Tornado in a Jar

Weather is fascinating for kids of all ages–especially tornadoes! Study them in a non-scary way by making a tornado in a jar. Kids will love to swirl the jar and watch the funnel cloud form and the debris get pushed outside of it.

Materials

• empty and clean glass or plastic jar with a tight fitting top
• water
• washing up liquid
• glitter

Directions

Fill the jar 3/4 of the way full with water. We just used the plain tap water from our sink. Add a small squirt (just a drop or two) of the washing up liquid.

Next put about a teaspoon of glitter inside. We found that the larger, chunkier glitter didn’t work as well as the finer glitter so you may want to try that first. Next screw on the top on tightly and it’s tornado time!

Shake the jar briefly to mix everything up and then swirl it around in a circle a couple of times. Then stop and look and you’ll see a “tornado” inside!