The Puddle by David McPhail

 Gathering Activity:  Umbrella Art 

Materials Needed: Cupcake liners, pipe cleaners, construction paper, Do-A-Dot markers, sticky foam cut into the shape of raindrops

We made these adorable umbrellas inspired by this craft on No Time for Flash Cards.  You can click on the link for detailed directions.

 The only modification we made was to cut raindrops from sticky foam we happened to have available.  The children were able to peel off the back and stick them on directly.  

Circle Time: The Puddle by David McPhail

The Puddle is a delightfully written and illustrated story about a child who goes out to play with a sailboat in the rain.  The child's sailboat sails out of reach when a frog asks to sail in the boat Then a turtle backstrokes by while enjoying afternoon tea, a crocodile rescues (and chomps) the boat, a pig dives into the puddle and splashes the child, and an elephant drinks the puddle.   In the end, the child comes home and enjoys a warm bath and sailing the boat in the tub.  Another fun thing about this book is that the author purposely allows the reader to decide whether the main character is male or female.  


After reading the story, we sang some favorite songs.

  

A Sailor Went to Sea

A sailor went to sea sea sea.
To see what he could see see see.
But all that he could see see see
Was the bottom of the deep blue sea sea sea.

This first one was our favorite.  We taught the children how to do the hand motions.  You slap your knees, clap your hands, and then clap the hands of your  partner three times.  We sang this one several times.

The Itsy Bitsy Spider
The itsy bitsy spider
Climbed up the waterspout
Down came the rain
And washed the spider out.
Out came the sun
And dried up all the rain
So the itsy-bitsy spider
Climbed up the spout again!

Rain Is Falling

Rain is falling all around,

 on the housetops on the ground,

 rain is falling on my nose,

on my head and hands and toes.

Snack: Apple Sailboats

Materials Needed: Apple slices, cheese cut into triangles, toothpicks 

We allowed the children to assemble these themselves.  They really enjoyed making and eating these. 

Art Activity: Sailboats 

Materials Needed: Plastic cup with top half  cut off, with duct tape around the top of the bottom half of the cup (keeps the jagged edges from cutting the children), straw, triangle shaped paper with two holes to thread straw through, modeling clay 

Directions: Allow the children to decorate the sail themselves.  Help them thread the sail onto the straw and stick into the modeling clay that is placed in the center of the bottom of the cup.  The lower the sail, the better balanced your boat will be.  

 Activity: Sailing Sailboats

We sailed our boats in our little swimming pool.  It was a fun use for our pool that usually doesn't get pulled out until the summer.  The children wore raincoats and rain boots like the child in the story.  It also helped ensure that they stayed dry.

  We played outside for quite a while.  By the time we finished, the 3 girls' boats were exactly as they had been at the beginning.  The 3 boys' boats had been taken apart and were now cups that they were using to scoop and pour and splash with. 

Puddle Jumping

We cut out puddles from blue construction paper and allowed the children to jump over them.  A fun song to play along while they moved would be Greg and Steve's "Robin in the Rain."  Of course I didn't think of this until they were jumping.  I will pull the puddles back out later this week and play again using that song.