthy squirt of red food colouring and an ENORMOUS spoonful of sodium bicarbonate…And WOW! The results were truly breath-taking! The more Spirit Vinegar we added, the more our volcanoes erupted. It truly was an awe-inspiring sight! What a way to start our topic. Now we can’t wait to find out what really happens when a volcano erupts!
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