Being able to do this activity is all about having the right size and shaped containers. Having said that, our small jar was far from perfect, right size but the shape was a little off! A small jar with a narrower neck or a very small bottle would have been more effective.
For this volcano, you will need a large glass jar, a smaller glass bottle, wire, red food colouring and hot and cold water. Tie some wire around the small glass bottle so that it can be picked up without having to hold the glass.
Pour cold water into the large glass jar so it’s about 2/3 full. Fill the small glass jar with hot water and add a teaspoon red food colouring. Z went a bit over the top with the food colouring as she poured it in!
Carefully place the small jar into the large jar and watch the water volcano erupt. This happens super quickly so you (or the children) may want to do this a few times. This volcano shows how cold and warm water mix. The hot water expands, taking up more space. It is, therefore, lighter than cold water and rises to the surface.
We found this activity in My First Science Book
Have you done any volcano experiments? I’d love to hear about them. Please comment below.
Thanks for reading
Sarah 🙂
*This post includes affiliate links (see disclaimer)
The Real Lara Shoe 
We did a couple of baking soda volcano experiments when the boys were little. Kids just never tire of them!
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Yes I’m sure mine would keep going with baking soda and vinegar!
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What a great idea, really simple will try it out with my daughter! #FabFridayPost
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Have fun with it 🙂
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This looks so much fun and which child doesn’t like playing with water? #fabfridaypost
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Indeed! Though with v hot water it definetly needs adult imput!
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What fun! A great indoors activity when it’s too cold / wet to go out. Sneaking some education in at the same time!
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Yes!! And mine love doing this experiment over and over!
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This is brilliant! I always have glass jars and food coloring around he house! No cost, hardly any set up involved, and very little clean up. I’m sold! Can’t wait to do this in a few years!
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Have fun with it. It’s super easy to do when you’ve got all the bits together.
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As a home educator with a natural bias of my own towards the arts anything like this is so helpful #FabFridayPost
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We love the arts in our home too!!
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Hi, this looks great fun, we have food colouring and glasses so perfect #fabfridaypost
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Fabulous!
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We did this once and even I was like, “Whoa! That’s really cool!” You are right. The narrower the neck on the smaller bottle, the better. 😉
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I will be on the look out for a more appropriate smaller bottle. Or a really large jar as I’ve got larger bottles that would work!
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This is so cool! I’m going to try this. Actually, I’m going to buy this book too. Ethan’s school asked us to come up with a science project he can do at school to show everyone, and I’m so struggling. Thank you so much for the suggestion! Off to Amazon now. 🙂 xx #FabFridayPost
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There’s loads of great experiments in it. My son loves the floating experiment – a layer of honey, water, oil and washing up liquid. You then put small items in and see which float on what layer. Hope that makes sense!! All to do with density!
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I thought I commented here earlier! Where did the comment go?
What a cool project. My boys and I never tried making a water volcano. We did the usual ones with bicarbonate soda and vineger.
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Hey Veronica, Yes you did comment, should be seen now. I have to approve new commenters! And I hadn’t checked!!
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Lovely I ll try it too. I did a volcano made of baking soda, vinegar and glitter 😉
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