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Rain, Rainbows & Umbrellas This is a great theme for spring! Vocabulary ~rain, rainbow, umbrella, sky, wet, puddle, storm, thunder, lightening ~Students use Froot Loops to spell out the vocabulary words. Make each letter of a word a different color. ~Rainbow Writing - tape 3, 4, or 5 crayons together. Use this special rainbow crayon to write the vocabulary words on extra large pieces of paper. ~Play Bingo - This generator can be used to make bingo cards with the words of your choice. http://teachers.teach-nology.com/web_tools/materials/bingo/ Discussion Ideas ~Discuss the reasons we need rain. (Make plants grow, washes the streets, puts water into the lakes, rivers and streams, puts moisture in the air, sometimes it cools off the air temperature). Students can write these statements on raindrop paper. Illustrate the statement. ~Make a water cycle diagram. Blue construction paper pond, cotton ball clouds, tissue paper raindrops and construction paper arrows. ~Rainbow playdough - make your favorite playdough recipe into the colors of the rainbow (red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple). Discuss the shape of a rainbow, the arrangement of rainbow colors, etc. Give students a portion of the different colored playdough. Students will make a rainbow. Next, give directions for students to follow. Ex. make a rainbow apple, make a rainbow tree, etc. ~Raining colors - prepare lots of rainbow colored raindrops. Students will take turns standing under an umbrella while everyone else "showers" them with colored raindrops. Put the raindrops into the center of a large sheet, students stand and hold the edges of the sheet. Toss the raindrops into the air and watch the colorful rain! ~Bubbles - Have fun outside blowing bubbles - look for the rainbows in the bubbles. ~Graph the colors in a bag of M&Ms, Skittles or jelly beans. Make one large group graph or students can use individual size bags and make personal graphs. Art ~Class rainbow wall display - use a large sheet of butcher paper, students draw a long stylized rainbow, fill in with all the rainbow colors. ~On a beautiful day, take the students outside to draw rainbows on the sidewalk with chalk. Add umbrellas, rain, clouds, etc. ~Umbrellas - students cut out umbrella shape from construction paper, glue to the center of another piece of construction paper. Using light blue construction paper, tear out raindrop shapes to glue around the umbrella. ~Raindrop, Umbrella, Rainbow Rubbings - Provide class with templates of raindrops, umbrellas and rainbows cut out of tagboard. The students will use a variety of rainbow colors to make rubbings. Encourage students to use all the colors of the rainbow for their creation. Cooking ~Rainbow Pudding - Make vanilla pudding and divide it into three parts. Make one part red, one yellow, and one blue. Give children a color combination, and watch as new colors appear. ~Make a different color snack each day. Monday-red apples; Tuesday-oranges; Wednesday-yellow bananas; Thursday-green pistachio pudding; Friday-blueberry muffins Poems ~Use the poem Under the Rainbow to make a mural. Sequence the four scenes from the poem: scene 1-rain cloud; scene 2-rain cloud with raindrops; scene 3-sun in the sky; scene 4-a beautiful rainbow. Extension: create a scene 5-each student will draw a self-portrait under a rainbow.
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