How to Make a Tornado {Kids Science Experiment}

Stuck in the house on a rainy day? Making this fun “tornado” is basically free and makes a good little science lesson! I did this with my children almost three years ago but they’ve had fun doing it several times since!

What You Need:

2 two-liter pop bottles
Duct tape
Water

Glitter (optional)

What to Do:

Fill one of the two-liter bottles about 3/4 full with water. Add your optional glitter. You can use food coloring too if you’d like.

Line up the opening of the empty bottle with the water-filled bottle and tape around the openings tightly with duct tape.

Quickly turn the bottle over so that the water-filled bottle drains into the empty bottle, swirling it around right after you turn it, kind-of like stirring a cauldron (sorry, I couldn’t think of another analogy). Watch as the water creates a tornado between the two bottles!

Will even got the hang of it after awhile. Leah had some help from Dad.

Check out the looks on my kids’ faces–priceless!

Will and Leah wanted to repeat this activity over…and over…and over again. Finally the water started leaking through the tape so I snuck it into the recycling.

If you want to go a little further and have a science lesson about tornadoes with this activity, you can find some great instructions and question/answers at the NASA Explores website!

If you’re looking for science/exploring themed shows for your budding scientists, check out some of these programs on Netflix Instant Streaming.

Click here to see some other suggestions for science and nature-themed shows and movies you can watch on Netflix!

Follow my board Science Experiments for Kids on Pinterest!
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I was contacted a last year about being a Netflix Stream Team blogger. Our family had used Netflix in the past but were disappointed when they discontinued a lot of their kids’ shows, so we unsubscribed. I was offered a year’s subscription to Netflix and the opportunity to rediscover their children’s programming, using their movies and TV shows to correspond to crafts, recipes and other ideas we create as part of our family time.

For the next 3 months, you’ll read about some of these shows, activities we do that relate to them and a year-end review of Netflix once I’ve seen what they have to offer now! Hopefully this will be helpful to you in deciding whether to use Netflix in your home.

{This kids’ activity was originally posted December of 2011.}