Whatever the Weather...

We recently revisited Seasons and Weather in our lessons and activities.  Check out some of our previous adventures here:

Wind

Clouds

Rain

We did some of the same activities and added some new ones for good measure!

Last year's favorite was definitely rainbow rain, so we had to repeat that one for sure!

We made our own 'snow' using Insta-Snow Powder.  While it doesn't feel exactly like real snow, it's pretty close and certainly fun for Arizona kiddos, many of whom have never seen real snow.  As an added bonus, it's a science experiment!  Just look at that concentration trying to figure out how that itty bitty bit of powder is turning into snow!

When everyone was finished playing, I put all of the snow into our big sensory table for everyone to share!

This totally rad kid-made Sun Bread was our snack one day during weather week - so yummy!!!

Another activity we usually can't do in our area is leaf rubbing.  While there are some trees around with larger leaves, I don't personally have any nearby.  However, I do have an awesome preschool parent who was kind enough to bring me leaves when she went on vacation and I laminated them and have been using them for a couple of years now.  I was surprised to find they make absolutely perfect leaf rubbings despite being laminated!  My block crayons also make shading easy-peasy for even the youngest kiddos. :)

Whether the weather be fine,
Or whether the weather be not,
Whether the weather be cold,
Or whether the weather be hot,
We'll weather the weather
Whatever the weather,
Whether we like it or not! 

- Anonymous

A Week of Weather - Day 3: Rain

 

This week, we've done some great activities with wind and explored clouds.  For our last weather explorations, we focused on rain!!  Yes, I'll say it again, it's the desert, we don't get rain, but the children enjoyed songs or books about rain anyway and they LOVED making their own rain.


Our first experiment was a Rain Jar.  I've been doing this experiment for years, always topping the jar of hot water with plastic wrap, which always left melting ice and a big mess, until I saw it done using a bowl on top of the jar - duh, Miss Lindsey!

So, this year, I set it up properly: start with a mason jar filled about halfway with almost-boiling water (keep little hands away, please!), place a bowl (I used a glass bowl that fit down inside the rim of the jar) on top and fill the bowl with ice.  Observe!

After a few minutes, the evaporating water will condense on the bottom of the bowl of ice, form droplets and then 'rain' back into the jar.  I have to say, I've never seen kids stare so intently at a jar of water than I did when we did this experiment.

The rain doesn't last long, and without a formal explanation of the water cycle, the children may not even know how it happened, but the point of this activity wasn't to learn the science of rain, it was to be awed by rain - which we desert-dwellers tend to be anyway.  It's about watching, waiting, anticipation and finally the excitement of seeing rain INSIDE a jar!!

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Next on the rainy agenda - Shaving Cream Clouds and Rainbow Rain, which I've seen floating about the web for quite a while and done very beautifully here.  

We read Listen to the Rain by Bill Martin, Jr. and John Archambault.  I happen to really enjoy this book, both because the writing style is strangely soothing and also because the art style is unique.  After the book, we moved right into making our own rain.  

I filled mason jars about 2/3 full of water, then added shaving cream to the top.  The kiddos began adding liquid watercolors right away, but i think they were so fascinated with coloring the shaving cream, it took a little while before they realized the rainbow rain they were creating in their jars.

Everyone enjoyed adding colors and watching them swirl down into the water until the water was all black.  Even after that, the shaving cream was still lovely, and reminded me of some sort of tasty dessert, so I just took some pictures of the tops while the children finished coloring their clouds.

I hope you've enjoyed our Week of Weather!

A Week of Weather: Day 2 - Clouds

In case you're just catching up, this week is all about weather!  My last post was all about wind and now we've moved on to clouds!  Some of these activities were done on different days in my preschool classes, but for the sake of organization, I've grouped them by weather type instead of when they actually occurred.

To get things started, we read It Looked Like Spilt Milk by Charles G. Shaw.  The kids absolutely loved this book - especially because the words are easy enough to memorize quickly and they can read the book to themselves.  The book also sparks conversations about things the kiddos have seen in the clouds; like the mermaid cloud I heard about today!

First up: Blot Art Clouds.  Yes, I know we just did blot art, but it's the perfect homage to the story, so we got started.

Just like our Blot Art Earths, we used paper with a crease already down the middle to assist in folding. Some white paint, spoons and we're off!

Some expert rubbing and then a look at what he's created.

Hmmmmm.......not really sure what this one might be.  We ventured a few guesses, but he decided to try again.

This kiddo ended up with what I think looks like a horse head, but whatever it was, he loved it so much he wanted to keep doing more!

This one looks just like the little cloud in the story, but my son insisted it was the Earth, maybe covered in snow??  He tried a few more times and ended up with a butterfly as well - what a great way to use our imaginations!

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Moving on.  Our next adventure in clouds was Puffy Paint Clouds.  This recipe is so easy and so fun, but I never measure, so you'll just have to wing it.  Mix white glue with shaving cream and food coloring until it looks like this and begin painting!  I always encourage the kiddos to leave lumps on their papers because when it dries, it really looks like clouds!  We use this paint for snowmen in the winter as well.

This is one time we do NOT wipe off the brush on the side of the bowl before we start painting!

All dry and puffy!  The kiddos LOVE to feel it, so don't be surprised if it ends up all smooshy, but that's alright - new sensory experience!

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Our last cloud activity isn't really very weather-y, but it's so fun that I couldn't resist putting it in this week.  Bubble Prints!!  I wasn't able to get any pictures of this activity this year, because my parent helper and I were blowing bubbles until we neared exhaustion.  Fortunately, I have pictures from last year.

I use 8x8 aluminum pans and large sheets of card stock to prevent the paper from winding up all the way in the water (though accidents still happen).  Just put a small amount of water in the bottom of the pan, add a good amount of dish soap (I told you I don't measure, maybe 1/4 c.?) and your desired color.  The more color you use, the darker your prints will be.  I used about 2-3 T of liquid water color this year and our results were amazing!

If you have older children, they can blow the bubbles themselves, but we had an unfortunately mishap last year with my little one, so I chose to have the adults do the blowing this year.

Blow enough bubbles to come over the top of the pan (ya know, like clouds!) and lay your paper on top.  When the bubbles pop, they will leave a lovely mark on the paper.  Repeat this with as many colors, as many times as you'd like.

Last year's results on canvas, sent to Grandma.

This year's results - with a ton more liquid water color!

Next up: Rain!!

A Week of Weather: Day 1 - Wind

According to the curriculum I purchase from Little Acorn Learning, one week this month is supposed to be dedicated to rain.  I live in the desert.  We don't have rain - unless it's monsoon season - so it's a bit difficult to fill a week with rain activities and keep the children interested.  I decided to expand upon the theme and cover weather in general.

Day 1 of this Week of Weather was all about WIND!  We have quite a bit of that here in the Phoenix, AZ area, and we've had some very windy days in the past few weeks, so I knew it would be in the recent memories of the kiddos.

I set up the light table with a heavy/light experimentation area.

I also provided a straw for each child.  A note about wind experiments: be prepared for spit.  Blowing through a straw without saliva interfering is very difficult for the little ones, so have your anti-bacterial wipes ready.

The children tried to move everything around on the table and we talked about what moved and what didn't - light things and heavy things.  My son decided that he didn't like the fact that he couldn't knock over that little tower of blocks, so he just leaned in and sneakily bumped it with the bottom of his straw!  We were surprised that we could move the small wooden cars with our ''wind", but not the train cars from our set of Prism Blocks.

Feathers were the favorite!  I plan to have this area open for the remainder of the week, and I think I'll provide a few more feathers and perhaps attempt a 'catch wall' around the perimeter of the light table - there was a lot of bending to pick up on my part, BUT, all in the name of science!



 
Since we were on a roll with those straws, we tried some "Wind Painting".  This is a super-easy project that works best with older kids; however, if you do it with a class of two-year-olds as I did, hilarity will definitely ensue and they will have a blast anyway!

We used finger paint paper (taped down) - to provide a slick surface so the paint wouldn't be immediately absorbed - and liquid watercolors.  If you have older children, you could have them drop the paint on the paper themselves, but since I had all little ones, I wanted them to focus on the "wind" portion, so I dished out the colors as they asked for them - bonus color lesson!  Teal, Fuchsia, Tangerine and Violet!

What an awesome technique!!  The kids loved it and they were so proud once they finally got the hang of it and were able to move that paint across the paper!

Check out that powerful wind action!!





Happy Earth Day!

Next up:  Clouds!