The Weather & the Seasons Level: Early Grades - Cross-curricular activities

Rain in a Bag

Materials needed: plastic food bags, soil, spoon, handful of grass with roots attached (pulled from the ground), water, clear tape, masking tape, marker pen, drinking straw.

• Each child puts a few spoonfuls of soil into a bag labelled with their name.
• Next they plant the handful of grass into the soil.
• Pour one spoonful of water over the grass.
• Put a straw in the bag (with most of the straw out of the bag).
• Seal the bag around the straw.
• Fill the bag with air by having the child blow into the straw.
• Pull the straw out of the bag and quickly seal it, keeping the air inside.
• Tape the bag to a sunny window.

Soon, they should see condensation begin to form and eventually it will roll down the bag into the soil, causing ‘rain’ to water the plant.