Capture a Cloud

Title: Capture a Cloud
Description: Learn about where clouds come from by creating one of your own and capturing it in a jar.
Season: Anytime
Length of Activity: 30 minutes
Age: 3-12

Capture a Cloud

Have you ever wondered where clouds come from? Why are some days clear-skied and sunny while others are cluttered with giant cotton-like cumulus?

Turns out it has a lot to do with the sun and the amount of water on the ground each day. As the sun heats up the earth, it causes tiny droplets of water to evaporate or move from the ground to the air by transforming from a liquid into a gas. As that gas rises higher into the air, it encounters colder air and turns back into droplets of water. Those tiny droplets of water floating in the air collect and “stick” together up in the sky in order to form what we know as clouds.

In short, clouds are just a bunch of droplets of water all stuck together in the sky.
Pretty cool huh?
What do you say we make some of our own?

Supplies and Tools needed:
A mason jar
1 cup of boiling hot water
blue food coloring
Hairspray
a few cubes of ice

Getting started
Step 1: Pour boiling hot water into the mason jar or any other type of jar that you have at home.
Step 2: Add a couple of drops of blue food coloring to the water. This will make it look like the sky and help you differentiate the cloud from the water.
Step 3: Spray a thin layer of hairspray into the jar (this will help the water droplets get sticky) Screw the lid on immediately after spraying.
Step 4: Place the ice cubes on top of the lid while the jar is closed.
Step 5: If you observe the top of the jar carefully, you’ll notice a cloud beginning to form.
Step 6: Once you have seen it form, unscrew the lid and remove it to see the cloud move out of the jar.

Taking it Deeper
Do you think you can predict the weather based on the kinds of clouds in the sky?

Let’s put our scientist’s hat on and observe the sky!

What do you see? What fun shapes do the clouds make? Where in the sky are the clouds? Are they thick, or thin? How much of the sky is covered?

Start to take notes on what you observe each day.

After about a week, check to see if you notice any patterns.

What type of clouds precede what type of weather?