When it rains gravity is pulling each rain drop towards the ground so we thought we would use gravity to help us make rain cloud art. This painting activity is so fun for the kids and a great way to add some extra learning in about the water cycle and rain. This month is certainly appearing to be full of April showers–all because of art time!
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BECAUSE ALL ACTIVITIES ARE BETTER WITH A BOOK!
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Clouds (Let’s-Read-and-Find-Out Science 1)The Cloud Book
Thunder Cake
Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs
Water Is Water: A Book About the Water Cycle
Down Comes the Rain (Let’s-Read-and-Find-Out Science 2)
SUPPLIES
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- Liquid Water Colors
- Cotton Balls
- Eye Droppers
- School Glue
- Water
- Tray
- Cardstock paper (We used thick paper so it would withstand the water)
- Easel, clip board, or binder (We used an empty binder)
Sargent Art 22-6022 6-Count 1-Ounce Watercolor Magic KitKendall/Covidien Prepping Cotton Ball, 500 Count
Kelly’s Crafts: Glass Stain Droppers, Pack of 6
Elmer’s Washable No-Run School Glue, 4 oz, 3 Pack
DIRECTIONS
Paint along with us. Watch our full video tutorial or continue below to the directions.
Have your child glue cotton balls to their paper to make clouds.
Mix water and liquid water colors together to make the paint. We love liquid water colors because they wash off easier then food coloring, but if all you have is food coloring it should work just fine.
Place the paper on an easel, clip board, or binder and tilt it so the paint will run down towards the bottom of the page.
Have child use the eye dropper to drip paint below their cotton ball clouds. Have them squirt onto the paper instead of into the cotton ball because the cotton ball absorbs the paint and then it takes longer to rain. Little Dragon (age 5) became frustrated because his clouds where not raining until I showed him that he needed to stop squirting his clouds. Since they were full, he gave them a squeeze and made it rain that way.
Little Tiger thought it was really fun watching the rain drops make new paths down towards the end of the paper. My children have their paper tilted away from them. That is so you can see what they are doing. You probably want to have the paper slant towards them to make it easier to make it rain.
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