Simple Rain Experiment

Hi, this is Future Ticia 2025, and I’m updating this awesome simple science lesson to make it a bit more useful for someone else to implement in their home. It would make a great Homeschool Preschool lesson, or up through about second grade depending on the amount of writing you require, I’ll talk about that more down in the actual post. But, let’s get into this simple rain experiment. I return you to Past Ticia 2010.

So, this past week, it’s been raining. That’s a perfect opportunity to see how rain affects our world, right?

Simple rain experiment: how does rain affect our world?

To begin our experiment, we gather four of the same cups, and choose 4 different places to put them.  We put two in the front yard and two in the back.

We went to check on our cups a couple of times during the torrential downpour of that day.  After a few hours, there was about an inch or so at the bottom of each cup.

The one in the backyard next to the slide had all sorts of stuff in it, and the one next to the spout had been knocked over.  So we set it back up.

Right before going to bed, we checked on all the cups, and they were about half full.  And that night is when the real downpour started.

The next morning, we went to check on the cups in the front yard, and they were full and overflowing.  The kids put their hands in them and reported that it was a little cold.

Give time for your experiment

Then we went to the backyard.  First, the cup by the spout was only half full.

Now, the bottom left picture is where the cup under the slide should be.  It’s not there.  Neither is the cushion that goes under the slide.  Our baby pool is also missing from this side of the yard.

We see all sorts of interesting evidence.  This 5-gallon bucket was empty, but now it is full. 

You can’t see it too clearly, but the top picture is a ball of twine that had been unrolled and went across the entire backyard, and then across a large portion of the neighbor’s yard.

This is the state of our fence.  It was broken in 3 different places.

Can you see the evidence gathering for what happened?

We finally found the baby pool, over in the back corner of the yard.  Full to the brim.

So, what do you think happened? 

Formalizing this Simple Rain experiment

When we did this, all we did was talk about it and feel things.

Now, if you want to do this experiment with older kids, the obvious thing to do is to start writing things down. Let’s break down what I would do at each age.

• Kindergarten- draw pictures of the experiment, label the pictures with 1-2 words per picture
• 1st-grade- draw pictures of the experiment, label the pictures, and write a sentence describing each picture
• 2nd-grade- draw pictures of the experiment, instead of cups, use measuring cups and measure how much water is in each cup. Label the pictures and write a sentence for each picture.
• 3rd-grade-Write a short paragraph about what they predict will happen in the experiment. Use measuring cups, and measure the experiment at least 3 different times, and write down the results of the measurements. Then write a paragraph about the result of the experiment, comparing the results to their predictions.

As you can see this is an experiment that can be scaled to multiple ages, making it an ideal experiment for a homeschool family.

More great experiments for your kids

• How do dinosaurs digest their food? (gizzards)
• Comparing bird and mammal bones
• Why do octopus change colors?
• How do seeds travel?
• Earthquake activity

Photo by frame harirak on Unsplash