Theme Goals:

To introduce April weather as usually rainy.

Colors in a rainbow.

Rain is good for plants.

What does a raindrop/rainbow look like?

Discussion:

Talk to the children about rain and rainbows. What kind of weather do we expect in April? Does it usually snow? Is it really hot? Or does it rain a lot? Where does the rain come from? For older children you can discuss the rain cycle. What is rain good for? What would happen if it didn't rain? If the plants didn't grow then what would happen to animals that eat the plants, like humans? Older children: Discuss that different places tend to get more rain... a desert gets very little rain while a rainforest gets a lot of rain.

Rainbows: What colors are in a rainbow? Do you think we can make a rainbow in the class? Rainbows are made when the water in the air bends light. Show the children a prism and have them see the rainbow the prism makes. On a sunny day you can set a jar of water in the window to make a rainbow in the classroom.

Art:

Kool Aid Art

Sprinkle a little dry kool aid mix onto a piece of paper. Have your child spray water from a spray bottle onto the paper. Use different colored kool-aid mix. For added adventure, you may choose to take your children out into the rain with a piece of paper that has kool-aid on it.

Umbrella Art

Cut out an umbrella shape and have your child decorate it with paint, glitter, fabric, crayons, or whatever you can come up with.

Cotton Ball Clouds

Make gray cloud shapes from construction paper. Have the children glue on cotton balls.

Rain and Rainbow Collage

Look in a magazine or newspaper for pictures of rain, or rainbows, cut them out, and let your child glue them onto a piece of paper for a collage.

Torn Paper Rainbows

Apply glue onto a piece of paper where the first color of the rainbow should be, you can make a half or full arc. Have your child apply red torn paper to the glued area. Next apply glue under the red torn paper for the next color, and so on!! (you will only be able to do three or four colors)

Easy Rainbows

Tape three or four different colored crayons in a straight line. Show your child how to draw a rainbow with one stroke.

Cereal Rainbows

You will need a box of Fruit Loops (or similar cereal), paper, pencil and glue. For younger children, you should draw a rainbow shape on to the paper then have the children glue the fruit loops inside the shape. Older children can make their own rainbow shape, or trace it. You may also do this project as open ended art by allowing the children to make whatever they wish with the fruit loops.

Spray Art

Fill a spray bottle 3/4 full with water. Place a small amount of paint (powdered or liquid) into the water. If you use too much or do not shake well the paint will clog up the spray bottle. Do this for at least three different bottles, with three different colors. Then place a large piece of paper on the floor, on an easel, on a wall or fence outside. Then have the children spray the colored water on the paper. Allow to dry.

Kite Art

Supply the children with paper, glue and ribbon. Have the children cut and glue pieces of paper together and add ribbon to make a kite. This kite can be a very open ended art project, by not requiring the kite to be a specific shape, the children are free to make the kite however they wish. Have the children add a ribbon tail and hang the kites from the ceiling.

Class Rainbow

Obtain a large piece of butcher paper. Have the children make a rainbow using their handprints using all the colors of the rainbow.

Tissue Paper Rainbows

Apply glue onto a piece of paper where the first color of the rainbow should be, you can make a half or full arc. Have your child apply red tissue paper to the glued area. Next apply glue under the red tissue paper for the next color, and so on!! (you will only be able to do three or four colors)

Rainbow Necklaces

Supply the children with fruitloops and yarn to make a wonderful necklace they can eat:)

Tissue Paper Rainbows 2:

Supply the children with many different colors of tussue paper that will bleed. Have them cut out small shapes and then place on a piece of white paper. After the paper is covered with a single layer of paper (it' okay if a few overlap) have the children paint the paper with water so the tissue paper will bleed onto the white paper. Allow to dry, remove the paper for a beautiful picture.

Paint with Clouds

Supply each child with a piece of blue paper, a cotton ball and white paint. Have the child dip the cotton ball into the white paint and press onto the paper to make cloud prints.

Paint with a Cloud 2:

Supply the children with a piece of white paper an many cotton balls and many different colors of paint, and have them paint with the cotton ball on the paper.

Blue Shaving Cream Art

Add a few drops of blue paint to shaving cream.  Have the children use this to paint with.  Not mixing the paint in will give it a special look.

Raindrop Hats

Make hats from newsprint and have the child decorate with blue paint or rain and rainbow stickers.

Raindrop People

Give the children a piece of white paper, and a blue raindrop shape. Have the children glue the raindrop onto the paper, and then draw a body as if the raindrop was a head.

Torn Paper Raindrops

Draw a raindrop shape on a piece of paper. Have the children tear pieces of blue construction paper, and glue them inside the lines for the raindrop shape.

Raindrop Necklaces

Supply the children with raindrop shaped stencil.  Have the children cut out raindrop shapes from construction paper.  Then, have them use a hole punch to make a hole, so they can thread them onto a piece of yarn.

Noodle Necklaces

Supply the children with pasta noodles that have been dyed many different colors for a rainbow necklace, and yarn. Have the children thread the noodles onto the yarn to make a necklace.

Sponge Art

Supply the children with spring sponges and paint and have them make a spring scene with them.

Spring Cookie Cutter Art:

Obtain a cookie cutter that is shaped like a raindrop. Have the children dip the cookie cutter in a shallow container of blue paint, then press onto a piece of paper to make raindrop prints.

Raindrop Rubbings

Cut raindrop shapes from paper doilys or sandpaper.  Tape these raindrops to the table.  Have the children place a piece of thin white paper over the raindrops and rub a crayon over the raindrop.

Sticker Art

Supply the children with raindrop and rainbow stickers and have them place them on a piece of white paper.

Stamp Art

Supply the children with raindrop and rainbow stamps and have them make a spring scene with the stamps.

Rainbow Eggshell Collage

Use food coloring to color crushed eggshells a few different colors. (You can use eggshells from eggs you have used, there is no need to hard boil these egg shells.) Let your child glue the eggshells to a piece a paper after the dye has dried.

Raindrop Headbands

Measure your child's head, and cut a piece of construction paper long enough to create a headband. Glue the paper together so the headband fits snugly on your child's head but is loose enough to take off easily. Have the children cut out blue raindrop shapes or use stickers and glue to the headband.

Fingerprint Raindrops

Supply your children with white paper and a non-toxic blue stamp pad. Have the children make fingerprints on the paper to represent raindrops.

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Other Spring activity pages from 123child.com:

May Flowers

Bugs, Bees and Butterflies

Easter

Mother's Day

Spring Links

Childfun: Rainbows

Childfun: Spring

DLTK's Spring

Kids Domain: Spring

Suggested Books

For Reading:

Bringing the Rain to Kapiti Plain

Bumpa Rumpus and the Rainy Day

In the Rain With Baby Duck

Mushroom in the Rain

Rain Feet

Curriculum:

Everything for Spring : A Complete Activity Book for Teachers of Young Children : Activities for March, April, and May

Spring : Creative Activities for Young Children

Busy Bees Spring : Fun for Two's and Three's

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Science, Math and Games

Weather Chart

Each day for the month of April chart the weather. Was it sunny, rainy, cold, warm. Ask your child for as many descriptive words as they can think of about the day!!!

Measuring rainfall

On a rainy day, set out a container to measure the rainfall. Measure how much rain fell that day. Continue to measure the rain each day, and record for a few weeks. Ask your child to predict how much water will be collected. Ask at the beginning of the day and ask when it is raining. Did their answer change?

Egg Carton Fun

Use a plastic egg carton for this activity. Fill each hole 3/4 full with water. Add red food coloring to one hole, blue to another, and yellow to another. Give your child an eye dropper, show them how to use the eye dropper to move the colored water to clear water, notice how the color changes. Let them experiment. For older children, ask them how to make green, purple, brown, and aqua colors.

Bean Bag Puddle Toss

You need a hula hoop (the puddle) and some bean bags. You can either set up the hula hoop on it's side or on the ground. Have your child try to throw the bean bags into the puddle.

Jump in the Puddle

Set a hula hoop on the floor. Play some music and have your child walk around the hula hoop. When the music stops, have them jump into the hoop (the puddle).

Jump Over the Puddle

Cut out puddle shapes from blue paper or newspaper (you can have the children paint it blue). They need to be small enough for the children to be able to hop over. Then set them on the floor and ask the children to take turns hopping over the puddle.

Wet or Dry

Cut some pictures from a magazine, or show some pictures from a book, ask your child if the objects are wet or dry?

Rainbow in a jar

Take a large glass jar, fill it 3/4 with water. Drop a single drop of food coloring into the jar from about a foot above the jar, so the coloring makes it's way almost to the bottom. Try different colors.

Prism fun

You can find a prism at many science stores or teachers store. Show your child the prism, and how to see all the colors of a rainbow in the prism.

Playing with Clouds

Put some shaving cream on the table. Tell the children to imagine that it is a cloud. To keep children to their own personal space use a paper plate for the shaving cream.

Raindrop fishing

Cut out several raindrop shapes from light blue construction paper. Write several numbers or letters on them. Have them laminated. Then place a paper clip on each raindrop. Make a fishing pole out of a dowel or pencil, string and a magnet. Place the raindrops on the floor and have the children sit in chairs around the raindrops. (This may work better with a few fishing poles.) Have the children try to catch a raindrop with the fishing pole. Then, when they catch one.. show it to them and ask what letter or number it is.

Variation: For younger children you could make the raindrops different colors and ask what color is the raindrop

Variation: Ask the child if they can catch the "a" or the "1"

Which color is missing?

Draw several different rainbow on small pieces of paper. Each one, exclude a color that should be in the rainbow.. so the first exclude red, second orange... etc. Then make a rainbow that has all the colors. Show the children the rainbow with all the colors on it. Ask what colors do they see. Then show each card to the children and ask them if they can guess what color is missing

Variation: Put the colors in the wrong order. See if the children can see which color is not in the right place.

Milky Rainbows:

Provide every child with a shallow container of milk. Place a couple drops of different food coloring in the milk. Next have the child dip a toothpick into a little dish soap and then dip it into the milk. What happens? Try it again!

Looking at the world through different colored glasses:

Obtain different colored celophane wrap and many toilet paper rolls. Apply a sqaure of the cellophane wrap to the end of the toilet paper roll and secure with a rubber band or masking tape. Each child should have one. Have the children look through the tube to see what everything looks like. Have them trade with a friend. You could also have five of these set up in your science area for the children to use, or bind two of the same color for binoculars.

Goop

Mix 2 cups water with a little food coloring, add 6 cups of cornflour/cornstarch to make goop.

Raindrop Search

Cut out many raindrop shapes and hide them around the room. Have the children search for them like an easter egg hunt.

Sand and Water Table Ideas:

- Add a little food coloring to water

- Add food coloring and soap to the water

- supply the children with colored pasta noodles or rice

Raindrop Hop

Place raindrop shapes on the floor. Have the children hop from one raindrop to the next.

Raindrop Seat Markers

Cut out and laminate big raindrop shapes to be used as seat markers for the children to sit on during story and circle time.

"Taste the Rainbow" Jar

For older children. Fill a small jar with Skittles. Ask each child to guess how many Skittles are in the jar. For younger children, limit the number of Skittles to less than ten. Record each child's guess. Count the Skittles.

"Taste the Rainbow" Jar for Schoolagers

Provide three identical jars with pre-counted Skittlesof 20, 30, and 40. Label these jars 20, 30 and 40. Place 20 to 40 Skittles in a fourth identical jar. Allow the children to examine all four jars before they guess. Record the children's approximations. Count the Skittles.

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Group Time

Rain, Rain

Rain, rain, go away

Come again some other day

We want to go outside and play

Come again some other day

(Optional lyrics: change third line to say:

(child's name)'s friends all want to play

It's raining, it's pouring,

It's raining, it's pouring,

The old man is snoring.

He went to bed and he

Bumped his head

And he couldn't get up in the morning.

It Ain't Gonna Rain

It ain't gonna rain no more, no more

It ain't gonna rain no more,

How in the heck will we wash the neck

If it ain't gonna rain no more?

If All the Raindrops

If all the raindrops were lemondrops and gumdrops

Oh, what a rain that would be!

Standing outside, with my mouth open wide

Singing La la la la, la la la, la la la,

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

Singing La la la la, la la la, la la la,

If all the snowflakes were candy bars and milkshakes

Oh, what a snow that would be!

If all the sunbeams were bubble gum and ice cream

Oh, what a sun that would be!

Standing outside, with my mouth open wide

Singing La la la la, la la la, la la la,

If all the sunbeams were bubble gum and ice cream

Oh, what a sun that would be!

Disscussion:

Talk about weather! Kinds of weather. How does weather influence the world around us? What good is rain? What is the rain cycle? Discuss the different types of clouds.

Red, Red, Green!!!

Played like "Duck, Duck, Goose" except the children will say "Red, Red, Green".

Mr. Rainbow Says:

Played just like "Simon Say" except the teacher says "Mr. Rainbow Says". With younger children, do not make children sit out... just say "Mr. Rainbow didn't say".

Rainbow Musical Chairs

If they children made raindrow headbands, have them wear them during this activity. Arrange the chairs in a circle. If you have younger children it is best to have too many chairs. This can be a game where everyone wins. Place different color circles on each chair. Have the children walk around the chairs until the music stops. Then everyone finds a chair. Ask who is sitting on a chair with a red circle? Blue? Etc.

Rainbow Bean Bag Toss

Cut out three raindrop shapes from a piece of cardboard. Paint around the shapes with blue. When dry, prop up the cardboard and have the children play bean bag toss, trying to get the bean bags in the raindrop holes.

Musical Easter Eggs

Cut out large raindrop shapes from colored paper. Laminate them and cut them out. Place them on the floor. It is best for younger children to have more raindrops than children. Play music and have the children walk around the room. When the music stops each child needs to find an raindrop to stand on.

Color Day:

Have each day of the week be a specific color day... i.e. Red Day, Blue Day and ask the parents to dress the children in that color.

Color Song:

Suzie is wearing red today

Red today, red today,

Suzie is wearing red today

All day long

(Substitute Suzie with a name of the child in your class, and red for the color that child is wearing)

Repeat the song twice and let the child dance during the song. Have the other children sing and clap along.

Color Jump Song

If you're wearing red then

Jump up and Down,

Jump up and Down,

Jump up and Down,

If you're wearing red then

Jump up and Down,

Now sit back down.

What time is it Mr. Raindrop?

This is a fun game to play outside.  You can change the name to suit any theme. The children all line up against a wall or fence. And one child, Mr. Raindrop or the teacher faces away from the children, a good distance away from the children. The children yell, what time is it "Mr. Raindrop", Mr. Raindrop answers 1 o'clock, and the children all take one step toward Mr. Raindrop. The children yell again, what time is it "Mr. Raindrop", Mr. Raindrop answers (fill in the blank) o'clock, and the children all take same number of step toward Mr. Raindrop. This continues until all the children are very close to Mr. Raindrop, then Mr. Raindrop will answer it's midnight, and chases the children back to the fence or wall that they started at.  The first person Mr. Raindrop touches will be the new Mr. Raindrop.

What's under the Rainbow?

Find a very colorful sock. Place something in the sock, like a block, or a toy. Let the child feel the object and try to guess what it is