Weather: Part 1

It was beautiful and sunny out today, and it is finally starting to feel like spring. We still haven't seen a robin, but it's nice to be able to play in the yard without getting really bundled up. The sunny sky and fluffy clouds made me want to teach Evie about the weather. So today, we talked about "good" weather, and tomorrow, we will talk about "bad" weather (storms!). Today we discussed different types of clouds, rainbows, temperature, and spring rain showers. 

We started right off with a craft today. I wanted to add something to the decor of the playroom, and decided to make a mobile of a cloud with rain falling from it. This rapidly turned into two activities: the making of the mobile, and playing with the entire bag of batting dumped out on the floor.

Books

• Cloudette by Tom Lichtenheld
• What's the Weather? by Children's Press
• It Looked Like Spilt Milk by Charles G. Shaw
• My Spring Robin by Anne Rockwell
• The Magic School Bus Makes a Rainbow: A Book About Color by Joanna Cole

Crafts

• Paper plate rainbows: Cut a paper plate in half, then paint on the rainbow. We used pom poms on clothespins instead of paintbrushes to try something different. 
• Cloud chart: We used cotton balls to represent three types of clouds (Cirrus, cumulus and stratus). Evie glued the cotton balls to a piece of paper in a chart style.
• Sun catcher: I set up a tray with a dollar store sun catcher for Evie to paint. 
• Cloud Mobile: Supplies: batting, stick, clear beading twine, blue and white beads, ribbon. We strung beads on the various strings to represent raindrops, and tied them to a stick that we found outside this morning. I also tied on some ribbon, including some that I had curled with some scissors. Then we stuck batting onto the stick, and tied it on with the clear twine. I made a loop to hang the mobile from a hook on the ceiling. 

Activities

• Experiment: Cloud in a jar. Supplies: jar, lid, ice, hot water, hair spray. Pour 1/3 cup hot water into a jar. Flip the lid upside down ad put a pile of ice in it, then set on top of the jar. Count to twenty with toddler, then quickly lift the lid, spray in some hairspray, and replace ice lid. Watch cloud form, and have fun releasing it from the jar.
  https://www.giftofcuriosity.com/weather-science-how-to-make-a-cloud-in-a-jar
• Pretend play: Cover each other in copious amounts of batting. Think cloud thoughts. Only rain on the potty, please. 
• Outdoors: Go outside and watch the clouds! Describe what the weather is like today.