Nature Study – Rain

Welcome to my 10 Days Series on the topic of nature study! Each of the ten days brings you a creative nature walk idea and a fun follow-up activity to spark your enthusiasm for nature study today!  (Well, maybe not today in your neck of the woods, but soon!)

Why study nature?

The answer is more serious than you might think.

Today’s nature study: Rain

Nature Study: Rain

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Creative Walk:

When rain is approaching, the ominous looking clouds are a sight to behold! And how amazing to see sheets of rain falling before they reach you!  Use this time as the rain approaches to practice photography skills and capture the sights. You might like to do quick sketches every five minutes to show how the system is changing as it approaches. Make notes on each sketch about things such as how the air smells, how the breeze feels, how loud the thunder is becoming, how many seconds you count between the lightning and thunder, etc.

After staying safe during the rain or storm, go back out to take pictures of the aftermath.  Note how things look different after the rain.

Follow-up Activity:

 

Make your own rain at home by completing one or both of the following activities.

1.  Boil some water in a pot (or a tea kettle) until steam forms above it. Slowly and carefully pour the hot water into a glass jar. Fill an aluminum pie pan with ice cubes and place it on top of the glass jar which is emitting the steam “cloud”. After a few minutes have the children observe the bottom of the pie pan which will show that when the steam comes in contact with the cool air from the pie pan, drops of water form and fall back into the jar like rain.

Explanation: As the water boils, it turns into a gas called water vapor. The steam you see is the water vapor. When it touches the cold pie pan, the water vapor condenses, or changes back into water. When the water droplets get heavy enough, they fall from the pie pan much like rain falls from the sky. This process is called the water cycle.  As it pertains to weather, water from oceans, lakes, streams, puddles, etc. evaporates (or turns into water vapor) and rises.  As the water vapor reaches the cooler air in the sky, it condenses and the water droplets gather together to form clouds.  And, in very simple terms, once the water droplets become heavy enough, they fall back to earth as rain.

2.  Here’s another simple demonstration for observing the water cycle as you make it “rain”.  Add ½ cup of blue tinted water into a zip top baggie and seal it tightly. Tape the baggie to a sunny window. After a few hours, you should see the water droplets that have evaporated condensing near the top of the bag and raining back down the sides of the bag.

Read a Book or Two If You Like:

 Today’s rain ideas are just a small sampling of similar activity suggestions you’ll find in the NaturExplorers Remarkable Rain study!

19 Comments

  1. We love experiments! We tried doing a water cycle experiment with a cotton ball….but these sound more fun (and more effective!).

    Thank you!

  2. what a great activity. Thanks

  3. I didn’t know you had a rain study! We have only thunder here, with the rain, which is just enough excitement for the children to want to “live on the edge” and go outside exploring….until it actually thunders again, then they get back in here! haha!

  4. Thanks! You gave me a great way to start our weather introduction for our tot.

  5. Rainy and overcast here today : )
    What great ideas you have for teaching the kids about rain! So much easier for them to understand when they have a visual. Thank you!

  6. For some reason I’d never thought of including rain in our nature studies – plants and animals obviously, the night sky, even keeping note of the weather but never actually studying rain. Looking forward to our next wet day.

  7. Isabel Wende says:

    Perfect1 We live in the rainy PNW, so thank you for this great idea, info, and experiment.

  8. Great idea! Thanks for sharing.

  9. Love the way that experiment looks. We studied the water cycle 3 months ago and we had a fun time making a cloud!!

  10. I love the idea of a before the rain observation and sketching the sky.

  11. I used to sing, “Rain, rain, go away…”, but decided to take advantage of those wonderful days instead!

  12. Sarah James says:

    This activity looks awesome! I have not thought of allowing my kids to “practice” photography on the clouds…I love your ideas!

  13. My son just came home with a “how to make a cloud” worksheet from preschool and since we are starting homeschool next year I am tucking it into the folder for future reference.

  14. We made our own rain this year and the kids loved it!

  15. We are supposed to have a rainy weekend — perfect. Thank you!

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