Watermelon Volcano Small World

Hi friends! This week’s Discover & Explore theme is Dinosaurs and Fossil Fun. For our post, I thought I’d share a fun dinosaur small world activity we did as part of a marathon two weeks of watermelon activities this summer.

I can’t take credit for this idea- my husband actually came up with it. He isn’t usually that excited about helping me think of activities, so when he suggested this, I knew we had to try it. To set up, I took an empty plastic water bottle and a funnel and let the twins help me add baking soda, a packet of watermelon Koolaid, red glitter, and a few healthy squirts of dish soap. I’d give you measurements, but I was doing this with TWO TODDLERS. A loose estimate would be 1/4 cup of baking soda, but who knows how much actually made it into the bottle?

After the ingredients were added, I placed the bottle in a plastic tupperware bin and set half of our empty watermelon on top. I had previously cut a hole in the end large enough to go over the mouth of the bottle (see photo for reference). Then, I decided to make it into a small world for our dinosaurs by adding black beans, the scented watermelon rice leftover from our sensory rice activity, some cuttings from our garden, and a random deer horn from our nature collection. I even added a “pond” made of large flat glass gems.

Then, the fun could really begin! We used our funnel to add about 1/4 cup vinegar to the bottle and watched the pink, glittery, watermelon-scented foam gush out of the mouth of the “bolcado” and into the dinosaurs‘ habitat.

We found that when the reaction slowed, we could stir the bottle up with a stick and get it going again.

After we ran out of baking soda, the twins played in the now-soupy dinosaur landscape for quite awhile. It was hilarious to listen to their dialogue as they pretended to be dinosaurs stuck in the “hot waba.” As a speech therapist, I LOVE small world play for language development- you can read more about why and how in my post Building Language with Small World Play.

Way to go, Daddy! Best idea EVER!

And now, it’s your turn. We’d love for you to share how you Discover and Explore: Dinosaurs and Fossils

Please read the following guidelines for sharing:

• Share family-friendly posts related to the weekly topic — kids activities, book activities, crafts, recipes, nature outings, free printables–anything that might be helpful to those wanting to put together activities based on this week’s theme
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The linky will remain open for a week. Then all co-hosts will feature activities in a separate post on Fridays and share featured posts on the Discover and Explore Pinterest Board. If you aren’t already, please remember to follow us so you’re sure not to miss those feature posts. And don’t forget to stop by and visit my lovely co-hosts to see what they are sharing for this week’s theme!

KCEdventures * Fantastic Fun and Learning

Teach Preschool * Buggy and Buddy

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