This easy and fun rain cloud in a jar science experiment will show your kids how precipitation happens when the clouds get too heavy!
How can you make it rain inside the house? Since we can’t physically bring clouds indoors, we will create our own!
After growing up in SoCal, my kids are not very familiar with different kinds of weather. After all, it’s pretty much sunny all the time over there with a very mild winter and hot summer.
So my kids were very excited to hear that we are going to make a rain cloud in a jar. The experiment is super easy so you can do it many times. Trust me, your kids will want to!
How to Make Rain Fall in a Jar
Materials:
- Clear glass jar
- Water
- Food coloring
- Shaving cream (foam)
- Dropper
- Small bowl
Instructions:
1. In a small bowl, mix a few drops of food coloring with a little bit of water.
2. Fill the clear glass jar about ¾ full of water.
3. Add shaving cream on top of the water to make the fluffy cloud.
4. Use the dropper to suck some of the colored water and squirt it on top of the shaving cream cloud.
5. Wait a few seconds to see if the “rain” made its way through the shaving cream into the water underneath.
6. If not, continue to add more colored water until the cloud was too heavy to hold the “rain.”
7. Watch as the colored water seep down into the water in the jar!
When the “rain” first descended into the water, it formed such cool patterns! My kids could have done this experiment all day.
You could try different colored waters by using different food coloring. Perhaps use one dropper for red and one for blue. The rain will mix to form purple rain!
Science Behind Rain Cloud in a Jar Experiment
Clouds are formed when water vapor evaporates into the air. The water vapor condenses onto tiny particles of dust and becomes the clouds we see in the sky.
More and more water vapor gathers in the cloud until the clouds are so full and heavy that they can’t hold any more water. At that time, gravity pulls the water down to the ground as rain.
In this experiment, the shaving cream represents the clouds in the sky. As you continue to add colored water to the shaving cream, the cloud gets heavier and heavier. And then once there is too much-colored water in the shaving cream, the colored water makes its way to the water underneath.
If your kids like this activity, they will love making cloud in a jar by lighting a match. It’s a great science experiment to demonstrate how clouds are formed.
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