Let It Rain

 Our Kindergarten group has been studying weather, particularly how clouds make rain. To build background knowledge, students listened to the story, “The Rain Came Down” by David Shannon. It’s a fictitious story about a chain reaction of misfortunes one rainy Saturday afternoon and the impact on the character’s emotions. But once the rain lets up and the sun comes out, everyone’s mood changes.  After listening to the story, students completed a cause and effect worksheet to show that when something happens, it causes another thing to happen.

The next day, students learned about the water cycle works by listening to the story,” Down Came the Rain”, by Franklin Branley. They were introduced to vocabulary words like, evaporation, vapor water and  droplets. They learned that clouds consist of water droplets, and that water droplets come together with other droplets to form larger drops of water. Eventually, the drops become too heavy to stay in the cloud and they fall to Earth as rain. 

Then they made it rain! Rain in a jar, that is. Using plastic jars, food coloring and shaving cream, students were able to see how liquid droplets can make their way through the clouds. Before beginning our experiment, students predicted how many drops it would take before the “clouds” release their “rain droplets”. After the experiment, students checked their predictions and notated what they observed.

 

It was a great experience and as you can see, the students truly enjoyed it. If you would like to duplicate this experiment at home, you’ll find the directions below.

Rain In a Jar

Supplies:

• A large jar (I used a plastic one like this)
• Shaving cream (not a gel version)
• Gel Food coloring or washable watercolors
• Pipettes or droppers

Directions:

• In a small cup, mix the food coloring with some water.
• Fill the large jar with water until it is about 3/4 full.
• Spray a bunch of shaving cream in the jar until it is just a small bit above the top of the jar.
• Add drops of food coloring until it "rains".