Little Passports Science Junior Kit #2: Volcanoes

Last month in our Little Passports Science Junior kit, we learned about Weddell seals and Antarctica, and this month, it’s volcanoes + earthquakes!

(Actually, I wrote this post 2 months ago, but didn’t publish it, so most of these activities were done in March! Mom life, am I right?)

If you want to check out Little Passports, click the link and get 20% off your subscription! (This is not sponsored; we paid for the kit. I’m just sharing our experience, because I was curious before we got it, and I couldn’t find a lot of info. The link is an affiliate link, and I do receive a small amount if you make a purchase through the link.)

What’s in the Little Passports Science Junior Kit #2: Volcanoes

This month’s kit was delivered in an envelope and included:

• a comic magazine with a story, information and activities
• wooden cubes, cardboard, orange balls and rubber bands (earthquake supplies)
• clay, cardboard island, plastic grass, glue, tree, eruption ingredients (volcano supplies)
• trading cards and stickers

The Comic Story

In the story, the two kids head to Hawaii to meet a volcanologist, and they learn about earthquakes and volcanoes.

The magazine also includes the instructions for the earthquake and volcano activities, as well as some activities, like a page on plotting data points.

The kit is geared toward ages 5-8, and I have found that the workpage activities in the magazine are a little difficult for my 5 year old. If your child is a pre-reader, they might be a little difficult. In this magazine, though, he could do the maze and he could plot data points with help, which he thought was exciting!

Earthquake Supplies (Little Passports Science Junior Kit #2 – Volcanoes)

The Science Junior kit included wooden blocks, rectangular pieces of cardboard, rubber bands, and small orange balls.

The rubber bands get placed around the ends of the cardboard, and the 4 balls go one in each corner in between the cardboard. That constructs the ground and the earthquake. Then you use the blocks to build different types of buildings – tall and skinny, low and wide, etc – on top of the ground.

Once the building is constructed, the child shakes the cardboard ground to create an earthquake, and then observes whether the building stands or collapses. This leads to conclusions about how and why to build buildings to withstand earthquakes.

Camden LOVED this activity. He actually has pulled it out to play with independently at least 3 times since we first did the activity.

Volcanoes (Little Passports Science Junior Kit #2)

The most exciting part of this kit is – obviously – the volcano! The kit included a cardboard island, upon which the child sets the plastic cup and then molds the brown clay around it to create a volcano. There is plastic grass and trees to make the volcano look realistic. Once the volcano is completed, it has to dry for 24 hours. I had to make sure to make that very clear to Cam, because he obviously wanted to erupt the volcano on the same day he made it.

When the volcano is dry, you place the island on white paper, then add the given ingredients + water to erupt it. Because the eruption is on white paper, you can see how far the eruption goes, and talk about how the lava would harden and create land in those areas.

The volcano is reusable – just wash it out and reuse. The supplies lasted us a few eruptions, and then we just used the classic baking soda + vinegar.

The kit also included stickers and trading cards, as each kit does.

Overall Thoughts and Conclusions

Rating: 5/5

This kit was straight up science and experiments, and that’s what Camden really loves! It was extremely interactive and fun. Plus, it also had reusability, which is important to me. Kids experience something once, but they need the repeated exposure to really learn.

Currently, after two kits – this one and Weddell Seals – I do recommend the Science Junior Kit as a learning tool for kids. Use my link and get 20% off!