April is the perfect month to discuss rain with your students.Here are a few simple ideas that can be easily added to any lesson plan.
Science
Make Your Own Rain
Make your own rain with this simple experiment. This experiment demonstrates what happens in the clouds during the water cycle. When a cloud accumulates too many water droplets, they fall in the form of precipitation. In the experiment, after a certain point the shaving cream can no longer absorb the water drops and gravity pulls them down into the water.
Items Needed:
shaving cream
small glass
medium glass
straw or eye dropper
blue food coloring
water
Place approximately 3 tablespoons of water in the small glass and add about 10 drops of blue food coloring.
Fill the medium glass with water. Add 1-3 inches of shaving cream to the top. The more shaving cream used the longer the experiment will last.
Add the colored water to the shaving cream drop by drop using an eye dropper or by dipping the straw in the colored water, placing your finger over the end, holding it over the shaving cream, and lifting your finger enough to allow drops of colored water to drip onto the shaving cream.
Continue dropping the water onto the shaving cream until you observe it getting too heavy and “rain” starting to come out below. Depending on the amount of shaving cream used, this could take anywhere from 40-100 drops.
Water Cycle, Rain Cycle Experiments
Demonstrate the rain cycle with these simple experiments. Click here for the directions.
Measure the Rainfall
On a rainy day, place a container outside to observe how much rain you collect in one day. Prior to putting the container outside, ask your students to guess how much rain will be collected. If possible, place it near a window so you can observe it throughout the day. At the end of the day bring it indoors and measure the rainfall collected.
Math
For this activity students will collect raindrops on a sheet of construction paper and then circle and count them. To begin, give each student a sheet of light colored construction paper. Take them outside while it is raining or have them stand at the door and extend and hold their piece of paper out in the rain. Have them hold out their piece of paper for a set time depending on the counting ability of the students and how hard it is raining. Younger students should be about 5 seconds, older students can go up to 30 seconds.
Quickly have students circle all the raindrops on their paper before they dry.
Next, have the students count how many raindrops hit their papers and write the number. Compare and contrast the numbers, use the numbers to practice greater than, less than, equal to, or graph the results.
Art Projects
Rain Created Art
This project requires old cookie sheets or tins (I collected some from parents and bought some at the Dollar Store). Have students place a piece of white construction paper on a cookie sheet or tin and drop food coloring on it in any design and using any colors OR have them paint circles or shapes with watercolors.
Place the cookie sheets out in the rain and allow the rain to “splatter and mix” the colors.
Bring in the paintings when the desired effect is achieved. Allow them to dry.
Rainy Umbrella Art
The rain can create beautiful umbrellas! Fold a coffee filter in half for each student. Allow them to decorate the filter with washable markers or dot painters.
Place them outside and allow the rain to mix and blend the colors.
Bring them inside to dry. Have students cut out umbrella handles from construction paper or bend a pipe cleaner in the shape of a handle and glue it to their dried umbrella top.
Puffy Paint Raindrops
Create 3D raindrops with puffy paint! To create puffy paint you will need glue, shaving cream, and blue food coloring.
Mix equal amounts of glue and shaving cream. Separate into 2 batches. Leave one batch white for clouds. Place a few drops of blue food coloring in the other batch and mix.
Give each student a piece of construction paper. Allow them to paint white clouds at the top and then dab the blue puffy paint on the paper for rain. They dry puffy and textured.
Splatter Paint Rain
Have students draw a picture of something they like to do on a rainy day.
To make rain for their picture, have them splatter paint it by dipping a toothbrush or paintbrush in watered down blue paint then running their thumb across the bristles. This makes the paint spatter onto their picture and create the appearance of raindrops.
You may also use a ruler or craft stick in place of their thumb.
Allow the pictures to dry.
Raindrop Suncatchers
Cut out raindrop frames from blue construction paper.
Glue the frames onto wax paper and cut out again.
Cut various shades of blue tissue paper into small squares.
Give each student a raindrop, watered down glue, a small paintbrush, and tissue paper squares. Have them turn over their raindrop (they will be gluing the tissue paper to the back). Then, have them use their paintbrush to put some of the watered down glue on the wax paper and place the tissue paper squares on the glue, filling the entire raindrop.
Allow to dry and hang them on your windows or from your ceiling.
Songs
Sing this twist on the popular song “Rain, Rain, Go Away”
Rain, rain, go away.
Come again another day.
(insert your name)’s class wants to play.
Rain, rain, go away.
Rain, rain, go away.
Come again another day.
(insert a student’s name) wants to (have them name something they would like to be doing outdoors).
Rain, rain, go away.
Take turns inserting students’ names. When their name is called have them state what they wish to be doing outdoors at the appropriate place in the song.
If All the Raindrops song (this is always a favorite!)
If all the raindrops
Were lemondrops and gumdrops
Oh, what a rain that would be!
Standing outside, with my mouth open wide
Ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah
If all the raindrops
Were lemondrops and gumdrops
Oh, what a rain that would be!
If all the snowflakes
Were candy bars and milkshakes
Oh, what a snow that would be!
Standing outside, with my mouth open wide
Ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah
If all the snowflakes
Were candy bars and milkshakes
Oh, what a snow that would be!
If all the sunbeams
Were bubblegum and ice cream
Oh, what a sun that would be!
Standing outside, with my mouth open wide
Ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah
If all the sunbeams
Were bubblegum and ice cream
Oh, what a sun that would be!
Books
Read a story about rain or a rainy day. Suggested books:
Otto’s Rainy Day by Natasha Yim
Rain by Peter Spier
The Rain Came Down by David Shannon
Rain by Manya Stojic
In the Rain with Baby Duck by Amy Hest
Here Comes the Rain by Mary Murphy
Rain or Shine by Dandi Daley Mackall
You may also like:
Water Cycle, Rain Cycle Science Experiments & Craftivity