Spring - with its potential for rain, wind, sun, fog and even snow - presents exciting learning opportunities for children. By building up collections of resources to use in advance, practitioners can respond immediately to the unpredictable British climate.
With wet-weather gear, tarpaulins and sun shades at hand, children will be able to splash about in muddy puddles, dance in shadows and use all their senses to learn about rain, sun and fog.
Early years consultant Marie Charlton says that our ever-changing weather conditions can provide practitioners with a 'fresh curriculum' each day.
'Once you've awoken children's senses to the fact that the weather in this country is so fascinating, it moves on to a whole different level of learning,' she says.
Let it rain
Decked in wellies and waterproofs, with umbrellas at hand, some children will be eager to greet the rain, jump and splash in puddles, touch and taste raindrops, watch as the rain fills up containers and listen to the sound it makes falling onto different surfaces. Other children may want to take cover under tarpaulins until they gain the confidence to venture out.
Jane Wratten, outdoor play, training and design consultant in early years, and a volunteer at Slinn Street STARters Community Pre-school in Sheffield, says that rather than inventing lots of activities to do in the rain, practitioners should let children indulge in the simple things that they often don't get the chance to do in their daily lives.
'Children love to have umbrellas and put them up and down. They also enjoy being able to jump in puddles in an uninterrupted way,' she explains. 'Sometimes these activities are enough for them.'
Marie Charlton says that, ideally, there should be enough umbrellas for each child. 'They should be stored in a tub - like a dustbin - and the children should be able to pick one and take it out into the rain.'
Children at Blyth Valley Children's Centre in Northumberland enjoy using guttering and pipes on rainy days. Manager Julie Scott says, 'We once had a piece of pipe with missing guttering and the children stood under it, dressed in full waterproofs, and loved the sound and feel of the rain water shooting on to their heads.'
Wet collection
Early years author Jane Drake advocates the use of weather boxes, pre-prepared packs of resources enabling practitioners to make the most of windy, rainy or sunny days (see 'More information').
Kathryn Solly, headteacher of Chelsea Open Air Nursery in London, has developed these resources at her nursery and says, 'Our rainy day box has various fabrics to demonstrate permeability or otherwise, resources to make umbrellas, food oil and colours for puddle science, and various measures to catch the rain of different shapes and sizes.
'You can measure puddles; you can record the colours; you can take photos; you can describe the iridescence. There's a spiders' web of learning that can come from this small interest.'
Here are some ideas for what to include in your rain collection:
- Outdoors, listen to the sound of the rain falling into and bouncing off containers made from different materials. Try the Metal Dustbin Lid, £7.50, from www.midlandholloware.co.uk, or cover the top of a golfing umbrella in kitchen foil and let a few children stand under it.
- To listen to the sound of rain indoors, there's the Rain and Rain device, £56.50, from www.tts-group.co.uk. Simply turn the handle to create the continuous sound of rain. Or check out the bamboo Fat Rainstick, £20.45, from www.tts-group.co.uk.
- Provide child-sized umbrellas for each child. TTS offers a brighly-coloured Umbrella Kit (£26.95 for a set of six). Or look for umbrellas in your local pound shop, as they are a resource that break easily.
- Tarpaulins can be used to provide shelter from the rain or make cosy dens. Try the Tarp, £7.20, which is small and light enough to fit in a rucksack, from www.mindstretchers.co.uk. Or, for an exciting sensory experience, watch the rain as it falls on the Transparent Den Cover Kit, a clear PVC tarpaulin, 2.4m x 2m, with six ball bungees, £25, from www.muddyfaces.co.uk.
- Use guttering, pipes, funnels, tubing, hoses, crates and boxes to create a water exploratory area. A ready-made guttering system with four stands and four pipes, priced £195, is available at www.creativecascade.co.uk. Or, Plastic Guttering, six lengths 1m each of white water channels, is priced at £27.95 from www.tts-group.co.uk.
- To record the sound of the rain, you could use the Talking Point, from £5.49, a resource that plays back ten or 30 seconds of sound, from www.tts-group.co.uk.
- Indoors, try playing music that represents the weather, such as 'La Mer' by Claude Debussy, which represents storms and gentle rain, and 'Snowflakes Are Dancing' by Japanese artist Isao Tomita. African drumming music is also evocative of a storm and the rain. Or try the 'Thunderstorm' CD from www.global-journey.com.
SUNNY DAYS
Exposure to sunlight is a major source of vitamin D, so make the most of sunny days. Here are some ideas for activities and resources:
- Explore shadows and draw around them with chalk. Encourage the children to make different shadow shapes with their bodies. Revisit the spot later in the day and see how the shadow has moved.
- Make your own puddles and draw around them in chalk to watch how the water evaporates.
- Provide shelter from intense sunlight with tents, dens and canopies. Try the 50+ UV protected Sun Shelter, measuring 450 x 450cm, £199.95, from www.tts-group.co.uk. Another temporary option is a retractable giant umbrella installed by www.fabricten.co.uk.
- Stand a stick in the centre of a large sheet of paper with a weight at the bottom to keep it in place. Track its shadow by marking the movements with chalk, like a sun dial. Alternatively, try the lightweight Sundial, £4.99, from www.reflectionsonlearning.co.uk.
- Use brushes and water to make marks on the ground and watch as the water evaporates and the marks disappear.
- Use Sun Print Paper, £5.50, from www.tts-group.co.uk. Place an object on the paper and leave in the sun for two minutes, then soak in water for one minute and the shadow of the object will appear.
- Encourage children to look at the shadows of trees and buildings. Try hanging up the Shadow Sheet, £20, from www.mindstretchers.co.uk.
- Provide thermometers for children to see the changes in temperature. Check out the transparent Windowpane Thermometer, £12.75, from www.dg-educational.com.
FOGGY DAYS
The simplest way to describe fog to children is 'clouds that are on the ground'. Here are some ideas for exploring fog:
- Provide children with different types of torches so that they can watch what happens to the light when the when the torch is switched on in the fog. Among the models available are the Energizer Waterproof Torch, £5.49, from www.earlyyears.co.uk; the Easi Torch, a set of six ultra-bright rechargeable LED torches, £45, from www.tts-group.co.uk, and the Headtorch, £6, from www.mindstretchers.co.uk.
- Allow the children to explore what happens to reflective objects like bicycle badges and arm bands when a torch shines on them. Ideal for this kind of activity is the Activequipment Reflective Cycle Armbands,£3, from www.tesco.com.
- Set up a role-play scenario with police, ambulance and firefighters and use dressing-up costumes with reflective vests and tabards, such as the High Visibility Waistcoats, £11.50, and the Flashing Light Reflector, £1.90, from www.brightkidz.co.uk.
- Attach reflective tape or stickers to parts of the outdoor area or to the wheeled toys and use torches to find them.
- Provide luminous and glow-in-the dark pens so that the children can experiment with colour on paper. See www.glow.co.uk.
WET WEATHER WEAR
When it comes to all-weather gear, children need to wear their trousers much more regularly than their jackets, which they tend to use only when it's raining. So, if money is tight, Liz Knowles, director at www.muddyfaces.co.uk, advises nurseries to invest in quality trousers or dungarees for children rather than jackets. Try the Dungarees Togz Waterproof, £27, or the Overtrousers Togz, £22, and use the jacket that comes in trouser/jacket Pack-in-the-Bag set, £13.50, from www.muddyfaces.co.uk.
Other suppliers of outdoor clothing include www.muddypuddles.com.
BOOK CORNER
Sunshine by Jan Omerond (Frances Lincoln Children's Books)
- The Rainy Day by Anna Milbourne and Sarah Gill (Usborne Publishing)
- Alfie Weather by Shirley Hughes (Red Fox)
- Sunny Days (Welcome Books: Weather Report) by Jennifer S Burke (Children's Press)
- Little Cloud by Eric Carle (Puffin)
- Foggy, Foggy Forest by Nick Sharratt (Walker)
MORE INFORMATION
'Wet, wet, wet' by Jane Drake