Rainy days may keep us inside, but it is a perfect opportunity to teach your kids about rain! Here are two projects to get you started.


Make a Miniature Water Cycle!
Discuss with your kids how water can be a liquid, a gas, or a solid. Outside, water is always changing from liquid to gas and back again. This process is called the water cycle. You can see how the water cycle works.

The Water Cycle
The sun’s heat makes water evaporate from streams, lakes, rivers, and oceans. The water vapor rises. When it reaches cooler air, it condenses to form clouds. When the clouds are full of water, or saturated, they release some of the water as rain.

You will need:
a large metal or plastic bowl
a pitcher or bucket
a sheet of clear plastic wrap
a dry ceramic mug (like a coffee mug)
a long piece of string or large rubber band
water

1. Put the bowl in a sunny place outside.
2. Using the pitcher or bucket, pour water into the bowl until it is about ¼ full.
3. Place the mug in the center of the bowl. Be careful not to splash any water into it.
4. Cover the top of the bowl tightly with the plastic wrap.
5. Tie the string around the bowl to hold the plastic wrap in place.
6. Watch the bowl to see what happens.

The “mist” that forms on the plastic wrap will change into larger drops of water that will begin to drip. (You can speed up the dripping by carefully moving the bowl – don’t splash! – into the shade.) When this happens, continue watching for a few minutes, then carefully peel back the plastic. Is the coffee mug still empty? Water from the “ocean” of water in the bowl evaporated. It condensed to form misty “clouds” on the plastic wrap. When the clouds became saturated it “rained” into the mug!

Make Your Own Rain Gauge!
Maybe you've heard on the weather that an inch of rain fell in the last storm or a half-inch of rain might fall tomorrow. A rain gauge is a tool that measures the amount of rain that falls.
You can make a rain gauge to find out how much water falls in your yard (or anywhere else!) the next time it rains.

You will need:
a clear plastic soda bottle
a pair of scissors
a permanent marker with a sharp point
small stones or aquarium gravel
water
ruler


1. Cut off the top part of the bottle (you may want to ask an adult to help).
2. Fill the curved part of the bottom of the bottle with small stones or aquarium gravel. This will weight your rain gauge to keep it from falling over.
3. Pour enough water into the bottle to cover the stones. Use the marker to draw a line at the top surface of the water.
4. Mark a "0" next to the line. This is your baseline.
5. Use the ruler and marker to measure 1", 2", and 3" up the bottle from the baseline. Draw a line at each inch mark and label the lines. (Tip: you may want to empty the water out of the bottle before doing this, so you can lay the bottle on its side to measure.)
6. Use the ruler and marker to measure and mark ½", 1 ½", and 2 ½".
7. If you want to make your rain gauge more accurate, use the ruler and marker to measure and mark ¼", ¾", 1 ¼", 1 ¾", etc. on the bottle.
8. Wait for rain!
9. When the weather forecast predicts rain, or rain starts falling, add water to your rain gauge up to the baseline.
10. Put the rain gauge outside to catch the rainwater.
11. When the rain stops, check to see how many inches of rain fell into your rain gauge!
You may want to make a chart to keep track of how much rain falls in a week or a month. On the chart, list the date it rained and how many inches of rain fell. Add up the rainfall at the end of the week or month.
Important! Be sure the rain gauge is filled to the baseline before you begin collecting.