Singing (Playing, Crafting & Learning) in the Rain

It rains more in spring. The earth seems to need it to wake up. It’s a much gentler sort of rain that we tend to get in the summer. It’s some of the best rain to play outside in because there is rarely thunder and lightening with it. There are a million ways to enjoy spring rain- not the least of which is just walking around and jumping in puddles! Below are some of our favorite ways to play in the rain.

Rain Painting

Rain painting is simple and uses supplies that you probably have on hand already. The only thing that can be tricky is explaining to younger children that the rain is going to change their picture, but once you’ve done it once or twice it makes sense.

Materials:

• paper- I like watercolor paper, but printer paper will do the job
• washable markers, watercolor or other water based medium
• rain

Method:

Draw or paint big areas of color all over your paper. You can draw a picture, but don’t spend too much time on it because teh rain is going to change it. The more color on the paper the better. (no skinny lines!)

Lay your paper flat outside in the rain and keep an eye on it. As the rain hit sit it will begin to move the color around.

When you like the way it looks bring it carefully back inside and let it dry out.

Stormwater Engineering

This often happens without prompting when children play outside in the rain. Invariably there will be water flowing somewhere, either over a driveway or sidewalk and children will try and block or divert it. There are no instructions for this because the children should take the lead. Let them decide what the objective is and how they might accomplish it. Let them know if anything is off limits and then get out of the way!

Rain Music

Rain makes interesting sounds when it hits different materials. Metal in particular sounds nice in the rain. Encourage children to experiment with different materials to make different sounds.

Materials:

• pots, pans, wood, bamboo anything laying around that can get wet without being damaged
• rain

Method:

Assemble your materials and turn kids loose to experiment with different sounds! You can move objects around to change their sound– does the rush of water from the drain make different sounds than the rain by itself?