Clouds!

There were terrible storms last Tuesday at school, which caused a tree to fall on a power line, which thus cut off power to our school during a tornado drill for an hour and 10 minutes! Phew! That was the LONGEST tornado drill I EVER hope to encounter! What a day! Inspired by the day's events, the kids REALLY wanted to know about weather and storms! So, we watched the radar, learned a few tips to help understand it, and learned about clouds! I used some of the lesson I did last year with clouds, but added a bit more for the older kids. I read Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs to the kids, and we talked about the story elements and the kids who had watched the movie were dying to do a class double bubble comparing the movie and the book. It is such a classic book! We learned about the different altitudes of clouds by comparing the height to a giant. We also saw a Bill Nye about storms (I LOVE Bill Nye!). After all of this, we got to do an experiment making our own cumulonimbus! I got the idea from Pinterest and had to try it! You need a mason jar, water, shaving cream, and LIQUID food coloring. Fill the jar half way with water, cover most of the top of the water with shaving cream leaving some holes, then put several drops in and watch the cumulonimbus rain!!!! The kids loved it! During this experiment we went through the Scientific Process as well. Here are some of the rain clouds!!!!