Rain Cloud Montessori Activities for Preschool

This activity is SO cute! 

I wanted to make something fun that incorporated our blue playdough as rain since it is Springtime at the moment. 

I also had cotton balls that I wanted to use. 

At first I thought of creating a food coloring/water pick up using a dropper for the cotton ball clouds.

But, then I thought to do something different and fun that involved a cardboard cutout. 

I absolutely love cardboard cutout Montessori activities. 

You can literally create anything using a cardboard cutout or foam board.

There are so many different ways you can go about it which is amazing and great in play to learn activities. 

So, here we are with this epic activity and I’ll be sharing below how I went about it, what I used and all the ways you can play and learn with this using basically Montessori materials you may have at home – right now! 🙂 

Note: Looking for another fun and easy DIY activity board? 

This shape/color board is amazing! It is a great play based activity that involves not only learning about colors, but about shapes and counting too! 

Materials: 

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• Recycled cardboard cutout or recycled foam board 

• Playdough (We used blue playdough)

• Cotton Balls

• Magnet Letters, wooden letters, foam letters…

• Hot glue gun

How I made this epic kids counting activity using montessori materials mentioned above: 

• I used a piece of recycled foam board. I cut out ¼ of a larger piece and used that piece. 

• Then, I traced a cloud onto the top board making sure I leave extra space on the bottom so the pretend playdough rain clouds will be able to fit. 

• Add your cotton balls following the marker cloud stencil you just made. 

• Roll 10 blue playdough balls and add them on the bottom of the cotton ball rain cloud. 

• Bring out your magnet letters/numbers or a montessori wooden letters/numbers and add one on top of the cloud or on the side (whichever you prefer)

• We went in order from 1-10. 

• So, first I added the number 1 and my LO pressed down on one ball of playdough. 

• Then, I added the number 2 and my LO pressed down on a second ball of playdough.

• And, so on and so forth… 

This is a great way to practice counting as it reinforces learning a bit more with the pressing down and saying the number aloud. 

Littles can visually see what 1,2,3… look like by pushing down on the playdough. 

Isn’t that neat? 

This is a wonderful play to learn activity that can be created for a differentiated set of ages as well. 

Create multiple boards or two to practice adding or subtracting in a fun way for Kindergarteners. 

Is playdough Montessori? 

Playdough is a wonderful tool that can be used in conjunction with Montessori materials. 

It is not in it and of itself associated with Montessori but it can be a wonderful addition. 🙂

The activity up atop is a great montessori activity that incorporates playdough with a Montessori inspired recycled cardboard cutout. 

How do you explain the rainy season to preschoolers? 

Rain is an important part of nature. 🙂 

It grows our food, plants, provides us with water to drink after we’ve become sweaty from playing outside and keeps the world going round. 

The science aspect in layman’s terms is as follows: 

• The sun’s warm rays hitting onto a lake/ocean allow the lake’s/ocean water to become warmer. 

• As it warms, tiny water particles rise up to the sky. 

• The more the warm water particles rise, the colder they get. 

• The colder they get they come together to form a cloud.

• Once the cloud is so filled up, tiny drops start to form called raindrops. 

• This in turn is the rain you see when it is raining outside! 🙂 

I hope you try this fun play to learn activity and enjoy learning about the rain! 🙂