Explore weather science with this quick and easy cloud activity for preschool and kindergarten. Find out how to make a visual model of a rain cloud with shaving cream that is perfect for young kiddos. Great for a Spring weather theme or home science activity, making a rain cloud is a fantastic preschool science experiment!

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Enjoy A Cloud Activity For Earth and Weather Science

Studying weather and experimenting with a foam rain cloud is a fantastic way to introduce kids to Earth Science. Earth Science includes the atmosphere, hydrosphere, geosphere, and biosphere. Weather deals with the day-to-day changes in the atmosphere that directly impact our lives. Should I take a rain jacket to the playground or not?

Here are some good ideas to add to your foam rain cloud activity!

Water Cycle: The foam rain cloud experiment helps kids grasp the water cycle concept, a super important part of life on Earth. The water cycle describes how water moves between the atmosphere, land, and oceans through evaporation, condensation, and precipitation. Creating a foam rain cloud allows kids to represent and understand how clouds form and produce rain visually. You can also create a water cycle in a bag!

Cloud Formation: Clouds are essential elements of weather. As a result, by experimenting with a foam rain cloud, you can discuss different kinds of clouds. Our cloud viewer project has visuals!

Precipitation Types: The foam rain cloud experiment introduces kids to different types of precipitation, including rain. But what else falls from the sky? Snow, sleet, and hail are all forms of precipitation.

Real-World Weather: Weather affects our daily lives, from what you decide to wear for the day or the activities you plan to do! Learning about weather through hands-on experiments helps kids connect scientific concepts with real-world experiences! Add this free printable weather tracker to the project.

How To Do Science Experiments At Home

Science learning starts early, and you can be a part of that with setting up science at home with everyday materials. Or you can bring easy science experiments to a group of kids in the classroom!

We find a ton of value in cheap science activities and experiments. All our science experiments use inexpensive, everyday materials you can find at home or from your local dollar store.

We even have a whole list of kitchen science experiments, using basic supplies you will have in your kitchen.

You can set up your science experiments as an activity focusing on exploration and discovery. Make sure to ask kids questions at each step, discuss what is happening, and discuss the science behind it.

Alternatively, you can introduce the scientific method, get kids to record their observations, and make conclusions. Read more about the scientific method for kids to help you get started.

Even though the scientific method feels like it is just for big kids…

This method can be used with kids of all ages! Have a casual conversation with younger kiddos, or do a more formal science notebook entry with older kiddos!

What Is A Rain Cloud?

This rain cloud model is an easy weather activity for Spring science and a great way to show how clouds hold water until they can no longer hold it, and then it rains!

The shaving cream is a picture of a cloud, which isn’t really light and fluffy like we imagine. Instead, clouds form from water vapor (think of steam coming from a kettle) coming together in the atmosphere.

Adding drops to the shaving cream is like more water vapor coming together in a cloud. In the atmosphere, when water vapor cools, it turns into liquid water, the rain cloud becomes heavy, and it rains. Similarly, our drops of colored water make the rain cloud “heavy,” and it rains!

Get your FREE Weather Science Worksheet Pack!

Shaving Cream Cloud Experiment

Let’s get right to our simple rain cloud model and find out how clouds form rain. Alternatively, you can try this sponge rain cloud method as well.

Supplies:

  • jar filled with water
  • shaving cream
  • eyedropper
  • liquid food coloring
  • an extra bowl to mix the colored rainwater
Rain Cloud Spring Science Shaving Cream Weather ActivityPin

Instructions:

STEP 1:  Squirt a nice fluffy, puffy shaving cream rain cloud on top of the water in your vase or jar. We made a huge rain cloud.

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STEP 2:  Mix up a separate bowl of blue tinted water. I heavily tinted it blue so we could see our rain cloud in action. Choose whatever colors you want to try for your cloud.

STEP 3  Use the eyedropper to squeeze the colored water into the shaving cream cloud. In the above picture, you can see the bottom of the cloud is quite full of our rain.

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STEP 4:  Keep adding rainwater to your cloud and watch the storm take shape!

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More Fun Weather Activities

Introduce your kids to fun ways to explore the weather with the various weather activities below.

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Weather Playdough Mats

Helpful Science Resources

Here are a few resources to help you introduce science more effectively to your kiddos or students and feel confident when presenting materials. You’ll find helpful free printables throughout.

Printable Weather Activities Pack

If you’re looking to have all of your printable activities in one convenient place, plus exclusive worksheets with a spring theme, our 300+ page Spring STEM Project Pack is what you need!

Weather, geology, plants, animal life cycles, and more!

14 Comments

  1. Wow! What a brilliant idea! My toddler will be so amazed by this 🙂 Sharing on fb and pinning!!

  2. I absolutely love this idea! Would it be ok if I used one of these pictures for a school project? It will go up on a website for a hypothetical children’s STEAM library program about weather. I will give you credit, of course!

  3. Yes, that’s fine. Glad you like the idea. If it is going to be published on the internet, please add a link to this post! Thanks.

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