Making It Rain! (In A Jar)

I found a description of this experiment here and couldn’t resist trying it as part of our water cycle studies.

Here are the materials you’ll need for this project:

A Jar
(We used a giant pickle jar, but I think a smaller jar would have worked better)

A Hammer

A Nail
(I used a screwdriver tip because because I couldn’t find a nail at the time.)

A Towel

Ice

Salt

and Water just shy of boiling (not pictured)

First you’ll want to place your jar lid on the towel and use the hammer and nail to make several dimples on the inside of the lid.

Be careful not to actually puncture the lid. You only want to make indentions not actual holes.

Now for the fun part: You’ll need to warm enough water to fill your jar about 1/3 full, until it’s almost boiling. Dump this water into the jar and immediately put the jar lid on upside down (rim up). Fill the jar lid with ice and sprinkle some salt on top.

And watch it rain!

Ours actually took a few minutes to get going. I think because we used too big of a jar. But it was pretty neat to watch!

And if you're looking for a good book to go along with this experiment, we're big fans of all of the Magic School Bus books. The Magic School Bus At The Waterworks follows along well with this experiment and further explains how water gets to our houses.

You can see the rest of our water cycle experiments here & here.

And a recap of all of our letter W activities COMING SOON.