Honey Pot is 3 1/2 years old.
Little M&M is 2 years old.
Books
We checked out some wonderful books from the library about rain this week! Honey Pot's favorites were Cloudette, Are You Ready to Play Outside and Rabbits & Raindrops. Little M&M loves One Rainy Day, as it has just a few words per page and reviews all of the colors he recently learned. Great selection of books!
Coffee Filter Umbrella Craft
We discovered this idea from B-Inspired Mama. Great activity to bring us outside on these early warm spring days. First we colored coffee filters with washable markers.
Then we sprayed them completely with water, and watched all of the colors spread throughout the coffee filter.
The kids aren't very keen on coloring activities, so theirs weren't very colorful. I made one too so we can see what it looks like fully decorated.
We sprayed them all, placed them inside on paper towels and allowed them to dry overnight.
Here they are the next morning, hung up with construction paper handles. Such a cute craft, and they love to come over and point theirs out.
Learning about The Water Cycle
I found a wonderful introduction to the water cycle over at Living Montessori Now, with a free printable from Our Little Monkeys. I cut a raindrop out of cardstock so she could have something to move around the page. I like this worksheet because it uses simple descriptions suitable for her age, rather than the big words that she can't even pronounce yet. I used the raindrop and explained the stages of the water cycle to her, then she wanted to do it herself. She did great, and I really think she understands the concept. She took this page back out multiple times throughout the week, explaining the water cycle to her Dad and even to her little brother.
Math Mazes
We printed two mazes out from This Reading Mama, for Honey Pot to practice her counting. She used a highlighter and made her way from 11 to 20...
and then from 10-100, counting by tens. This was a nice review, as she just recently learned how to count by tens during her Letter T unit.
Which is Different?
We also printed this worksheet from This Reading Mama's free packet. There were two versions, a level one and a level two. This type of activity always seems too easy for Honey Pot now, so I printed level two. It was definitely a challenge for her!
Making Patterns
One last item from This Reading Mama's packet: pattern cards! We tried all different types of patterns. We started simple with an ABAB pattern.
Then moved on to AABAAB.
And finally, we added a third item to the mix with an ABCABC pattern. She loved this activity and returned to this throughout the week as well.
Sticky Paper Rain Craft
Little M&M had fun reviewing shapes with this activity. I provided him with mini marshmallows and raindrops that I had drawn shapes onto.
I drew a cloud onto a piece of paper, as well as each of the shapes again, and taped the paper beneath some clear contact paper, sticky side out. Little M&M put the marshmallows into the cloud, and stuck the raindrops onto the matching shapes. We talked about what the shapes were called as he picked each one up. He really enjoyed this!
Rain Experiment
Growing a Jeweled Rose had nice instructions on how to make it rain in a cup using shaving cream, water, food coloring and a pipette.
I filled a clear glass 3/4 of the way with water, then topped it off with shaving cream.
Using a pipette and some water with blue food coloring, the kids took turns dropping some water into the shaving cream clouds. When the clouds became heavy with water, it rained in the cup!
Not only was this great fine motor practice, as they learned how to use the pipettes, but it put great emphasis on how rain forms, a concept that Honey Pot is just discovering. We did this experiment three times in a row. What a success!
Cloud Sensory Bin
I had seen this all over Pinterest, and wanted to give it a try. We placed a bar of Ivory Soap into the microwave for about ninety seconds, and watched it puff up like a cloud!
Then we took it out and played with it. It deflated quite quickly, but both of the kids enjoyed exploring its texture.
Honey Pot especially loved crumbling it into pieces!
Playing in the Rain
It's April, so I knew we would have at least one rainy day during our rain unit. We had a couple actually! The kids put on their boots and grabbed their umbrellas and splashed around. Great end to our week!
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If you enjoyed this, please take a look at our Cloud Unit too! Tons of fun activities for little ones!
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