When life gives you lemon, make an erupting lemon volcano!

Watch their faces light up and their eyes widen when you try out this cool chemistry experiment.

Guide your child to make the lemon volcano at home and observe its reaction!

Materials needed:

• Lemon
• Food colouring
• Spoon
• A small cup of baking soda
• Detergent

Instructions:

1. Cut the lemon in half and place it on a plate or a tray.
2. Poke the lemon with the end of a spoon to get the juices flowing (in this experiment, the juices are critical, so we want our lemon nice and juicy).
3. Add some food colouring to the lemon. You can add as many colours as you wish.
4. Use a spoon to mix detergent and baking soda with the lemon.
5. Then, observe the REACTION!

You can educate your child about volcanos and chemical reactions while making this volcano model with them.

This experiment demonstrates the classic chemical reaction between an acid (lemon) and a carbonate (baking soda).

When exposed to acids, carbonate undergoes a decomposition reaction in which carbon dioxide is released as a gas.

Take the experiment further!

You can take this experiment a little further by using different acidic fruits such lime, oranges, grapefruit…. and  find out which fruit will produce a bigger eruption.

Missed Part 1 of our Activity for Kids series?

Check out the Colour Changing Milk Experiment :