COPPERAS COVE, TX — Students at Halstead Elementary School in Copperas Cove are learning why different weather patterns are occurring.
Second graders in Jasmin Hight’s and Rachel Jost’s classes are learning about the cloud cycle and how clouds are formed.
The classes are also learning about the ways to measure, record, and graph weather information such as temperature, wind conditions, and perception.
Jost says the students are on the way to becoming junior meteorologists.
“We took a week to go over clouds before we introduced the water cycle,” Jost said. “As a hands-on experiment, we created clouds with shaving cream in a cup and then put food dye in it to demonstrate rain coming from the cloud. It was fun for the students and a great visual.”
Students observed how cloud formations accumulate water vapor and resupply the ground surface with rain by using shaving cream and food coloring.
While colors formed in the shaving cream clouds, students were able to observe precipitating color droplets that simulate falling rain.
“This is such a fun and exciting experiment for the students,” Hight said. Everyone gets to see how the size of the cloud effects the amount of rain it holds.”
