Will's class at school has been working on a unit about weather. (Remember I mentioned their music program was all songs about the weather?) And given the forecast last weekend and week, I thought it would be a perfect time to do some activities surrounding the topic of RAIN.
We borrowed a bunch of great books about rain from the library. I found these suggestions on some great book blogs and also here. One thing I've noticed with my book searches at the library is that our library system could really use some more Anna Milbourne books. I feel like I am constantly coming across interesting titles by her that are unavailable. They do offer a Search Ohio option to borrow from other library systems, but I haven't done that yet. Anyway, we borrowed Bringing the Rain to Kapiti Plain again and Will was pleased to see that familiar title again. Sophie loved the Mercer Mayer books - especially where the little girl critter gets scared in the thunderstorm book and calls for her dad. She always laughs at that part. One Rainy Day by M. Christina Butler was another sweet one. We enjoyed her One Winter's Day awhile back, so I knew we'd like this one. I love her character's and message.
Raindrop, Plop! by Wendy Cheyette Lewison was an adorable counting book and check out those boots! Do they look familiar? 
Will was super excited to see his rain boots in a story book!
We love these boots (from Target) and will definitely be passing them down to Sophie.
On Sunday (or Monday?) last week, just before dinner time, there was a nice, light drizzle coming down outside and I found it a perfect opportunity to try out splatter painting, which I had seen on another favorite blog. I hustled Will into the breakfast nook to dot a piece of water color paper with food coloring...
And then we quickly put on our coats and boots and took our paper outside to let the rain do the rest of the work. (Be careful not to let the wind blow your paper around. We almost had a bunch of pretty dots down the front of Will's coat!) It's also helpful to weigh the paper down with a few rocks if they're handy.
While we waited, the kids marched/jumped through puddles.
And then we'd check back on our painting every couple minutes.
This project definitely works best when it's just sprinkling. Otherwise, it would wash completely away.
The color blending was pretty cool!
My mistake was to take my chilly children back inside and leave the painting out awhile longer. This is starting to look pretty cool, but when I came back out after dinner (dumb!), the colors were all gone. I should have brought it in sooner and let it dry to make into a fun piece of art.
I think the four and five year old class discussed more about the water cycle than Will's class (three and four year olds). But after a quick search, I found that there are so many resources out there that would appeal to Will to help him learn this concept. I found this and other printables here.
I saw an idea for a science activity called making rain here (scroll down), but ended up using this one instead because it didn't involve working over the stove. Just seemed less dangerous. We filled a large glass jar a little less than half full with the hottest water that would come out of our faucet. (If I did it again, I would boil the water first to get it even hotter.) Then we placed a small plate filled with ice cubes on top. Notice the water cycle print out sitting beside our tray?
Will and I talked about how the plate of ice represented the clouds because the clouds were cold up in the sky. We also talked about the water in the jar representing the lakes and rivers and even the puddles we saw in our driveway.
When the air is warm from the sun, the water evaporates from the place it had collected and rises into the air. That moisture meets the colder air higher in the atmosphere (the clouds or our plate) and condenses to form water droplets. We took note of this condensation on the under side of our plate. (Will has the concept and pronunciation of the word "evaporation" down. But "condensation" is still confusing to him. We've filled a glass of ice water to drink and noted the condensation on the outside of the glass - cold temps meeting the warmer air outside the glass - as another way of explaining it.)
Pretty soon, the clouds get so heavy with condensation, they can't hold any more water. Similarly, our plate collected enough water droplets underneath it that it ended up "raining" back into the collected water beneath it and also dripping down the sides of the jar.
Will seems to understand the word precipitation pretty well too, though evaporation seems to be the one he spouts off the easiest.
This next craft doesn't exactly have to do with rain, but it is weather related. While browsing PreKinders for book ideas, I came across this suggestion for cloud art. I had already had the book It Looked Like Spilt Milk on my reading list before I got to PreKinders, so I thought this was a fabulous extension.
Here are a couple sample pages. Each "cloud" shape had the outline of something familiar.
The suggestion from PreKinders (scroll down) was to set the children up like this with: blue paper, white paint and a cotton ball clipped into a clothespin. They paint their clouds to resemble something of their choice and then each page is labeled with "It looked like _____." We did two pages per child.
Will told me up front that he was going to do a brachiosaurus and a fire truck.
Sophie, of course, just did her own thing...
...which eventually led to ditching the cotton ball and just using her fingers.
This is Will's again.
And the finished products! When Sophie was finished, I just held them up one at a time to Will and asked him what he thinks she made. The big glob, done mostly with the cotton ball, he said was a frog. And the page with mostly finger prints looked like "fish in the sea" to Will. Also, after looking back on these, I realized I labeled Will's pictures backwards. I remember him telling me he was making the fire truck wheels and I can vaguely see those on the left one below.
Next up: another science activity with cotton balls and water. (Suggestion from here - scroll down to activity #3.) We filled a glass pie plate with about 1/2" of cold water. Will and I each held a cotton ball above the dish and pretended they were clouds. We talked about the clouds feeling light and soft.
Then we gently placed the "clouds" over the water for them to evaporate the liquid. We talked about how the moisture in the air rises into the cold clouds and fills them with water droplets.
Then we lifted our cotton balls up high again and talked about how our "clouds" now feel much heavier with water and how the the clouds couldn't hold the weight of anymore liquid. So what happens? It rains! And the water falls right back into the plate, which could be a river or ocean or the ground. Collection is actually the fourth part of the water cycle that doesn't seem as commonly discussed. So I didn't focus on it much but I did use the word "collect" when I described how the rain falls back to the ground.
We filled and emptied our "clouds" several times. :)
Another activity that we did as a suggestion from PreKinders was called raindrop counting. I took a couple pictures but they don't seem to have uploaded here and this is a simple activity that doesn't really require a visual. This is a great math activity with an interesting twist! First, I cut a cloud shape out of blue felt to serve as our "math mat". We used light blue, flat, floral stones as raindrop counters. Will would listen to my claps of thunder (just clapping my hands slowly enough for him to count) and place that number of raindrops on the mat, i.e. four claps means to place four raindrops on the mat. I think it's awesome to incorporate another element (listening) to counting math games!
Will was super excited to see his rain boots in a story book! 
We love these boots (from Target) and will definitely be passing them down to Sophie. 
On Sunday (or Monday?) last week, just before dinner time, there was a nice, light drizzle coming down outside and I found it a perfect opportunity to try out splatter painting, which I had seen on another favorite blog. I hustled Will into the breakfast nook to dot a piece of water color paper with food coloring... 
And then we quickly put on our coats and boots and took our paper outside to let the rain do the rest of the work. (Be careful not to let the wind blow your paper around. We almost had a bunch of pretty dots down the front of Will's coat!) It's also helpful to weigh the paper down with a few rocks if they're handy. 
While we waited, the kids marched/jumped through puddles. 
And then we'd check back on our painting every couple minutes. 
This project definitely works best when it's just sprinkling. Otherwise, it would wash completely away. 
The color blending was pretty cool! 
My mistake was to take my chilly children back inside and leave the painting out awhile longer. This is starting to look pretty cool, but when I came back out after dinner (dumb!), the colors were all gone. I should have brought it in sooner and let it dry to make into a fun piece of art. 
I think the four and five year old class discussed more about the water cycle than Will's class (three and four year olds). But after a quick search, I found that there are so many resources out there that would appeal to Will to help him learn this concept. I found this and other printables here. 
I saw an idea for a science activity called making rain here (scroll down), but ended up using this one instead because it didn't involve working over the stove. Just seemed less dangerous. We filled a large glass jar a little less than half full with the hottest water that would come out of our faucet. (If I did it again, I would boil the water first to get it even hotter.) Then we placed a small plate filled with ice cubes on top. Notice the water cycle print out sitting beside our tray? 
Will and I talked about how the plate of ice represented the clouds because the clouds were cold up in the sky. We also talked about the water in the jar representing the lakes and rivers and even the puddles we saw in our driveway. 
When the air is warm from the sun, the water evaporates from the place it had collected and rises into the air. That moisture meets the colder air higher in the atmosphere (the clouds or our plate) and condenses to form water droplets. We took note of this condensation on the under side of our plate. (Will has the concept and pronunciation of the word "evaporation" down. But "condensation" is still confusing to him. We've filled a glass of ice water to drink and noted the condensation on the outside of the glass - cold temps meeting the warmer air outside the glass - as another way of explaining it.) 
Pretty soon, the clouds get so heavy with condensation, they can't hold any more water. Similarly, our plate collected enough water droplets underneath it that it ended up "raining" back into the collected water beneath it and also dripping down the sides of the jar. 
Will seems to understand the word precipitation pretty well too, though evaporation seems to be the one he spouts off the easiest. 
This next craft doesn't exactly have to do with rain, but it is weather related. While browsing PreKinders for book ideas, I came across this suggestion for cloud art. I had already had the book It Looked Like Spilt Milk on my reading list before I got to PreKinders, so I thought this was a fabulous extension. 
Here are a couple sample pages. Each "cloud" shape had the outline of something familiar. 
The suggestion from PreKinders (scroll down) was to set the children up like this with: blue paper, white paint and a cotton ball clipped into a clothespin. They paint their clouds to resemble something of their choice and then each page is labeled with "It looked like _____." We did two pages per child. 
Will told me up front that he was going to do a brachiosaurus and a fire truck. 
Sophie, of course, just did her own thing... 
...which eventually led to ditching the cotton ball and just using her fingers. 
This is Will's again. 
And the finished products! When Sophie was finished, I just held them up one at a time to Will and asked him what he thinks she made. The big glob, done mostly with the cotton ball, he said was a frog. And the page with mostly finger prints looked like "fish in the sea" to Will. Also, after looking back on these, I realized I labeled Will's pictures backwards. I remember him telling me he was making the fire truck wheels and I can vaguely see those on the left one below. 
Next up: another science activity with cotton balls and water. (Suggestion from here - scroll down to activity #3.) We filled a glass pie plate with about 1/2" of cold water. Will and I each held a cotton ball above the dish and pretended they were clouds. We talked about the clouds feeling light and soft. 
Then we gently placed the "clouds" over the water for them to evaporate the liquid. We talked about how the moisture in the air rises into the cold clouds and fills them with water droplets. 
Then we lifted our cotton balls up high again and talked about how our "clouds" now feel much heavier with water and how the the clouds couldn't hold the weight of anymore liquid. So what happens? It rains! And the water falls right back into the plate, which could be a river or ocean or the ground. Collection is actually the fourth part of the water cycle that doesn't seem as commonly discussed. So I didn't focus on it much but I did use the word "collect" when I described how the rain falls back to the ground. 
We filled and emptied our "clouds" several times. :) 
Another activity that we did as a suggestion from PreKinders was called raindrop counting. I took a couple pictures but they don't seem to have uploaded here and this is a simple activity that doesn't really require a visual. This is a great math activity with an interesting twist! First, I cut a cloud shape out of blue felt to serve as our "math mat". We used light blue, flat, floral stones as raindrop counters. Will would listen to my claps of thunder (just clapping my hands slowly enough for him to count) and place that number of raindrops on the mat, i.e. four claps means to place four raindrops on the mat. I think it's awesome to incorporate another element (listening) to counting math games!And I don't know why I so rarely incorporate music/songs and fingerplays into our daily play time. The kids LOVE them and there are so many cute suggestions out there! (I found ideas from here and especially here.) Seeing Will get so excited about the action portions of the little songs, makes me feel bad for not doing more things like this... more often! Plus, I always appreciate finding activities that both kids can appreciate together.
Here were our favorites:
Rain, Rain, Go Away (this is a traditional one and I found a coloring page to go with this): Rain, rain, go away
Come again some other day
We want to go out and play
Come again some other day
Rain (this is a finger play, spoken not sung):
Pitter pat, pitter pat (drum fingers on floor), the rain goes on for hours. And though it keeps me in the house, it's very (hold hands palms up and closed into fists in front of you) good for (open fists) flowers (lift hands imitating flowers growing up)!
Rain Song (probably our very favorite)
{sung to: "If you're happy and you know it"}
First a little drop of rain hit the ground, (tap, tap)
Then another drop of rain hit the ground, (tap, tap)
Then another and another and another and another,
And pretty soon we heard a different sound. (Splash! Splash!)
(We really get into the banging on the floor for the splashing part. :))
What's the Weather?
{sung to: "Oh, My Darling Clementine"}
What's the weather, what's the weather?
What's the weather, everyone?
Is it windy, is it cloudy,
Is there rain or is there sun?
Blow, Blow, Blow the Wind
{sung to: "Row, Row, Row Your Boat"}
Blow, blow, blow the wind,
Gently through the trees.
Blow, and blow, and blow, and blow,
How I like the breeze!
Blow, blow, blow the clouds,
Blow them through the sky.
Blow, and blow, and blow, and blow,
Watch the clouds roll by!
We're going to break from the rain topic for now, but here are a bunch more activities we didn't get to that I may try to do some rainy day in April: (April Showers!)
-"what can the wind move?" activity
-play meteorologists for a week and write down/chart the weather
-use our water color crayons to make a blended rainbow
etc.
1 comment:
Super cool idea with the splatter paint, and everything else, too! You come up with some awesome stuff!
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