Toddlers will love making rain clouds using shaving cream!
When children experience rain, they usually don’t learn about where rain comes from until they are much older. As toddlers, you can start to point to the sky and say, “cloud.” Then when it rains, you can say, “Rain comes out of the cloud.”
Reading books about clouds or looking outside and pointing at clouds will introduce young toddlers to different clouds and the many shapes they have. At this age, they will not comprehend the different types of clouds or how clouds get saturated and rain comes out, but it doesn’t hurt to introduce them to vocabulary and concepts.
In this experiment, toddlers can help squeeze the syringe or dropper and watch the “clouds” get full and then “rain.” Having toddlers exposed to science experiments at this age will increase confidence and permission for exploration. This particular activity does not allow for toddlers to get their hands in the experiment, so you may want to allow them to play with the shaving cream as an extension activity with the story.
Materials
For your clouds you will need:
Shaving Cream
Clear Container (vase, jar, etc)
Small Cup of Water
Food Coloring (preferably blue)
Eye Dropper or Syringe
Optional: Copy of Little Cloud (or any cloud book)
Learning Outcomes
Domain
Cognitive
Skills
Cause and effect
Indicators:
Explore outcome of adding water
Identifying cloud and rain
Squeezing dropper/syringe with control
Instructions
Step 1:
Read a story about clouds or look outside at clouds and point them out. See if the toddlers can say “cloud.”
Step 2:
For some sensory play, put a little shaving cream on the table top and allow a few children at a time to create clouds or draw designs in the “clouds.”
Step 3:
Gather a small group of toddlers and pour water into a larger clear container about half way.
Step 4:
Squeeze a generous amount of shaving cream on top of the water. Say, “this is like a CLOUD” as you are squeezing it out.
Step 5:
Add water to a small cup and add drops of blue food coloring to make the water blue. Use an eye dropper or syringe and fill it with the blue water.
Step 6:
Allow children to slowly add the blue water to the top of the cloud until it is emptied to see the cloud get full and then “rain.”
🌈 BONUS: If you have additional food coloring colors on hand, create different colors of water to add to your clouds! As you add additional colors, you can talk about colors in the rainbow. 🌈
Playful Questions
What is a cloud made of?
What kinds of clouds are there?
Why are clouds different shapes?
How are clouds helpful?
What kind of weather is my favorite?
