Wonderment Wednesday: Play with a rain drop

-
This summer as I share my love of the out-of-doors with children, I thought I'd share some of our favorite activities and new experiments with readers of this blog. Visit on Wednesdays each week to find something new to do and try when the kids invade your home!


*******


Our weather this week couldn't get much worse. They say if you don't like the weather in northeast Ohio, stay one more day and it's likely to change. Lately around here it's gone from bad to worse. As I type this, I can look out my window and baby pea plants, beautiful bachelor buttons, blooming lilacs, and it's only 43 degrees. And raining. Spring sprung, then went back to bed, apparently.
The good news is that it's supposed to warm up. The bad news is that the rain is supposed to be the big story all week long, which is par for the course when it comes to spring, but a veritable doomsday when you're a kid and really want to go out and play.


Instead, touch some raindrops. Play with them. Even roll them around....


Play with a rain drop
Needed:
pie plate
flour (any kind will do)
rain!!
sieve



Directions:

Place an inch or so of flour in your pie tin and wait for it to rain...


Put on your best rubber boots and head outside. The bigger the rain drops the better, so wait for the nice, fat ones to start falling!


Head back in and carefully scoop out the flour where the drops have landed and gently sift them out.They will be fragile, but what you are looking at are the actual drops of rain! Let them dry and harden to be more durable.


Get really bored? Paint them. Extra credit? Catch some in a heavy storm, some in a light rain and use this as a tool to see how all rain drops are different.


When you're finished, either leave your flour and pie tin in a safe spot and wait for the next rain, or store your flour in a plastic bag. You can use it again and again if you keep it clear of raindrops!


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Pepe le Pew and Cupid, too

-
            Phenology is the study of seasonal natural phenomena, especially in relation to climate and plant and animal life. Watching the way nature changes with the calendar can be a neat way to track the world and make ridiculous comparisons and conclusions about fragrant animals, diapered babies and bow and arrows, and old cartoons characters with a French accent.             Living in Ohio, we never know what the weather in February will bring. We can assume snow, but even the most astute student of phenology will tell you that weather (not climate) is not what makes most things in nature happen.             So I go to two reliable signs of February: Love and skunks.             I’m sure everyone will agree that February is the month of love, with the whole big candy-filled Valentine’s Day smack dab in the middle of it. But skunks?               If you don’t believe me that February is the month of skunk, think back over the past few weeks… you’ve smelled a skunk, have
Read more

Bedtime

-
            It is a cruel world we live in, when the time for sleep is never the time we want it to be. Ever.             There are, of course, exceptions, but speaking from my own personal experience, I’m not sure I’ve ever really been able to go to sleep exactly when I wanted. I can’t remember a single time (although I also can’t remember what I had for dinner last night) that I’ve had the pleasure of announcing, “I’m tired. I’m going to bed and no one or nothing is going to stop me.”             As tiny infants we know no better and haven’t yet adjusted to any sort of schedule. After living in darkness for all of our lives, we suddenly find ourselves with lights and sun and lovely people who are trying to train us to sleep at times when we really don’t want to, but aren’t sure why.             As toddlers and preschoolers, we start to slowly learn about all of the fun things we are missing when those big, lovely people make us go to bed. We may not understand anything like
Read more

Old mom, new tricks

-
            If you add up the ages of all of my children, I’ve been a mom for almost 38 years, which is almost as long as I’ve been on this Earth. You might think that I have most things figured out. I know I did. But as it turns out, you’re never too old a mom to learn new tricks.             This tip came from the brilliant family of the child who has the locker next to my oldest daughter. Both freshmen in high school, one day my daughter saw him pull a girly lunchbox out of his bookbag. There must have been an exchange of expressions and the explanation followed.             “I forgot my lunchbox at school yesterday so my mom packed my lunch in this princess Lunchbox of Shame. I’m never going to forget it at school again.”             Upon hearing this story, my eyes got wide and I probably stood there, mouth agape, wondering why I hadn’t thought of this long, long ago. While our children are pretty good at remembering to bring their lunch boxes home, they are terrible at r
Read more