What is a Rain Cloud?
I'm glad you asked! Rain is part of the Earth's water cycle. It begins with sunlight heating up water on Earth's surface. The heat causes the water to turn into water vapor, which rises into the air. As the water vapor cools, it turns back into water and forms droplets. Clouds begin to form from large numbers of these droplets. In the cloud, droplets come together with other droplets that form larger drops of water. Eventually, the drops become too heavy to stay in the cloud and they fall to Earth as rain. The water cycle then begins again!
Have fun with your kids this summer with this easy and fun science experiment making rain clouds. Before you begin, have a mini discussion on how rain is made!
Materials Needed:
- 1-2 Glass Jars
- Water
- Foam Shaving Cream
- Liquid Food Coloring - Use as many colors as you want
Instructions:
Step One
Grab your jar(s) and fill them with water about 2 inches from the top. Don't fill it too much, otherwise, there will be no room for the "clouds."
Step Two
Spray a layer of shaving cream around the top of the jar, on top of the water. This will represent your cloud. Be sure not to make your cloud too compact, so the "rain" can get through.
Step Three
Take the food coloring and squeeze droplets on top and the sides of the shaving cream. Use 1 color or multiple colors to have a rainbow-looking effect.
Step Four
Watch as the food coloring slowly leaks through the cloud. It will begin to look like rain coming through the clouds. Making rain clouds is fun!
To make this experiment even more fun, try listening to and singing along with these songs while creating your rain cloud!
- Rain, Rain, Go Away Nursery Rhyme
- Singing in the Rain by Gene Kelly
- Raindrops Keep Falling on my Head by B.J. Thomas
- If All the Raindrops by Barney
- Raining Tacos by Parry Gripp and BooneBum
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