Volcanoes Unit Study and Lapbook
Unit Study by Lynn Pitts
Lapbook Templates by Jacquelyn Binger

To add some hands-on experiments to this study, Lynn has written her lessons to include Myrna Martin's Volcanoes Hands-on Activities.  It currently sells for $27 at this website.

Check out our literature based unit for Hill of Fire (another volcano study & lapbook). 

Lapbook Templates

Vocabulary Words and Definitions

Aa lava: a crumbly, lumpy type of lava that moves slowly and can form tall flows.
Ash: very small, fine particles of larva that can block out sunlight.
Basalt: most common kind of volcanic rock, made from very runny lava.
Black Smoker: volcanic vent on the sea floor that belches out hot minerals.
Core: the metallic center of the Earth.
Crater:  part of a volcano that connects to the main chimney and out of which lava and ash erupts.
Crust: the hard, outer layer of the Earth.
Dormant: volcano that has not erupted for a long time, but could again.
Eruption: When lava, ash or gas explodes out of a volcano.
Extinct: a volcano that can’t erupt again.
Fault: a crack in the Earth’s crust where rocks have moved.
Geyser: a place where under ground water, heated by magma, spurts into the air.
Fissure: a crack in the ground that runny lava oozes out of.
Hot Spot:  a place where rising magma burns through the Earth’s crust.
Hot Spring:  a place where hot water from under the ground bubbles to the surface.
Lava:  the name for magma that has erupted to the surface.
Mantle:  part of the Earth’s interior.
Magma:  rock deep in the Earth that has erupted to the surface.
Metamorphic Rock:  rock formed from other rocks that are under intense heat and pressure.
Pahoehoe Lava:  hot, runny lava that moves freely in shallow flows.
Plate:  the moving part of the mantle and crust.
Rift: place where two plates are pulling apart to create a crack in the crust.
Ring of Fire:  area in the Pacific Ocean that includes many of the world’s most active and violent volcanoes.
Seismograph:  machine that measures movement of Earth’s surface.
Tsunami:  destructive sea wave that can be caused by underground volcanic eruptions or earthquakes.
Volcanologist:  Scientist who studies volcanoes.

Day 1

Activity 1- Vocabulary

Introduce the following vocabulary words:

*Core
*Crust
*Mantle
*Metamorphic Rock
*Magma

Lapbook Template: Vocabulary File Folders

Activity 2- Earth's Crust

Lapbook Template: Types of Rock Flap

Describe what Sedimentary, Igneous and Metamorphic Rock means.

Earth’s crust is made of loose rocks and dirt.

Sedimentary rock are made from bits of rock stuck together.

Igneous rocks made from magma that has cooled.

Metamorphic rock made from squashed rocks.


The Earth is made up of many layers, just like an onion. Instead of an onion, the Earth’s layers are made of rock and metals.

Activity 3- What’s Inside The Earth

Lapbook Template: What's Inside the Earth? Shutterfold

Draw Circle to represent the Earth. Then draw four inner circles to represent the crust, mantle, inner and outer layer. Label each part of the Earth.

Crust: made of lighter rock; the layer of rock between 35-42 miles thick

Mantle: Layer of hot, melted, moving rock below the crust

Outer Layer: below the mantle is the outer core, a thick layer made of hot liquid iron and nickel

Inner Core: a very hot solid ball of metal; the temps of the inner core can reach 8,130 degrees F

Experiment 1- Egg Like Earth

Items Needed:
1 Hard Boiled Egg with Shell
Knife
Cutting Board

1) Take hard boiled egg and place on cutting board.

2) Cut egg in half with shell on.

3) Look at egg. Do you see layer’s inside? What are they?

4)Yolk is inner core and outer core.

    White is the mantle.

    Eggshell is the crust.

Day 2:

Activity 1- Add to Vocabulary Template

*Lava
*Extinct
* Dormant
*Eruption
*Basalt

Activity 2- Earth Trivia Game

Lapbook Template: Earth Trivia and Pocket

1) What is the estimated age of Earth?  A: 7,000 years old

2) Earth is one of how many planets in our Solar System?  A: 9

3) What are Earth’s four basic layers?  A: Inner core, Outer core, Mantle, Crust

4) Earth orbits around what star?  A: Sun

5) In most of Earth’s surface covered by water or land?  A: Water

6) Earth’s land is divided into how many continents?  A 7

7) At least how tall must a mountain be?  A: 2,000 feet above sea level

Activity 3- Inside A Volcano

Lapbook Template: Inside a Volcano Diagram

Beneath the ground , melted rock is called magma. When out on Earth’s surface it’s then called lava. Magma moved toward the surface inside the volcano. The gas it contains starts to bubble. Magma and gas start to rise faster, pushing their way upward.

Activity 4- What’s The Difference?

Lapbook Template:  What's the Difference?

Composite or Stratovolcano: Made up of alternating layers of ash and lava.
Shield: made of many layers of lava. It’s very fluid when it flows out of the volcano.
Cinder Cone: has many layers of broken rock and ash.
Lava Dome: made of only a thick mass of lava which came through an opening. Lava piled up and formed the dome. 

Experiment 2
Complete the Layered Volcano Experiment found on pages 2-3 in  Myrna Martin’s Volcanoes: Hands on Activities

Day 3

Activity 1-Add to Vocabulary Template

* Aa lava
* Pahoehoe lava
* Volcanologist
* Hot Spring
* Fissure
* Hot Spot

Activity 2-Ropes, Pillows and Clinkers

Lapbook Template: Ropes, Pillows, and Clinkers Matchbooks

Two common types of lava have been given Hawaiian names.

Aa (pronounced ah-ah)
Rough and jagged lava with tiny spines. They are also known as clinkers. Rough surface is hard on feet. If you slip and fall you would cut hands, feet or clothes. 

Pahoehoe (pronounced pa-hoy-hoy)
Often looks like coils of thick rope. After cooled the surface is smooth and easy to walk across.  When the pahoehoe cools under water it may look like pillows.

Activity 3- What’s That Continent?

Lapbook Template: Name that Continent Simple Fold

Label the map:  Africa, Antarctica, Asia, Australia, Europe, North America, South America

Experiment 3
Complete the Comparing Lava Flows Activity found on pages 4-5 in  Myrna Martin’s Volcanoes: Hands on Activities

Day 4

Activity 1- Vocabulary

*Ash
*Black Smoker
*Crater
*Geyser
*Fault

Activity 2- Ring of Fire

Ocean plates and earth plates rub together in a circle of volcanic mountains called Ring of Fire which is found on the edges of land surrounding the Pacific Ocean. Some are active and some are dormant.

Lapbook Template (choose one):
Ring of Fire File Folder
Ring of Fire Blank 

Learn more from Enchanted Learning

Activity 3- Active Verses Dormant

Flap Book: write word on flap and definition on inside

Lapbook Template:  Who's Going to Blow?

Active- They erupt currently and often

Dormant- Sleeping but could erupt again

Extinct- No loner erupts
 

Experiment  4
Complete the Magma Chambers Activity found on pages 16-17 in  Myrna Martin’s Volcanoes: Hands on Activities

Day 5

Activity 1- Vocabulary

*Ring of Fire
* Seismograph
*Tsunami
*Rift
*Plate

Activity 2- Kinds of Mountains

Lapbook Template (choose one):  Kinds of Mountains Layer  Kinds of Mountains Layer Blank

Fold- When 2 of Earth’s plates push against each other.
Dome- When hot volcanic magma can’t break through Earth’s surface. Magma pushes rocks towards the crust into a dome shape.
Block- Earth’s crust heave a block of land up.
Volcano- When magma, rock, gas and ash gradually build up in a cone shape around an eruption.

Activity 3- Volcano Trivia Game

Lapbook Template: Volcano Trivia and Pocket

1) What shoots out gases, hot molten lava, ash, and rock pieces from deep inside Earth? A. Volcanoes
2) What happened to the 2,000 people who lived in Pompeii, Italy, in A.D. 79? A. Mt. Vesuvius erupted and the people of Pompeii were buried in 20 feet of ash.
3) Mt. St. Helens’s 1980 eruption spread volcanic ash as far away as Minnesota and was as powerful as how many atomic bombs? A. 500 atomic bombs
4) Volcanoes have shot fountains of fire as high up as how many feet? A. 300 feet
5) What are scientists who study volcanoes called?  A. volcanologists
6) Erupting volcanoes are called___________?  A. active volcanoes
7) Volcanoes are found on what other planets?  A. Mars, Jupiter and Venus
8) Volcanoes that might erupt are called__________?  A. Dormant Volcanoes

Experiment 5
Complete the Popcorn Volcano Experiment found on pages 8-9  in  Myrna Martin’s Volcanoes: Hands on Activities

Day 6

Activity 1- Plates

Label where the plates are located.

Lapbook Template: Plates (Label a Map)

Volcanoes occur because the outer layer of the Earth is in constant motion. The earth’s outer layer is divided into plates like a jigsaw puzzle. These plates average about 50 miles in thickness. They move as if they are rafts on liquefied rock. As the plates move, they collide or pull apart. When plate collide, one plate scrapes under the other plate, in an area called the subduction zone.

Torn rock from both plates melt and create new magma for volcanoes. Other volcanoes occur in the middle of plates, over places in the mantle where the magma is super hot. As a plate moves over a hot spot, the magma melts through it.

There are 7 major plates which move like conveyer belts.

1)Pacific

2) South American

3) North American

4) African

5) Antarctic

6) Eurasian

7) Indian Australian

Experiment 6
Complete the Squeeze Dome Volcano Experiment found on page 30  in  Myrna Martin’s Volcanoes: Hands on Activities

Experiment 7
Complete the Bottle Top Eruption Experiment found on pages 24-25  in  Myrna Martin’s Volcanoes: Hands on Activities

Day 7

Activity 1- Plate Movements

Lapbook Template:  Plate Movements Side by Side

Most volcanoes and earthquakes occur along edges of plates, where they meet. There are four different plates.

1) Sliding Plate:
This movement is similar to Earth’s plates sliding past each other. Where Earth’s plates rub against each other like this, earthquake’s can happen.

2) Divergent Plate:
This is like 2 Earth’s plates separating. When plates in the ocean separate, underwater volcanoes occur.

3) Convergent Plate:
When 2 plates come together or slowly collide.

 4) Subduction Zone:
When 2 plates move toward each other and one slips under the other is called subduction zones. Increased earthquakes and volcanic activity occurs here.

Activity 2- Richter Scale- What is Magnitude?

Richter scale measures the amount of energy released by an earthquake. This scale is the most common measure of a quake’s power.
Lapbook Template:  Richter Scale Flap

Suggested websites:
http://www.schools.manatee.k12.fl.us/601MBLEICHER/catastrophes/richter_scale.html

http://www.geography-site.co.uk/pages/physical/earth/richt.html

http://www.seismo.unr.edu/ftp/pub/louie/class/100/magnitude.html

 Experiment 8
Complete the Cotton Ball Eruptions Experiment found on pages 18-19  in  Myrna Martin’s Volcanoes: Hands on Activities

Day 8

Activity 1- Earthquakes: Fact or Fiction?

Template: Earthquake Fact or Fiction

1) The longest recorded earthquake lasted 4 minutes?  A. Fact

2) There are hundreds of earthquakes every year?
A. Fiction- There are thousands of earthquakes each year.

3) Some animals behave strangely before earthquakes? A. Fact

4) A pyramid-shaped building is not very sturdy in an earthquake? A. Fiction

5) A moonquake occurs on the moon? A. Fact

6) It is important to duck and cover in an earthquake? A. Fact

7) A repeater is a machine used to measure Earth’s plate movements? A. Fact

8) The Richter scale measures the power of an earthquake?  A. Fact

Activity 2- Under The Sea

Under the sea, hot magma, chemicals, and minerals burn their way through thin spot’s of the Earth’s plates.

They bubble to make homes for sea life. Minerals rise to the ocean floor and quickly harden into a chimney shape. These are called black smokers. Colorful tube worms live on black smokers special bacteria live inside the worms, which change the chemicals into food.

Most black smokers are more than a mile below the surface

Animals living near black smokers include mussels, clams, and crabs.

Lapbook Template: Black Smokers Flap

Activity 3- Lava Diving
Magma cools down quickly underwater. Scuba divers can get close up look at small undersea eruptions since it moves slowly and cools quickly. It allows scientists to learn more about how islands are formed.

Lapbook Template: Diving

Experiment 9
Complete the Volcanic Islands Experiment found on pages 10-11  in  Myrna Martin’s Volcanoes: Hands on Activities

Day 9

Activity 1- Tsunami
Tsunami starts when a volcano erupts on the ocean floor, or an earthquake takes place. At first, the displaced water is almost invisible as it travels quickly toward shore. When the tsunami reaches shallow water, it swells upward, forming a huge wave. Water traveling back from the shore is also sucked up into the wave. A towering and terrifying tsunami is about to hit land.

The tallest recorded tsunami was 280 feet high.

The word tsunami means ‘harbor wave’ in Japanese.

They can travel up to 500 mph at sea.

Lapbook Template: Tsunami Fan (prompts)

Activity 2- Where Are the Volcanoes?

Lapbook Template: Where are the Volcanoes?

America’s Most Active Volcanoes include-

Mt. St. Helens                Washington

Kilauea                            Hawaii

Experiment 10
Complete the Dough Volcano Activity  found on pages 20-21  in  Myrna Martin’s Volcanoes: Hands on Activities

Day 10

 Activity 1- Visiting A Volcano

Each year thousands of  tourists travel to active volcanoes to get up close to the boiling lava. Most volcanoes can only be safely viewed from the air. Hot lava and poisonous gases make it dangerous to get closer.

Popular Volcanoes To Visit
Kilauea has been erupting since 1982
Yasur has been erupting 10-20 times each hour for about 800 years.
White Island is where you can walk inside the crater.
Hawaii- people can camp overnight near volcanoes. It erupts almost every night.

Lapbook Template: Diving & Visiting

Activity 2

What Volcanoes Do For Us
Volcanoes are responsible for forming Hawaii, Iceland, the Aleutian Islands and other smaller islands.
They fertilize soil.
They allow these to come closer to the surface to be mined: Diamonds, Gold, Tin and other metals.
Pumice is used to clean teeth.
Volcanic glass called obsidian is made by lava flows. It’s used as a gemstone. Was used to make tool’s in the past.
Basalt, (hardened lava), is used whenever hard rock is needed such as roads.

Lapbook Template (choose one):
What Volcanoes Do
What Volcanoes Do (blank)

Experiment 11
Complete the Frothy Rock Cookies Activity  found on pages 26-27  in  Myrna Martin’s Volcanoes: Hands on Activities

Materials and information on this website belong to the original composers. It may be used for your own personal and school use. 

.  © 2005-08 HSS