Swish, Slosh - Recyled "Tornado"

I can tell that you are looking at the picture and thinking "What the heck is THAT?"

Why, that is a tornado in a bottle. Sitting on my kitchen table. Which I probably should have wiped off better - I see crumbs. Sorry.

So - we found this idea in a book. Actually Tater found it in one of the "Kid Concoctions" books that he got for Christmas. I think it was this one. I just can't bring myself to schlep into the kitchen to check. Sorry again...

The "recipe" called for two liter bottles. But since we don't actually buy those (because once I open a bottle of Diet Coke, I am drinking the whole thing right now...no matter how big it is), we had to settle for two 20-ounce water bottles that we dug out of the recycling bin.

The final effect would be better with bigger bottles, so if you can be trusted with them, you should use them.

One of the bottles was filled about 3/4 of the way with water. The other bottle was placed on top (so that the open ends were lined up) and then firmly duct-taped into place. You don't want leakage.

To make the "tornado" or whirlpool, do this:

1) Hold the bottles upright, so that all of the water is in the bottom bottle, with the empty bottle on top.

2) Quickly flip the whole thing over and swirl it around to get the water swishing around as it flows down. If you get it right, you should see the whirlpool in the top bottle (which was the bottom bottle, with the water in it).

Once you get the hang of the flip-swish action, it is pretty cool. The kids were flipping and swishing (and I was muttering under my breath hoping that the duct tape would hold) for much of the afternoon.

The book also suggests that you could mix in some glitter to highlight the whirlpool. I didn't have enough faith in the duct tape (although I should have, it is still leak-free) and didn't want to risk the water/glitter shower across my entire house. But if you like that sort of thing, go for it!