Amazing Lemon Volcano Science Experiment for Kids

Lemon volcano experiment

This science project is perfect to use up lemons after you’ve made a battery lemon! And I love reusing supplies! So we took our basic baking soda and vinegar reaction we use to make the fun chemical reaction to errupts volcano experiments and moved it into a lemon. This lemon volcano is such a fun summer science experiment that takes a fun summer fruit and turns it into a summer science activity for toddlers, preschoolers, kindergartners, grade 1, grade 2, and grade 3 students. Plus, this lemon volcano scienc experiment is quick, easy, and WAY COOL!

Volcano experiment for kids

All you need are a few simple materials to make this fun exploding volcano project for summer:

• lemons
• craft stick
• cutting board
• knife
• liquid food coloring
• dish soap
• baking soda

Lemon volcano experiment worksheet

Start by rolling your lemons to get the juice loosened up. Now cut off the top third and discard. Poke around the inside of the lemon with a craft stick to get those juices flowing.  Set as many lemons as you want to errupt on a large tray or plate. If they don’t stand up, make sure to slice just a little off the bottom so they are nice and steady.

Lemon Science Experiment

Add a several drops of food coloring to each lemon. We like to mix it up so the erruption will make lots of pretty colors that will mingle with one another on the tray. So red, orange, blue, purple, teal, pink, etc. And of course we need a yellow – this is a yellow lemon experiment!

Now add in a good squirt of dish soap. We used clear dish soap so as not to affect the color.

Finally dump a heaping tablespoon of baking soda on the opening of each lemon.

Lemon volcano experiment explanation

If you are familiar with the classic volcanos science experiment you are probably wondering – where’s the vinegar?  Well, this experiment shows kids a chemistry reaction between an acid and a base which results in the release of  Carbon Dioxide (also known as CO2). In this lemon experiment the lemon juice (which is filled with citric acid) served as the acid so we had no need for vinegar! So if the acid is lemon and the base is baking soda, why did we have soap in there? Glad you asked. The dish soap helps capture the gas that is released in the chemical reaction so we can see it as bubbles. And just in case you want to see the chemical equation – here you go!

Lemon volcano science experiment

H3C6H5O7 (aq) + 3NaHCO3 (s) → 3CO2 (g) + 3H2O (l) + Na3C6H5O7 (aq)

Looking for more fruit printable activities? You may want to check these out:

• Free Printable ABC Fruits and Vegetables Book for Kids to color and learn
• I Spy Fruits Worksheet for Preschool
• 🍉 Sneak in some fruit science with this watermelon volcano, play with puffy watermelon slime reicpe, or see all our watermelon activities
• 🍋 Amazing Lemon Volcano Experiment for Kids or lemonade TEn Frames Kindergarten
• 🍎 Sorting Apples Alphabet Activity or this Apple Counting Mat for Fall
• 🍏 Apple Life Cycle Worksheets or make this simple Paper Plate Apple Core Craft
• Count to 20 Clip Card Fruit Printables
• 🍇 How to make Grape Jam Sequencing Cards or PB&J Coloring Pages
• Fruit Cards or Fruit Paper Activity

Fruit Activity

• 🍓 Strawberry Playdough Fruit Activity
• 🍓 Cute Handprint Strawberry Craft or printable Rhyming Strawberry Activity
• 💙 Hands-on Blueberry Math
• Dancing Raisins – EASY chemistry experiment for kids
• 🥥 Coconut Number Tracing Fruit Printables
• 🍅 Simple Tomato Battery Fruit Science Experiment
• Math Fruit Worksheet Preschool
• A-Z Vegetable and Fruit Printables for practicing lowercase letters
• 🍌Banana Number Puzzles