Science at home – Monitoring the Weather

We love doing some simple science at home (maybe more to do with my background than J and T’s interest) and a great idea for some very simple science observation and recording at home is monitoring weather.

We created a simple rain catcher last year which worked well and we were able to observe the rain fall. This year though we have adapted it further and created an even version but added in our own “Weather man” to help record the rainfall. We are still using the free downloadable sheet to record the rainfall (see the simple rain catcher to download).

To make the rain catcher I used a 1 litre bottle and cut it 2/3rd up so that the top will fit in the bottom to produce a funnel collecting the water down. The “weather man” is a wooden spoon – we added yarn for the hair stuck on with some PVA (white) glue and a quick face drawn on. J placed a ruler against the spoon and drew marks at each centimetre interval (or as he said each time there was a number).

Each morning T or J go out and dip the “weather man” into the rain catcher take it out and record how high up the spoon handle the rainfall goes.

We recently took part in a Google Hang out on Science at Home with the theme of the weather – Maggy at Life at the Zoo shares the ideas and some other fantastic Weather Activities for some Science at Home.

If you are looking for more science at home ideas like this monitoring weather check out our –

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Exploring Plants – transpiration

Back to Basics E is for Experiments

Author

Cerys Parker

Cerys is a marine biologist, environmental educator, teacher, mum, and home educator from the UK. She loves getting creative, whether it is with simple and easy crafts and ideas, activities to make learning fun, or delicious recipes that you and your kids can cook together you'll find them all shared here on Rainy Day Mum.