Thunder and Lightning!

We explored weather at the library in the latest Messy Fingers program and I thought I would share some of the things we did so you can join us!  All of these are fun, easy activities to introduce weather to your preschooler.

Rain - We put boiling water into a glass jar and then a plate on top. This made a cloud. Then we put ice on the top of the plate and this cooled the cloud and water began to drip down the sides making rain.

Lightning - We tried the old trick of biting wintergreen lifesavers but this time it didn't work. Normally when you bite down hard on anything with sugar it emits light - cool right?  However this light isn't in our visible spectrum, it is ultraviolet. Wintergreen oil changes the frequency of the light making it visible to the human eye. What we found is that most wintergreen flavored candy don't have wintergreen oil or not enough to make the sparks visible.  If anyone has a source for wintergreen life savers in rolls that are not artificially flavored, please let me know.

Thunder - We made our own thunderstorm by rubbing our hands, clapping, stomping and snapping our fingers. This is amazing in a very large group and was a lot of fun in our small group.

Photo: about.com

Wind - We made classic pinwheels to find the wind. Using 8.5in squares of paper, we folded them twice corner to corner to make an X on the page. The we cut almost to the middle of the paper along the lines we made. Using a hole punch we made one hole on each flap and then threaded the flaps on a push pin. We put the pushpin into nifty color change pencil's erasers.

Three fun things to do in the rain!

Here in New England it is raining and we are expecting rain for a few more days, so now is the perfect time to pull out some Rain Science! Rather than grumble, embrace the weather and see what you can do in the drizzle.

Rain gauge - this is an especially good activity if you have kids of multiple ages at home. Older kids can use some of these ideas to explore measurement. For preschoolers, put a jar outside and catch rain. How much rain do you think will fall (predict!) in the day (or during your nap)? Use a water proof marker to put a line on the jar at your prediction. Older kids can put a plastic ruler in the jar and use inches or centimeters to predict. Were you right?

Catch some rain drops - put some flour on a pie plate and go outside in the rain. If the rain drops are small, the clouds are close. If the drops are big, the rain clouds are far away. If the drop is really huge (the size of an erasure), it probably fell from a tree or roof!

Drawing - pull out you sidewalk chalk and make a drawing. Color darkly with the chalk and then take it out into the rain. The rain will blend the colors making a whole new picture. You can also do this with powdered tempera paint. Sprinkle the tempera on paper and then head out. The rain will mix the paint colors.

Photo credit: cityoforlando.org