Rain Cloud Experiment

Have your kids ever asked you what clouds are made of, or how and why it rains?  This is a great experiment to help them visualize exactly what happens, and it's a lot of fun too!

Materials:

• Shaving cream
• Clear container:  bucket, jar, cup, etc.
• Blue food coloring
• Droppers

We used this clear plastic storage tub because we happen to have loads of them holding craft supplies.  A drinking glass or mason jar would work just as well though.  

Instructions:

Fill the container about 3/4 full of water (this will be your sky), then top with shaving cream clouds.  I started making the clouds to ensure a more even coverage on top of the water but then Kinsley took over and made "big puffy clouds" for us.  You might want to give your shaving cream a minute to settle down onto the water just in case.  

~ While your clouds are settling, mix several drops of your blue food coloring into a small amount of water.  The more food coloring you use, the darker your rain will be and the easier it will be for the kids to see it.  

Using your dropper filled with your blue "rain drops" have the kids start dropping it out onto their clouds.  Start watching the sides and bottoms of your clouds now to see what happens as you add more and more rain drops.  

As the clouds start to get full and heavy you'll see rain starting to fall from the bottom of your clouds!

Keep adding more rain and watch how your rain storm changes from just a sprinkle to a serious downpour!

It's a great simple science experiment that you can do as a whole family and a great learning tool if your littles are curious about the weather.  Plus, if you're up for a bit of a mess, the shaving cream is a great sensory play item after the experiment is over...