An effective way to teach young preschoolers about rain and clouds is through arts and crafts activities. Start the activity off by teaching preschoolers that rain falls from the clouds in the sky. You can show them pictures of rainclouds and talk about how the clouds hold the rain and let the rain go once it is ready to fall to the earth. Then, instruct students to make a rain and cloud picture using light blue construction paper, craft glue, white cotton balls and small pieces of blue pipe cleaner. They can glue the cotton balls onto the paper to be the clouds; the small pieces of blue pipe cleaner represent the rain. Preschoolers can also draw other images into the picture, such as umbrellas or people getting stuck in the rain.
A physical activity to play with preschoolers indoors is rain and cloud tag. For this game, one student plays the cloud and the other students play the raindrops. The person with the cloud holds a giant white pillow over his head and the students who are the raindrops can wear blue bandanas on their heads. The object of the game is for the cloud to chase and tag the raindrops before the raindrops make it to their safety zone. If a raindrop is tagged, then she becomes the next cloud and must tag someone else. This game is best played on a wrestling or gym mat, and in an open area of the classroom so that objects do not obstruct the game.
On the theme of rain and clouds, you can create precipitation poetry with your preschoolers. Start off with the word rain and ask students to give you another word that rhymes. Write the rhyming word on the front board. Then ask for a word that rhymes with cloud. Make a poem that uses the words rain, cloud and the rhyming words that the students came up with. You can continue this activity with new words each time.
You can demonstrate how a rain cloud works for preschoolers in the classroom. Give each student a cotton ball and explain that it represents a cloud. Ask the class how the cotton ball feels. You can prompt your students by asking if the cotton ball feels light or heavy, wet or dry. Now, have each student dip their cotton ball into a bowl of water that you pass around the class. Once each preschooler has a wet cotton ball, ask them what is happening to the cotton ball, which represents the rain cloud. They should tell you that the cotton ball is wet, feels heavier and is dripping water. The dripping water can be compared to raindrops for your demonstration.