Collecting Rain

The sunny days have been interspersed with rainy windy days here lately so the girls have been cooped up indoors more than usual. They both enjoy going out in their jackets and gumboots to stomp in puddles (who doesn't?!) but other than that the rain is cramping their style a little.
The other day we made a 'rain collector' which kept them happy for awhile, they stood out on the balcony collecting and drinking the rain the could catch as it fell from the sky.

WE USED:

* plastic bowl
* broom handle
(you could also use a stick or plank of wood)
* strong tape
* a rainy day!

Weather Changing Diorama

I made this simple diorama using an old postage box for the girls to learn more about weather . I used felt to create the weather elements because Im a bit of a felt loving freak, but they could easily be made using cardboard or paper instead. The pictures will demonstrate how it was made much better than I could describe it, but here is my attempt at instructions :-)
I opened the box up and tipped it on it's back, laying the lid down as the base. The bottom of the box (which is now the back) I painted with blue paint and the top was painted white and left to dry over night. I stuck a strip of adhesive velcro (the prickly side) across the top of the box to hold onto the weather hangers, but you could just use blutac if yours are made of paper or card.
Inside the box I just laid two sheets of green felt for the grass, cut a shape from blue felt for a pond, and a square of brown and yellow felt represented a sandpit. The road is from the fridge felt set we made last month. The weather hangers were just cut freehand from felt and have a strip sewn to the back so they can be attached to the diorama and changed easily. There is:

* a sun
* a moon and stars
* a white cloud
* a rain cloud
* lightning bolts that attach to the rain cloud
* a wind cloud

I hope I didnt make that all sound complicated because it really wasn't at all, it took a little over an hour to make it last night and the girls had hours of play with it today. We did imaginary play, used textas to add more scenery to the back of the box and talked a lot about weather and how it works. I'd like to add snow and a rainbow to our collection if I can find the time one night!

Our postage box diorama.

The top of the box - painted white with a strip of velcro (prickly side not soft) stuck across it.

The back of the box painted blue for the sky, and felt grass, pond, sandpit and road.

Bubble having a play.

Inside the diorama with the girl's wooden farm toys added.

Wind cloud.

The sun.

White cloud.

Oh dear, it's raining!

And now it's a thunder storm.

Quick Farmer, get out of the rain!

Uh oh, the wind blew the horse over (he was ok ;-D).

You can see here where the weather hangers attach onto the velcro strip on top of the box.

We ended up with quite an interesting weather forecast :-)