Hello teachers and homeschool friends, "Omschool" teacher Omi (grandma) here with easy, free recycle bin crafts for science lesson plans. Today we're making pet baby tornadoes. This science experiment is easy for all ages from toddler on up. It's perfect for a highchair craft. The pet baby tornado is free to make with items from the recycle bin. You just need water, a clean glass jar with lid and a tiny drop of dish soap.
To find baby tornado, just shake round and round to create a swirling in the water, called in science talk, a vortex. This is the force that drives a whirlpool and also the force that is generated by the drain in your sink or bathtub. Water doesn't just fall down the drain, it swirls round and round as it goes down.
I realized after I made my pet baby tornado video that it was difficult to see him clearly. So I tried adding a little food coloring to make baby tornado show up better. You can also add some glitter if you have some, to show how things floating on the surface are pulled into the vortex.
Extend your science fun with some cross-curricular connections. Make a book about baby tornado. Research tornados and the force they create. Draw your tornado and maybe make up a song about him (her!)
Here are free printable tornado lesson plans from A to Z Teacher. And here are some more free printable tornado lesson plans from Teach Engineering.
