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This is an easy to make weather tool to go with any study on weather or nature. Use this experiment to go along with the Why it Rains activity. A fun hands-on way to expose children to the importance of rain.
What you need:
Clean, empty, 2-liter soda bottle (preferably clear, not green)
Knife (for adult use only, of course!)
Masking or duct tape
Transparent tape
Water
Waterproof marker
Ruler
What You Do:
1. This first step should be done ONLY under the supervision of an adult: Using a knife, cut off the top of the soda bottle right where the slope begins.
2. Invert the top of the bottle into the bottom and tape around the edge where they meet. (This helps keep the water in the gauge from evaporating.)
3. Fill the bottom of the soda bottle with water, just to the top of the "feet." This will become the bottom of the rain gauge.
4. With the marker, mark this bottom line as "0 inches".
5. Use the ruler to mark inches (and quarter- and half-inches) up the side of the bottle. Your rain gauge is ready to use. Put it in a safe place outside, where it's open to the rain but unlikely to be knocked over.
Use your rain gauge to track the rain in a week or month. Make predictions, make graphs of what you find then compare your findings with your friends.
Questions to ask:
What makes it rain? (See Why it Rains activity)
Why do farmers need enough rain? (To grow good crops)
What happens when there is not enough rain? (Drought, forest fires, crops damaged, etc)
More activities:
Read a book about weather
Measure the rain in your area for a month.
Keep track of the weather in your area for at least a month. Record the type of weather, temperature and what season it is.
More Resources:
Let’s Read and Find Out: What Will the Weather Be?
Water Cycle in a Box
Water Cycle Poster
Acid Rain Survey Kit
Professional Wireless Weather Station
Life in a drop of Water (VHS)
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Need help explaining the layers of the earth to your young students? Here is a fun way to discover how the earth is layered. For very young children use something softer than a hard candy, such as a grape, explaining that the core is hard than a grape.
Explain the different layers as the children are making the models of the earth.
For each child you will need:
1 large marshmallow (the mantle)
A piece of hard round candy such as a peppermint (the core)
toothpick
Classroom supplies
Chocolate chips (this will depend on the size of your class 1 cup does several) (the crust)
Small pan or microwave to melt chips in.
What You Do:
1. Cut a small slit into the side of the marshmallow and push the hard candy in the middle.
2. Now put your marshmallow on the toothpick
3. Melt the chocolate chips in the microwave or in a small pan over low heat. Stirring often.
4. Dip the marshmallow in the chocolate. Make sure you completely cover it.
5. Set it on wax paper to cover
More Resources:
Science Kit Magnetic Earth Model
Soft Foam Cross Section Earth Model
Geology of a Changing Planet
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Use this fun experiment to bring earth science alive to your students.
What you need:
Bottle with a skinny neck
Cake pan or pie plate
Soil or clay
Funnel
1/4 cup baking soda
liquid dish detergent
1/4 cup vinegar
Red food coloring
What you do:
1. Put the bottle in the middle of the pie plate. Mold dirt or clay around it so it looks like a real mountain.
2. Pour the baking soda in the bottle using the funnel.
3. Add a squirt of dish soap.
4. Put a few drops of food coloring in the vinegar. Pour the vinegar in the bottle.
4. Watch your volcano erupt!
More activities:
Read a book about volcanoes. (Earthquakes and Volcanoes Book - (4811606))
Draw and label a volcano. (Poster, Volcano, Laminated, 98 cm x 68 cm - (4687222))
Research and write a report (or make a poster) on some place destroyed by a volcano.
Make a poster explaining what happens when a volcano erupts.
More Resources:
Kit, Build & Erupt Volcano, Deluxe - (4700901)
Model, Volcano, 23 cm D x 40 cm H - (4660300)
Kit, Our Amazing Volcanoes - (6879300)
VHS Video, Volcano!! Nature's Fury, Set/2 - (7395500)
Book, How the Earth Works, 60 Fun Activites for Exploring Volcanoes,
Fossils, Earthquakes, and More - (4630801)
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Rain is important. We need rain for the plants to grow, to supply water for the animals and for humans. But how does the rain get up there?
Rain is made because of the water cycle. Water from the oceans, rivers and lakes gets heated by the sun. That makes the water EVAPORATE. It dissolves into tiny particles and rises in the air. This WATER VAPOR now CONDENSES on the tiny pieces of dust or smoke in the air. Then it becomes a CLOUD. Soon the cloud becomes too heavy to hold all the water. That is when the rain falls back down to the earth.
Make Your Own Rain.
You will need:
Water
Small pan
Glass jar with lid (large mason jars or mayonnaise jars work well)
Towel
Ice Cubes
What you do:
1. Put some water in the pot and bring it to a boil. Let it cool a bit.
2. Carefully pour the water into the jar and put the lid on. (Rinse the jar out with hot water first to prevent breaking)
3. Sit the jar on a towel.
4. Put the ice cubes on the jar's lid.
5. Watch it rain!
Activities:
Draw a picture of the water cycle.
Make a Soda Bottle Rain Gauge and measure the rain in your area for a month.
Write a report on why rain is important.
More resources:
Water Cycle Poster
Let’s Read & Find Out: Down Comes the Rain
Rain Gauge Thermometer
Ready to Read: Rain Level 1
Weather Puppets
Water Cycle in a Box
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Copyright Belinda J Mooney 2005
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