Earth · Ages 7+ · 20 min · Kholo Plus
The weather machine
Where the monsoon comes from, why Mumbai is wet and Pune dry, and what makes thunder.
What is inside
- The water cycle. The Sun lifts water out of the sea as vapour; high up it cools into clouds, falls as rain and runs back to the sea.
- The monsoon. In summer the land gets hotter than the sea, so wet winds blow in from the ocean and bring three-quarters of India’s rain.
- Wind and pressure. Warm air rises and cool air slides in to take its place. That is what wind is.
- Thunderstorm. Hot wet air rockets upwards, builds a tower of cloud full of ice, and the ice crashing about makes lightning.
- Cyclone. A huge spinning storm born over warm sea, with calm at the centre and the fiercest winds in the ring around it.
- Three seasons. Earth is tilted, so through the year the noon Sun climbs high over India, then sinks low. High Sun means summer; low Sun means winter; the monsoon comes in between.
Stories in this thing
- One drop’s journey. Sea to sky to river and back — the water cycle
- Where the monsoon comes from. A giant sea breeze that brings India its rain
- Why Mumbai is wet and Pune is dry. What a wall of hills does to a wet wind
- Thunder and lightning. Inside a cloud 15 km tall
- Inside a cyclone. A spinning storm from the warm Bay of Bengal
- Three seasons. Why India is hot, then wet, then cool
School topics it covers
- Water cycle
- Monsoon
- Storms & cyclones
How children use it
Pull it apart with one slider, tap any part to hear what it does, follow a short story read aloud, then answer a few questions. Every thing comes with experiments to try at home and study notes linked to the NCERT chapter it supports.
More things to open
- Planet Earth — Cut it open to the core, crash India into Asia, erupt a volcano.
- Solar system — Why it is night, why summer is hot, and how Chandrayaan reached the Moon.
- Satellite — Why it never falls down, and how TV comes from space.
- Family car — Follow one drop of petrol from the tank all the way to the wheels.
- Aeroplane — How 70 tonnes of metal takes off, cruises and lands.
- Cruise ship — Why steel floats — and the secret crew corridor inside.