— January 12, 2025

I have come across multiple activities that I look forward to hauling out for the kiddos. I enjoy doing activities with my children just to experience their joy, curiosity, and excitement. Sometimes though I discover an activity that I become just as eager to set up as they are to do it. 

Smashing Geodes is one of these activities. The simplicity, challenge, and independence that this activity provides and creates is what sets it apart from other preschool volcano activities. I will cover everything we use in our homeschool for learning about volcanoes: the geodes kit, safety gear, and more.

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Other preschool volcano activities and experiments

Smashing Geodes is a part of Vv is for Volcano. This is a week of activities, book suggestions, coloring pages, printables and more all centered around volcanoes. Teach letter recognition of the letter v and review the other letters of the alphabet. While engaging your preschooler in science experiments, games, and diving into the world of volcanoes.

Volcanoes, lava, and their eruption are fascinating, especially for children so why not create an entire week around learning about them? The tried and true baking soda and vinegar experiment is included as well as instructions for two games to learn about natural disasters.

Go beyond preschool volcano activities.

Read books about volcanoes.

The easiest way to learn about volcanoes is by reading picture books. The book DK Life Cycles Illustrated by Sam Falconer is a favorite in our homeschool. The life cycle of a volcano included and countless other life cycles for further learning. Volcano Dreams: A Story of Yellowstone by Janet Fox is also an excellent addition to your homeschool library. This book explores the impact of volcanoes on their surrounding natural environment. 

Online entertainment options.

For some children this may be the first time they’ve ever heard of volcanoes and lava. If this is the case, I encourage you to look up volcano videos on YouTube. This one is a general video of volcano eruptions, the dialogue is boring for kids but the camera shots are excellent for showing different aspects of a volcano eruption. Learn Bright offers an excellent video for kids with a plethora of facts and information. After, don’t forget to play The Floor is Lava dance! Get your child moving and grooving about.

How to smash geodes with your preschooler.

Materials needed.

You’ll obviously need geodes! This Geodes Kit from National Geographic is the one we’ve used. Safety glasses are a must and these are the ones we like. Next, grab a hammer from the toolbox. Now you’re all set!

Smash geodes.

The location that you hammer geodes matters. You’ll need a hard place for the geode to rest. We have done it on our cement patio before we had an extra cement block. You’ll need to have plenty of room for your child to swing a hammer as well. Be sure your child wears their safety glasses because shards or rock will fly. We’ve never had an issue but the glasses give me reassurance that they are protected.

Most of the geodes burst open pretty easily and the inside is so pretty to study. Others may take some swinging. But be patient and let your child go at it. My boys naturally begin working together to crack the geodes open. 

Explaining the formation of geodes to preschoolers.

Inside the National Geographic kit is a brochure of information. When my boys break one open they of course want to share the beauty of the sparkles or veins inside with me. When they come over we look together to see what kind the geode most closely looks like.

This is also when I explain how geodes form. When the molten rock, lava, begins to cool and gas bubbles, air pockets become trapped inside the cooling rock. Over thousands of years the minerals and gases form crystals. Some of these crystals are the bumpy and jagged crystals we usually think of while others are microscopic crystals and create varying band colors that are visible to the eye. 

As long as I have their attention we try to identify the geode they currently have using the pamphlet provided. Every time they smash open a new geode they come running over and ask, “what kind do I have momma?” 

Promote curiosity and independence.

Encourage your child’s curiosity by identifying each geode as they bust it open. Ooh and ahh over the pretty formations together. The mystery of what each one will look like on the inside is intriguing for your 3-5 year old and will keep them coming back to learn more about geodes then to simply focus on smashing.

I am not next to them though as they smash. Instead I sit back, observe, and sip my tea. I only do this after I lay out the safety rules of sharing, giving space, and keeping on the glasses. I am ready to help them identify their geode but other than that it’s all up to them. By allowing your child(ren) to independently use the hammer and tackle the challenge on their own you are promoting high self-esteem and allowing them to think critically for how to break open stubborn geodes.

Creative activities for 3-5 year old’s.

Have you done this activity with your child? What about other preschool volcano activities? Which is your favorite? Leave a comment and let myself and others know. Is it the curiosity and challenge it presents or the independence and how hands off you can be? Check out Vv is for Volcano if you’re interested in more preschool volcano activities. Your preschooler definitely won’t find their lessons boring!

Playing for Hours offers more creative activities for your preschooler. You can find many on the blog or check out Letter of the Week. This free preschool curriculum has been reimagined for all that homeschool has to offer. Activity ideas, book suggestions, printables, and more are all available at no cost to you. Follow the button below to learn more.

Smashing Geodes

Activity Instructions