Weird Weather

This week we did stories on weird weather like cloud shapes, raining meatballs, thunderstorms, and silly cloud shapes.

• Little Cloud by Eric Carle
• Thunder-Boomer by Shutta Crum
  
• The Big Storm by Nancy Tafuri
  
• It Look Like Spilt Milk by Charles Shaw (flannel board)
  
• One Hot Summer Day by Nina Crews
  
• Puddles by Jonathan London
  
• Who Likes Rain? Wong Herbert Yee
  
• Rain Play by Cynthia Cotten
  
• Rain by Manya Stojic
• Rain by Robert Kalan
• Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs by Judi Barrett
• Red Rubber Boot Day by Mary Lyn Ray
  

As a closing activity I used one of the science experiments from a training program called AHA! It's Science. I demonstrated how to make a tornado using the Tornado Tube to connect two plastic soda bottles, one of which is partially filled withe water. By simply rotating the bottles in a circular motion, the water insides swirls in the shape of a vertex creating the appearance of a tornado. I used food coloring to change the color of the water to blue, yellow, red, and green. To see the look on the kids faces was a truly good feeling because they enjoyed watching the tornado form in the bottle.

Materials:
2 empty 2-liter clear plastic soda bottles.
Tornado Tube (purchase at teacher's store)

Procedure:
1. Fill one bottle 2/3 full with water, add food color and attach the Tornado Tube.
2. Attach the second bottle to the other end of the Tornado Tube. Make sure that the bottles are screwed on securely so that water does not leak.
3. Place the connected bottles on a flat surface with the empty bottle on the bottom.