Weather

Last week was all about the weather; particularly April showers. We read several books about weather; Its Raining, It’s pouring, A Rainbow of My Own, and Worm Weather.

We talked about different aspects of spring showers; when it rains worms come out, thunder makes a big noise, and lighting soon follows.  We talked a bit about the colors of the rainbow and where to find rainbows; some friends shared stories about when they saw rainbows.

The projects this week reflected our theme; Monday’s project was a rain storm scene( example of process art). The kids were given a dab of white and black paint, asked to mix them together, and use the paint to cover the whole page. In the process, they learned that mixing black and white created gray and continued to practiced crossing the midline by mixing. Once the gray covered the page, raindrops and lighting bolts were added to finish our “storms.”

The second project was a rainbow. The kids used a squirt bottle to soak their paper; applying tissue paper squares to the top in rainbow sequence. After the placing the rainbow sequence, the kids got to squirt the tissue paper and watch the colors travel or ‘rain’ down the page. The end result was a beautiful watercolor rainbow. Next we printed clouds for our rainbow! Everyone painted a piece of bubble wrap white; pressing a cloud template on top. The kids had to rub the paper with enough force to create a print, making sure the whole surface was covered. The paper was peeled off and, tah- da! I do love a grand reveal.

Thursday, the kids used a pipette to drop blue watercolor on paper. They were encouraged to move their paper around; watching what happens when the water travels around the page.

During circle time I made rainbow stew with a magic pot! I start by placing felt fruit up on a felt board; each fruit contained one of the colors of the rainbow. We went through every fruit as I put them up naming their colors; red apple, orange orange, yellow banana, etc. After we reviewed the colors, I started to make my stew. I began by putting the red apple into the pot, stirring it until it was just right, and then, reaching into the pot( only teachers reach into the pot because our fingers are heat proof) I pulled out a red rainbow arc. Oooooooo! Next was orange, then yellow, and so on until a rainbow was created from the stew.

We started to practice our poem “Rain” and sang the Itsy Bitsy Spider.

On Tuesday, we went outside to do the story walk around the building created by Lexfun. The story walk is based off of the book, When Spring Comes. All the kids had fun walking to the different stations, everyone seemed to notice something different and had fun point things out. I encourage you to do it with your child, they can show you all the different things they found on their walk.

Have a good week,

Teddie Rappaport