I know you have heard of Shark Week! We have Volcano Week!
Have you ever seen a live volcano? I was fortunate to visit the Big Island in Hawai’i about three years ago. We were not able to visit Mauna Loa due to snow blocking the roadway! We did visit Mt. Kilauea and the Volcanoes National Park and it was spectacular!
Right after we returned from that trip I started creating Escape Room resources and a teacher requested one about volcanoes! How fabulous was that!
You might also know that Mt. Kilauea had quite a destructive flow that covered roads and burned houses in 2018. I updated the Volcano Escape Room at that time to account for changes due to that eruption.
Volcanoes are fascinating and students love reading about them and creating scenes of eruptions! I have so many resources about volcanoes and landforms to share with you!
How Many Ways Can I Save You Time?
Don’t you love it when you find what you need and it is already made for you? I have:
- Volcano Escape Room
- Volcano STEM Challenge
- Landforms STEM Challenge
- Rocks and Minerals Task Cards
- Volcano Flipper Booklet
- Volcano Print and Read- Reading Passages
Here’s a closer look at each resource!
Escape Room for Volcano Week
This Escape Room was requested by a customer and turned out to be a class favorite! #winwin
In this Locked-Box event students complete tasks to determine a lock code that opens the boxes. Each unlocked box contains the next task. After unlocking the third box, students have escaped! The first task uses a map grid and students find themselves looking at a photo of a volcanic beach. (photo was taken by me) The second task is to complete math problems to determine the lock code.
The third task involves putting together a puzzle. Each task also has students reading from a Hawai’i Information card to find clues. Think about it! That’s map skills, math, problem-solving, reading, collaboration, and fun all rolled into one event.
The resource includes everything you will need to make this successful. This includes a detailed teacher’s guide for each task and a photo page with a step-by-step solution of how students will determine the code.
Naturally, the culminating project for this Escape Room is a STEM Challenge!
Volcano Week STEM Challenge
This challenge is perfect to use at the end of the Volcano Escape Room. It is a simple idea, but I added a twist to it. (Of course!)
I wanted students to create a volcano model that we could test with vinegar and baking soda. However, I really wanted them to be creative and have a purpose for the challenge. So, I built a model first just to see what would make the best flow of “lava”. I discovered that the best flow happens when the container of baking soda placed in the model is near the top of the model- but not too close and definitely not too deep. The deeper the container the less the lava will flow. Too close to the top keeps you from seeing the spectacular rise of the lava.
So, this made the challenge interesting! Students had to build the model and place the baking soda cup at just the right spot for the best effect. But, let’s make it even more interesting! I put out an array of materials and let students choose what they needed to design the models. Ok, let’s make it even better- what if teams had to pay for the materials? And stay under a budget?
They LOVED this challenge! The best part was at the end. Each team presented their model and then I poured in the vinegar so we could watch the eruptions!
Landforms STEM Challenge
Here is a second challenge you can try with your study of volcanoes and landforms. This one is about building a landform model- more than one landform, that is!
In this challenge, students design a scene that includes at least 10 landforms. They must choose wisely so that the landforms that are close to one another in their scene are representative of nature. For example, you would not put a river in the middle of a desert (usually). You would place a river near a mountain range and add some cliffs or a butte nearby.
TIP: Use your scrap box of paper for this challenge! A lot of the landforms can be made from paper pieces, scraps of cardboard, even straws that have already been cut. (That is something else I save!)
Task Cards (It’s Volcano Week!)
This set of nonfiction text features task cards is all about rocks and minerals. Students will have a “newspaper” with articles about rocks, minerals, and landforms. The text features are labeled.
The task cards feature questions about the text features and their purpose. There are also basic reading comprehension and identification questions.
TIP: Print the newspaper in color to display and use the black/white version to print for students.
Volcano Flipper Booklet
I love Little Flipper booklets! The small booklet works perfectly to get students involved in writing, labeling, sketching, and research. This one is about volcanoes!
In this flipper students will:
- Label the layers of the earth
- Illustrate three or four kinds of volcanoes
- Label a volcano cross-section
- List facts about two volcanic rocks kinds of volcanoes
- Label a volcano cross-section
- Match words and meanings
- Complete research about volcanoes
Such a fun way to complete a study and in the end students have the flipper booklet to save!
Volcano Reading
This reading passages set is perfect for quiet time, sub days, assessments, and centers.
The reading passages (in two ability levels) are about the dangers of volcanoes, how magma is formed, the eruption of Mt. St. Helens, and the Ring of Fire. In addition, you have a newspaper template with articles to read. The articles are about the three kinds of volcanoes and how islands are formed. The newspaper page also features a cross-section of a volcano. Text features are used throughout the set. Comprehension questions are included and, of course, answer keys!
No matter which resource you choose it will be a sure-fire winner with your students during Volcano Week!
