Make a cloud, learn how to identify the clouds in the sky, find out why it rains, and more through fun hands-on water cycle experiments for kids!
For most young children, the best way to learn scientific concepts is through hands-on activities. In our homeschool, we try to learn science through fun activities and science experiments as often as possible, especially in the elementary grades. It’s a great way to get young learners engaged and get the best results as far as understanding and remembering new concepts. So, for our weather unit for Earth science, I put together several fun water cycle experiments. The water cycle experiments in this post are focused on learning about rain and clouds, which naturally involves the different stages of the water cycle. In this post I will show you a cloud in a jar experiment, how to make a cloud viewer, and a couple other science demonstrations for learning about evaporation, condensation, and precipitation. We usually start off our science units with some reading, so I’ll also give you some wonderful book recommendations to jump start your learning about clouds, rain, and the water cycle!
Suggested Books about the Water Cycle
Reading good science books is an easy way to spark your child’s curiosity and desire to learn. You can dive right in and learn from the water cycle experiments alone if that is more your style, or do some background reading first. Do what works best for you and your child! If you’d like to read some books about the water cycle to go along with the water cycle experiments below, the following list has some fantastic choices. These books are simple, informative, easily accessible, and engaging to children. You can probably find them at your local library, but if not, check Amazon or ebay.
- Clouds by Anne Rockwell
- Down Comes the Rain by Franklyn M. Branley
- What Will the Weather Be? by Lynda Dewitt
Now for some water cycle experiments!
Water Cycle Experiments
Recipe for a Cloud
A cloud is a mass of water drops or ice crystals in the sky. A cloud needs three ingredients to form: water, a particle (called condensation nuclei – this is for water droplets to cling to – such as dust, pollen, salt, or pollution) and cold. You can help your child visualize this with this simple water cycle experiment.
Materials Needed:
- Boiling water
- a chilled glass, or glass of cold water
Instructions:
- Heat a pot of water until you can easily see steam rising.
- Explain to your child that when water is warmed up by the sun it evaporates or turns from a liquid form into a gas. It’s still water, it’s just a gas, like air, instead of a liquid, like the water we drink.
- Take a glass that has been chilled in the refrigerator. Explain that clouds are made when water from the air condenses – or cools and becomes a liquid again. In order for that to happen, the water vapor in the air has to get to a cold spot and have something for water droplets to hold onto – like dust or salt in the air.
- Hold the cold glass over the steam and let your child watch the water droplets form.
Now that you have an idea of how clouds are made, you can make your own!
*Note: You might want to elaborate during this discussion on the states of matter. Since you have already discussed the liquid and gas form of water, you can easily explain to your child that there is one more form of water – the solid form. Solid water can take the form of ice, hail, frost, or snow.
Cloud in a Jar Experiment
Your kids will love this fun water cycle experiment! The cloud in a jar experiment is the perfect way to learn about how clouds form and it’s so much fun!
You will need:
- a glass jar with a lid
- boiling water (warm water will not work! The water needs to be HOT!)
- a match
- a bag of ice or extra large ice cube
Instructions:
- Explain: To make your cloud you need to combine the three ingredients for a cloud: water vapor, a particle (or condensation nuclei), and cold.
- Add the boiling water to the bottom of your jar. You don’t need much water – a half inch to one inch of water is enough. You want to leave enough space for the cloud to form! The water temperature is very important to the success of your cloud. It is very important that the water is boiling! It will be hard to make it work without following this step. Your boiling water is going to add water vapor to your jar. If for some reason you can’t use boiling water, use very very hot water – as hot as you can. Warm water will not work as well!
- To add your particles, light a match and hold it inside your jar for several seconds. Your cloud will work best with a lot of particles, so make sure you get a good amount in there! Then drop the match inside. The smoke from the match introduced particles into the air. Quickly screw the lid onto the mouth of the jar to trap the smoke inside.
- Now add the cold. Place the bag of ice or extra large ice cube on top of the jar. I made big cubes of ice for this water cycle experiment because I found that they worked better. Within a few seconds you should begin to see your cloud form. Isn’t that fun?!
- You should be able to see a nice thick white haze in your jar. Once your cloud has formed you can open your jar and watch it float away!
Cloud Viewer
You have probably noticed that clouds look different at different times. All clouds are made from the same ingredients, but the way they look changes based on the wind and the temperature in the sky. Some clouds are actually made of ice instead of liquid water! This activity will help you get to know the different types of clouds and how to identify them.
You will need:
- the Cloud Viewer printable (at the bottom of the instructions)
- colored cardstock
- clear plastic sheet – I used transparency film, but a sheet protector or something similar would also work
- tape
- glue
- cotton balls
- blue, gray, and black markers or watercolors
Instructions:
- Assemble the cloud viewer. Print the cloud viewer on cardstock. The thicker the cardstock the better. Cut out the rectangle in the middle of the viewer. Cut a rectangle of plastic just larger than the rectangle that was cut out of the viewer. Tape the plastic onto the back of the viewer over the open space.
- Now it’s time to create your cloud samples! Talk about the different types of clouds listed on the cloud viewer. The book Clouds by Anne Rockwell is an excellent resource for learning about the different kinds of clouds. Use the cotton balls to make the different kinds of clouds. The cloud viewer explains what they should look like. Glue the clouds that you make to the cloud viewer. Use the gray, blue, and black markers or watercolors to put color on the clouds that have color (such as stratus and cumulonimbus).
- When your cloud viewer is complete, take it outside to view the clouds! Look through the window in the viewer and see if you can identify the clouds that you see.
Make it Rain!
This water cycle experiment is a fun way to help kids understand where rain comes from and why it rains. It is similar to making a cloud, only this time you don’t need a match.
You will need:
- a jar
- a metal spoon
- boiling water
- ice
Instructions for Making Rain:
- Pour boiling water in the jar until it is halfway full. The water needs to be boiling or very very hot.
- Put ice in a metal spoon and hold it over the jar.
- Now watch what the temperature changes between the hot water and the cold spoon cause the water molecules to do.
- There should be some condensation at first, and as more and more water molecules collect at the bottom of the spoon, the drops of water will get bigger and bigger until they get so big and heavy that they fall. Just like rain!
- Explain to your child that this is how rain falls – when water molecules collect and condense in clouds, sometimes so many of them gather together that they become too heavy to stay in the cloud, and they fall to the ground. That’s how we get rain! If the weather conditions are such that the air is cold enough to freeze, then you will have a different form of precipitation such as hail, sleet, or snow. That’s how we get rain!
- Watch as the water in your jar evaporates as steam into the air, then condenses on the spoon as it cools down, and eventually falls back down in drops – just like rain!
Now we have covered the whole water cycle! Evaporation, condensation, and precipitation!
Explain to your child that the processes that they saw in their experiments – evaporation, condensation, and precipitation – happen over and over again in a cycle. We call it the water cycle!
I hope that you have enjoyed these water cycle experiments for kids. And I hope they helped your child learn about the water cycle and the way clouds and rain form! Thanks for visiting and feel free to check out more fun science experiments for kids for joyful learning!
