This was a great day at Doodlebugs! The theme for the day was rain, clouds, and puddles. It happened to be a gray, rainy day. It's always fun when the lesson aligns with the climate outside. There was an extensive science lesson from Alyssa on this day, where she taught the group about the different forms water can be in- gas, solid, and liquid. She provided examples for the kids to look at, which can be challenging to deal with twelve 5 year olds who are excited to feel something. Our craft was a cloud decorated with cotton balls and paper raindrops dangling from the cloud. We had the kids paint the rain drops using watercolor paint, and then cut them out.
For this project, I had cut out the paper cloud beforehand, and attached three pieces of embroidery floss for the kids to them glue their drops to. Before class, Sam and I always have a conversation about what we should have prepped for them and what we want them to do themselves. Doing this really controls the difficulty of the project, and what the kids are going to focus their attention on. If you prep too much, it's too easy and the craft will go by too fast. If it's too complicated, they will feel overwhelmed and want you to do the whole thing for them. It is a very delicate balance! Working with cutting, gluing, and using watercolor seemed to be the perfect amount of challenge for the kids on this project.