April showers bring May flowers! Do you have a student who loves rainy days? Scroll below for some fun rain-themed ideas. A variety of these activities are suitable for preschool, kindergarten, homeschool, and special education. These raindrop activities blend the science of rain with number recognition, addition, subtraction, and alphabet letter recognition. Center ideas include outdoor learning, math center, reading center, dramatic play center, block center, and art center. Set up your classroom for fun with raindrops. (Close supervision is required for all activities and play, to be sure the children are safe and are using the materials appropriately. Eyedroppers in these activities are not to be used for placing materials in the eye.)
Ideas to Incorporate Into Your Raindrop-Themed Circle Time or Morning Meeting:
•Have some rainy-day items on hand, such as an umbrella, raincoat, rainboots, pancho, etc. Invite a couple of volunteers to come up and model the items. Ask the children thought-provoking questions such as “I wonder why people wear boots on a rainy day?” “If you went on a walk on a rainy day and you didn’t have an umbrella, what would happen?” etc. Bring a squirt bottle and ask permission from your models if you can spray their gear. Discuss if the gear worked with the class.
•Use this fun poem we have written to introduce the morning. Feel free to add hand movements:
Little raindrops
Glide from the sky
Splish on your nose
Splash from up high
• Invite the children to make rain sounds by gently tapping on their own legs, or snapping their fingers. When more children do it together, the sound becomes louder. Experiment with this idea. Split the group in half and have them take turns making the sound. “Conduct” your student’s rain sounds by raising and lowering your arms to indicate quieter or louder tapping. Invite a volunteer to come and conduct the rain. You can also have them create a similar effect (but louder) by having them quickly stomp on the ground as a group.
• Consider using raindrop-themed calendar pieces or classroom decor to form patterns and discuss the day of the month.
• Read a story about rain. Ask some volunteers to act the story out as you read.
•Don’t forget to discuss the fun invitations you have available in the class for today! Read below for some inspiring raindrop activities for your daily stations!
Raindrop Activities in the Outdoor Classroom:
• Sensory tables can be filled with tinted water and squirt bottles, droppers, and basters. Watch the raindrop exploration come to life!
• Is it a rainy day? If not, you can still set up a rainy day experiment with a sprinkler set on low! Measure the “rainwater” by collecting it in a test tube. Invite the children to make predictions on how fast it will reach a certain level. The predictions and the results can even be recorded in a graph.
•Puddle jumping. Children love jumping in puddles! Invite the children to put on their rain gear- boots, coats, etc and jump in the puddles! Splash! (They may wish to change their clothes afterward).
• Cork boats are fun to make on a rainy day- and then test in the water! Supply a table of corks, rubber bands, craft foam, tape, string, and more. Invite the children to craft their boats and see if they will float.
•Wet chalk drawing on a sidewalk is a unique experience that makes bold colors that can blend when the raindrops start falling. Simply dip (or quickly soak) the chalk in some water before each stroke on the ground.
•Raindrop races are a great way to experiment with water and gravity. Place two pieces of tape on the upper half of a window (outside within the child’s reach). Supply children with squirt bottles set on low. The children will squirt the tape until a drop forms and rolls to the bottom of the windowsill. Who will be fastest? The winner can use a squeegee to remove excess water before each new round.
Raindrop Activities for Digital Distance Learning, or a Computer Center:
The following virtual activities are great for students who love digital learning. These are available for use on Google Slides™ or you can select the Boom Cards™ format. In the math activities, the students will count the hand-painted watercolor raindrops and place them in the sky as a virtual manipulative to help them solve the problem. In the alphabet activity, they will use raindrops to trace the letters. These digital activities are made for the following learning objectives: number recognition, counting, addition, subtraction, and virtual letter tracing. Choose the one that best suits the skills that your students need, or you can save more by purchasing them as a bundle!
Rain Ideas for the Reading Center:
• Create streamers of raindrops for a magical reading nook! Take some fishing wire and hot glue several beads of clear glue along the wire. making many strands will make it more realistic. You can also have students help (with supervision so they use the tools appropriately).
• Hang umbrellas from the ceiling to make a cozy and colorful reading nook. Also, consider playing rain sounds in the background nearby for a soothing reading experience.
• Add books on raindrops and weather! (Stating the obvious).
Raindrop Activities for the Math Center:
• Measure the rainwater: Set up a station of test tubes (in a stand) and squirt bottles. Provide a chart on the table. Mark the outside of the test tubes with different colored lines or numbers. Place various amounts of water in each test tube. Invite the children to come one by one to chart the levels of the water. When they are done, invite them to add three squirts to one or three of the test tubes for the next student to track.
• Raindrop patterns: In preparation create a variety of 2-inch “raindrops” by cutting transparent cellophane gift wrapping material. Hang a clothesline and place pinchable clothespins nearby. Place a basket of the raindrops near the activity. Invite the children to hang patterns of the raindrops on the clothesline.
• Counting drips: set up a station with droppers, water, and colored tissue paper (gift wrapping). Cut the tissue paper into small pieces and write a number from 1-10 or 1-20 on each scrap of tissue paper. Invite the children to pick a number and then drip the corresponding number of drops on each sheet of tissue.
Rain in the Dramatic Play Center:
• Place an assortment of rain gear in the dramatic play center. Include sounds of a thunderstorm and rainsticks. Flashlights also make a great addition to this theme as they can create “lightning”.
• Children often use the dramatic play area to act out situations that have disturbed them. Many children have been scared by thunderstorms. This is a great opportunity to allow them to work through the emotions associated with a storm (if they so choose). Place some emergency gear such as blankets, flashlights, cans of “food”, camping lanterns, etc. to provide a space for this play. Toy dogs, cats, and dolls can serve as objects they can “comfort” through the storm. Consider allowing them access to turn off the classroom lights if they want.
Rainy Day Activities for the Block Center:
• Place some eyedroppers and a small amount of water in the block area. Invite children to experiment on building a ramp and seeing how fast the drips roll down the ramps. What can they do to increase the rate of speed on a ramp? Encourage them to problem solve and discuss.
• Invite your students to build a shelter from a storm for some small dolls or miniature animals. What do they need to do to build a shelter that will keep the toys dry? Consider placing spray bottles set to a slow mist in the area to experiment.
Raindrop Invitations for the Art Center:
• Place some droppers and spray bottles set to a low mist and filled with diluted watercolor on a table lined with butcher paper. Include pieces of tissue paper and sidewalk chalk. Invite the children to explore the materials to make a poster of raindrop art.
•Place cotton balls, glue, construction paper (in various shades of blue and gray), tempera paint (in shades of blue, gray, and black), and paintbrushes on a table. Invite children to create a stormy sky with cotton ball clouds.
Fine and Gross Motor Raindrop activities:
•Puddle jumping: Put on those rain boots and splash in some puddles. If water play is not an option, consider drawing or securely attaching “puddles” to the ground and invite the children to jump and “splash”. (Be sure the puddles are very secure to avoid children slipping and falling)
•Dropper fun: Droppers engage the pincer grasp muscles and are great for pre-writing.
•Storm dancing: place scarves in an area where children are free to spin and move around. Invite the children to pretend they are a rainy storm and create a dance that mimics the movements of a storm. Consider placing some storm and rain sounds in the background.
Conclusion: These activities are great for a rainy-day theme. Rain enthusiasts will engage in various learning centers including a math center, reading center, dramatic play center, art center, block center, and digital learning computer center. Skills include pre-reading skills, math skills, gross motor skills, fine motor skills, addition, subtraction, number recognition, and counting – to name a few. Watch learning come to life in your classroom as your students engage in these fantastic raindrop activities. We hope you enjoyed this free lesson plan and center ideas. Drip… drip… drop!
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