Our class decided to learn about the mountain region in Africa first, specifically Mt. Kilimanjaro. We learned that it is not just a mountain but actually 3 volcanoes. Two are extinct and one is dormant. We learned all about volcanoes through researching and reading books, exploring on-line, and watching videos. After we finished all of our research we began constructing the volcano. The children divided into groups to make the mountain, snow, vents and magma chamber. Here is our first group working on making a realistic mountain. We decided to make it on the loft for support. The group discovered that they could make a large triangle shape by beginning with a long sheet of paper on the bottom and shortening the consecutive pieces. They also decided to wrinkle the paper to make it look like rock. Then because the mountain is covered in trees and plants they added paint and tissue paper to look like vegetation.
The most intriguing part of Mt. Kilimanjaro for our class was the snow on top. While researching we found that there are actually glaciers on top of the mountain. Not just snow. We explored snow in our science center and through shared reading books.
Of course the next most interesting thing about volcanoes is the lava. This group made some great lave coming out of the top of the volcano. We found that this volcano hasn't erupted in 300,000 years.
This group is making the vents. They decided to make them by rolling up red paper and taping it to look like tubes. They made three vents because there are three volcanoes. We learned vents are the pipes the hot magma travels through to the surface before coming out of the volcano as lava.
This group also made the magma chamber that is found underneath
volcano. This is where the molten magma collects.
We then labeled all the different parts of the volcano and wrote about it in our fact books. The class is super proud of their volcano!
