Activities in the Rain

How many of your plans for family outings have been upset by rain? There are many activities that you can do in the rain or after a rain, some of them so fun that you might want to actually plan an outing for a rainy day. These rainy day activities can help your family appreciate rain rather than dread it.

Activity

Choose from the following activities for your rainy day outing:

1. Collect rain in containers and use it to wash your hair, put in mom’s iron, water the houseplants, or put in your car battery.

2. Paint some paper with powdered tempera paints and water. Then set the paper in the rain to allow the water to run and make designs.

3. Have each person mark a line on a container showing where they think the water line will be when the rain stops. The person closest to the actual line is the winner.

4. Tell stories in which rain plays an important part—Noah and the ark, the early Saints in St. George paying their tithing so that rain would come, Elijah prophesying the end of three years without rain.

5. Have a water fight.

6. Talk about the kinds of animals that like the rain.

7. Go for a walk in the rain and notice the changes in nature. Observe what happens to the birds, bugs, worms, trees, flowers, and people. Notice the sounds and smells that this change brings.

8. Choose a long word that is related to the rain (umbrella, for example) and have each player write it in the center of a piece of paper. Then allow them two minutes to build up as many other words as they can from the basic word. All the new words must in some way be related to the first word. The player with the most words wins.

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9. Discuss questions about rain, such as the following:

   • What causes rain?

   • What causes thunder?

   • What causes lightning?

   • What does the rainbow mean?

   • What are the rainfall records in our area?

10. Sing songs with words about rain.