This cloud science experiment is a fun and easy way to explain weather to young children. This is one of our favorite science experiments to do at home! There are affiliate links in this post.

I love doing easy science experiments with my children. It seems that no matter how many times we perform them, they are always amazed of the outcome. The weather here in South Florida hasn’t been too great and my boys are feeling a little cooped up. As we rolled into another rainy day, my youngest asked how rain is formed.

I thought this would be a great opportunity to find a fun cloud science experiment on Pinterest that we could do together. Luckily we were able to create this colorful weather experiment by using a few basic household items! The instructions were easy to follow and it turned out to be a great way to explain how rain is created to my young children.

CLOUD SCIENCE EXPERIMENT

Materials:

Shaving Cream
Food coloring
Water
Eye dropper and/or syringe
Small containers – I used small tupperware
Glass jar or vase

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Directions:

Fill each of the small containers with water.
Add about 6 drops of each color to its own small container. We wanted to try to make a full rainbow so we set up several containers.
Add water to the vase or jar about 3/4 of the way.
Top off the vase / jar with a generous amount of shaving cream. We let it overflow the top to look like extra puffy clouds!
Use separate eye droppers for each color to drop the different colors of water onto the shaving cream cloud. Note: The closer you squirt to the edges, the faster it will seep through the cream and come down as rain.

This cloud science experiment was an easy way to explain to my boys how the water is like the air and the shaving cream is like the clouds. When the clouds get saturated with water, they produce rain. As the water gets too heavy for the “cloud” it begins to release it into the “atmosphere” (aka water), and ultimately gravity makes it fall as rain.

In spite of the rain, now my boys love running outside and understanding where exactly its coming from. They eagerly look around to spot a rainbow just like the ones they made!