Lava Lamps

This was such a fun idea! This summer we made our own lava lamps using water bottles, oil, food coloring, and Alka Seltzer. We had a great time doing it--but it was a huge mess. I don't know why I thought mixing food coloring and slippery hands would me mess-free, but clean-up wasn't terrible. The only snags occurred when some of the younger kids dropped their oily bottles on the floor.

We followed the instructions posted here, and things worked pretty much how they said it would. We used oil and water. Here are my tips for making this program a success:

• Don't fill the bottle up all the way. Be sure to leave room for a bit of air, and the food coloring you plan to add
• Add food coloring slow and sparingly. Most kids wound up with a cloudy gray bottle, thinking it would be a rainbow
• Funnels are your friend! If you're working with younger kids, I highly suggest using a funnel and adult supervision. Bigger participants can help younger friends, but I could have used another set of adult hands to steady all the oily bottles.
• Use denture cleaner (Polydent) if possible It creates a bigger fizz