Our friend Lane from LaneVids taught us how to make a lava lamp and it was, surprisingly, super easy. All you need is a jar, oil, water, food coloring and alka-seltzer. For quickest results mix water and food coloring first then fill most of the jar with oil. It can be a little more fun to add the food coloring after the oil and watch it pass through the oil and mix with the water.
We also built a lamp box using some scrap wood and a lamp from IKEA but for this project it probably wasn’t worth it so I don’t really recommend it. The effect is very visible without the light and definitely easier to see in video.
One thing that is fun for the kids is to play with the amount of alka-seltzer tablets to drop in. For them, more is better! I find that about 2 at a time is plenty. Plop plop, fizz fizz! Oh what a relief it is!
This project was a collaboration with LaneVids’ channel and on his channel they tried the Chalk Rockets. See his video below.
