Rain

Core Learning Experience + Supplies and Equipment

  • ​Go for a walk in the rain. Feel the water running and dripping. Catch drops on your tongue. Look to the sky and see the clouds the rain is coming from. Search for a rainbow (is the sun out?)
  • Water play, with plain water. Use sieves, watering can, hoses and tubes, pump, etc. Make “rain”.
  • Measure rainfall during the day in a clear plastic cup marked with permanent marker measurements. Write it down. Measure again tomorrow and compare

Possible/Expected Discoveries

  • ​Rain is water. It falls from clouds when the clouds become too heavy with water drops. When it rains, everything without protection gets wet. What are some forms of protection? (Homes and other buildings, umbrellas, coats and hats, cars and other vehicles etc)  
  • People, animals and plants need rain. Do you know why? Water supports life – we all need to drink water everyday to help us grow and stay healthy. What might happen if we don’t drink water? (Get thirsty, dry out, die etc) Plants need water to grow –animals and people eat plants to stay healthy. What might happen if plants did not take in enough water?
  • We also need water to wash ourselves. If we had no water to wash ourselves, what might happen?
  • Sometimes rain is very light, and sometimes very heavy. Vocabulary: sprinkle, spit, downpour, shower, mist, deluge, flood, drizzle etc
  • What might happen if it rained all the time? 

Extended Learning and Other Curriculum Areas

  • ​​Spread some powdered tempera or Kool-Aid on heavy paper. Drip drops of water onto the paper. What happens?
  • Splash brushfuls of diluted liquid watercolor onto a large sheet of paper on table or floor.
  •  Print hundreds of raindrops on paper with a fingertip dipped in blue or grey paint.
  • Count the puddles in the yard.
  • Puddle jumping and splashing.
  • Wet or Dry? Inside your mouth; a desert (photo); a rained-on roof; a bird under the eaves (point); a pot of soup; a toothbrush when you are finished brushing, etc.
  • Explore an umbrella. Wouldn’t it be fun to paint an inexpensive umbrella with acrylic paint, and hang it form the ceiling?

Activity Packs and Printables

Websites

Books

​Puddles by Jonathan London
Rain Feet by Angela Johnson
Mushroom in the Rain by Mirra Ginsberg