A tornado might be what you think has passed through your home after you visit your kids’ rooms. It is also one of the most fascinating weather phenomenons! This unbelievable force of nature can blow up buildings and lift up trucks. Just looking at this video gives a sense of all the damage it can do:
How To Create A Tornado
Creating your own tornado might sound scary after watching those videos but what we suggest today is to create a mini-tornado. All you need is a bottle, water, glitter and dishwashing soap (what you can do afterward is teach your kids all the other wonderful things you can do with dishwashing soap like… doing the washing up!). Click here to learn how to create your own tornado. If you do it right, it should look like this:
Once you understand the principle, you can get more creative. What about creating a rainbow tornado?
Explain What A Tornado Is
Creating your own tornado is also a great occasion to explain to your kids what a tornado is. The American Meteorological Society defines it as “a violently rotating column of air, in contact with the ground, either pendant from a cumuliform cloud or underneath a cumuliform cloud, and often (but not always) visible as a funnel cloud.” The National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration has a very good explanation on how they form, how many tornados there are per year, etc… on their website.
Do you live in Tornado Alley? To prepare for a tornado also seems to be a good idea… Click here to read the American Red Cross’s tornado safety guide.
What about you, what’s your favorite science experiment?
