I have a confession: we totally did our Mad Science Monday on a Thursday last week! Phew. I already feel so much better. It was the perfect day for it, too; too hot to go out for long, the fourth day of our week long play-theme on Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs by Judi and Ron Barrett, and there was a free science show at one of our local malls I wanted to take the kids to, so we were also short on time. Those types of mornings are perfect for a short stretch story stretcher and I had one more weather themed book I wanted to include this week: Eric Carle's The Little Cloud. This book is a great read to supplement a weather theme and goes perfectly alongside the supplemental book we read earlier in the week, It Looked Like Spilt Milk by Charles Green Shaw. Like the latter, this book also follows a cloud along its journey of changing shape until it makes a glorious rain. After reading the book together, we set out to experiment with making our own rain clouds using household ingredients you likely have on hand as well.
We have read this book often and are huge fans of Eric Carle here. We are also big fans of science experiments (in case you haven't noticed)! I found the idea for this experiment written up on this blog post quite a while ago and saved it for a rainy day--or a hot, sunny day! It is super easy to set up and orchestrate and requires only a few, very inexpensive materials. To make your own rain cloud, you will need:- a clear jar, bowl, cup or glass
- shaving cream
- food coloring
- pipettes (optional)
Begin by filling your vessel with water, nearly to the top. Young scientists will love to help with this part, whether it's filling from the tap or from a pitcher. You can fill one jar or several. Next, squirt a decent sized blob of shaving cream on top; it will float! This is a great time to discuss floating and sinking with your young scientist. It is fun to observe from various angles how the "cloud" remains on top of the water. Ask your junior scientist what he or she thinks might happen if you add food coloring to the top of the cloud. You can choose one color or two or more. It's a great opportunity as well to explore color mixing. If you choose to use pipettes, you can dilute your colors and your children can use the pipettes in jars of colored water to suck up color and squirt it atop the cloud. We just squirt directly from the food coloring bottles. Please note that diluting the color will change the rate of the experiment as the coloring is less concentrated. I should also mention that food coloring undiluted can stain skin temporarily. Experiment with how many drops of color to add. If you are doing several demonstrations, you may wish to compare how the shape of the vessel or the number of drops of coloring affects the rate of the experiment. Remember to change only one factor at a time (like shape of the vessel or number of drops of coloring) to truly carry out and observe the experiment in scientific method. The next part is to wait! Once it starts "working," the color will drip through the cloud down the water in beautiful streaks that look like rain!
If your water gets too full of color, you can pour it out and try again should you wish!
Want to do more rain cloud science? Try out this rain cloud in a bag experiment I posted earlier in the year!
Want to stretch out your story stretcher a bit?
- Here's a great art extension: Eric Carle made beautiful end pages in this book using white finger paint on blue paper. Let your young illustrator in training finger paint with white paint on blue construction paper to create his or her own cloud designs. Alternatively, experiment with symmetry using white paint on folded blue construction paper as we did in this post.
- For some more sensory fun, squirt a blob of shaving cream on a tray for your little one to play with. It's great and cloud like all on its own, mixed with some paint or food coloring to explore how colors mix or along with some tools like forks, combs, cookie cutters or anything else you'd like to to add. It's also a good medium to practice letters with for early writers and even sight words for beginning readers!
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| shaving cream sensory play |
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