Explaining Rain!

Yesterday, my eldest asked me if the rain was going to flood the whole world... For those of you who live in Sydney, you would know that there's been nothing but rain for a few days now... If you are anything like me, you too are getting cabin fever and need quick and easy ideas to pass the time while the kids are stuck indoors!

So what better way to beat the rain by explaining how the rain comes!

All you need is a glass jar or a glass, some boiling water, a plate and some ice.

Before I poured the boiling water in the glass, I asked the kids to sit on their hands.  This was a bit of a novelty for them but lasted all of a few seconds before they wanted to feel the steam rising from the cup.  This is the part of the experiment where you need to hover and make sure the kids aren't going to touch the glass, the water, or the steam for too long.  Be so careful!!

 

Once you have poured the boiling water into the cup, put a plate on top of the glass.  Leave the plate here for a couple of minutes before you do the next step.  Your kids will love just looking at the droplets of water that form on the side of the cup.

After a few minutes, put some ice on top of the plate.  Keep watching closely because the droplets of water turn into bigger drops, and it looks like it's raining on the side of the glass.  Very cool but so hard to take a picture of... promise it looks better than it looks in this picture!!

I was so excited about seeing the "rain" that I didn't notice much else that was happening.  E made the observation that the ice was melting on top of the plate too and it looked like the rain on the ground.  "We need a drain for this rain or it's going to flood" he said... Oh my goodness, I love their thinking minds!

Pretty soon part of the fun was touching the melting ice. "It's so cold mummy!" N excitedly notices.

Do you want some other 5 minute experiments to get you through these rainy days?

Try these:

Moving Milk Rainbow
Dancing Sultanas