We are learning all about Seasons and Weather this month with our Experience Preschool box and our last week is culminating on Wild Weather, like hurricanes, hail, thunderstorms, floods, and tornadoes!
As an Experience Early Learning (EEL) Blogger, I receive the EEL Preschool Curriculum in exchange for my honest opinions and authentic stories about our experiences using the curriculum. All opinions and thoughts are completely my own.
A few weeks ago we took a day trip to a national park about 40 minutes from our home. On our way there we drove through the area where a tornado hit about a year ago. It still looks like a wasteland. Trees are gone, leaves and branches stripped from the trees that were able to hold on, even shop buildings were still turned over and braced by trees. The ground is utterly destroyed, but we could see new grass and weeds bringing life once more. The picture below was taken a few days after the tornado.
Since we took that trip, my son especially, has been asking about tornadoes. So when our Experience Preschool guide had directions on how to make a tornado in a bottle for our STEAM station, I knew we had to do that lesson!
Our lesson started with reading the Tornado section of our Kingfisher Voyages Wild Weather book. It showed a cow being sucked up by a tornado which led to a bunch of our optional supplies being called “cows.”
Supplies
- 2 two-liter bottles or 2 large large bottles
- Metal washer the size of the mouth of the bottle
- Duct tape
- Water
- Food coloring (optional)
- Glitter (optional)
- Styrofoam balls (optional)
- Floating Figurines (optional
I did not have 2 Liter bottles on hand, but I did have some large bottles I bought as sensory bottles a few months ago that I never got around to using. The only problem was that they had a larger mouth opening. Because of this, I had to use a metal washer which I found in the garage in my husband’s stash of tools.
Directions
Fill one bottle at least 1/2 way if not more, full of water. Add 1-2 drops of food coloring if desired and any of the optional supplies. We just made a tornado first with glitter (but later added each of the optional ingredients). Tape down your washer onto the mouth of your empty bottle. Place your empty bottle mouth on top of the mouth of your full bottle and duct tape them shut. Turn your bottle upside down and turn it in a swirling motion. In a moment or two, you will see the swirling tornado!
We began to wonder what would happen if we put a floating figurine in our tornado. We grabbed one of our bear counters which came in our Weather and Seasons box from Experience Preschool. We placed the bear on our washer which we had to switch to our full bottle and then placed our empty bottle back on and taped it all together again.
One amazing discovery we were able to see was how the bear moved up and down in the vortex of the tornado! After watching the bear for a while, we decided to try some small styrofoam balls I had from some Christmas filler but any styrofoam will do.
The kiddos loved watching how the balls could even move from one side to the other! They created tornadoes and talked about them for at least an hour! Even when we came home from running errands later in the day, they wanted to play with the tornado bottle as soon as we got home.
Even as I type this, my son, who just woke up, is playing with the tornado. Experience Preschool has the best lessons and I am so thankful they help make learning come alive in our home.
