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Wednesday 15 May 2013

Feel the rain!

Sometimes going outside doesn't quite go as you plan... as we were getting ready to go out in the rain (the children had chosen themselves who wanted to play out and who wanted to play inside - the majority wanted to go out) I knew exactly where we were going - to the square to splash in the puddles. BUT when we got outside the rain began to tell us a different story.  We could hear how the rain fell onto the ground, we could see how it ran like a river down towards the underground station (which is overground in this area) - so instead of going to the square we followed the water...
It lead us to the tunnel that goes under the train tracks - and we stopped and wondered why the ground was not wet in the tunnel... it didn't take long to work it out when we stepped into the tunnel - it was not raining in there... It was great fun running in and out of the rain...

Towards the other end, the water had begun to flow river like through the tunnel - we splashed and splashed together (yes me too - got a few sniggers from onlookers - but I think they were only jealous...). The children noticed the patterns being made by the splashes and their footprints and began to run round and round until they created a circle of wet...
water can make the most amazing sounds - the rain pattering on the ground - and of course dripping, dropping and gurgling down the drain... it not only sounded enticing it was mesmerising to watch
It is always interesting to see how children inspire each other. As you saw on the previous photo child one started at the drain - listening and inspecting it closely; along came another child to check out what was happening and sat down on the curb. Child one saw that sitting at the curb made it easier to look into the drain and promptly walked across the drain to sit there too. The two of them sat there for at least ten minutes just looking - with their eyes, fingers and ears!
next to the tunnel is a small garden with small paths running through. We went to have a look - and noticed how the leaves collected the raindrops - 3 of the children went round to see how the balls of water rolled around in the leaves getting bigger and bigger until they splashed out...
the rain also brought out a snail...
Rain can also be experienced on a variety of surfaces - and it collects differently  on each one - for example on the bench the children could swoosh their hands back and forth to join the small droplets together... the rain was a full on sensory experience - sight, sound, feeling, smell (everything smelled differently in the rain) and taste - rain ended up in the mouth as wet hands were just so tempting to lick...

6 comments:

  1. Love it Suzanne, you can tell from the photos how excited they were to be 'following' the rain. Would you consider adding this to the latest Outdoor play party over at my blog? If you do, when it asks for 'name' put the name of the post not your name. Kierna
    http://nosuchthingasbadweather.blogspot.co.uk/2013/05/outdoor-play-party-embracing-rain.html

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  2. What a lovely post. I love the way the children are encouraged to splash and play. So much to see and learn at their young age and you clearly give them the scope to do this. I have found you from the outdoor play party linky and would love you to join my Country Kids linky too.

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    1. I dropped by and found my photos were just too big - and as it was late I didn't link up last minute - I will try and remember to do that sometime...
      thanks for the invite

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  3. Love how much the kids learnt from playing in the rain, so many lessons from fun outdoor play. Thanks for stopping by the Outdoor Play Party

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  4. I love this post! I'm featuring it on tomorrow's Outdoor Play Party - I hope you'll come and link up again!

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