Spinning Art

So Monday we learned about rain, and it rained. Tuesday we learned about clouds, and it was a very cloudy day. Wednesday we learned about lightning and we had a thunderstorm. I was a little scared to teach about tornadoes today! But so far, it's all good. My tornado art isn't anything special, but I thought I'd share it in case others are doing a weather or natural disaster unit and need a project to go along with tornadoes or hurricanes. Several years ago I bought a Paint-n-Swirl. Remember those from when you were a kid? Your paper spins around and you squeeze paint on it and it splatters in all directions. I brought that in to class today and each child was able to make one. Hey, it spins, therefore it goes well with a tornado theme, right?

(The paper was actually spinning when I took this picture!)

They turned out pretty cool. The more paint used, the better.

Some other things I brought in today were my cause and effect bottles. You know, where you combine oil and water, or water and glitter, and the kids can shake them up to see what happens. Well, two of mine reminded me of some natural disasters, so I decided to show them to the class. The first is my hurricane in a bottle.

It's just lightly-tinted blue water with lots of blue glitter. When shaken, the glitter goes "crazy" and I told the kids it was like a hurricane. (I may have been reaching, I know.)

Another bottle I have was filled with blue water and oil.

This was my tsunami in a bottle. If you turn the bottle on its side and gently rock it back and forth,

you will soon get some very cool "waves." The kids had a blast with this one. I also brought in my tornado in a bottle, but this one isn't homemade. I used to make my own with two soda bottles and a tornado connector, but that always leaked. Finally I bought a little one at my local Learning Shop. It was worth it because I used to do a natural disaster unit every year.

However, this one is very difficult for my kids to do themselves. You can't shake it. You have to move it in a circle quickly, like you are stirring something.

It was cool when it worked, but it's a challenge!

So there, now you have some ideas for your weather/natural disaster theme!