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Making Rain
What is the cultural origin and purpose of a rainstick?
In this K-2 lesson, students learn how some cultures dance, sing, chant, pray to a rain god, or use instruments to encourage the rain to come. They will explore these cultures through literature and song, then create a rainstick musical performance with a poem.
Lesson Content
Learning Objectives
Students will:
- Explain why rain is necessary for life.
- Ask and answer questions about Bringing the Rain to Kapiti.
- Experience different cultures through song and literature.
- Simulate the sound of rain.
- Make rain in a controlled environment.
- Create a rainstick.
- Write and perform poetry while simulating rain with the rainstick.
Standards Alignment
Recommended Student Materials
Editable Documents: Before sharing these resources with students, you must first save them to your Google account by opening them, and selecting “Make a copy” from the File menu. Check out Sharing Tips or Instructional Benefits when implementing Google Docs and Google Slides with students.
- Kapiti Discussion Questions
- “Where is the Rain” Poem & Discussion
- “Rain Song”
- Slide: Rainsticks (optional)
Videos
Websites
Additional Materials
- Stovetop pot or heat source
- Water
- Plate
- Ice
Teacher Background
Teachers should become familiar with the rain-making auditory activity and make a sample rainstick. Review the definition of onomatopoeia words and the reading resources in the lesson. If possible, recruit volunteers to assist with the rainstick making process.
Student Prerequisites
Students should have background knowledge on types of weather.
Accessibility Notes
Modify movements as needed. Allow extra time and space for dance movements.
Engage
- Play the rain game. Seat students in a circle on the floor. Do not tell them what they will be doing. Wait until everyone is completely silent. Start by quietly tapping your fingertips together slowly. Signal to the students to do what you’re doing. Slowly increase the frequency and intensity of the finger tapping. Clap your hands together. Become louder. Move the clapping to floor slapping. Get as loud and “thunderous” as you can. Reverse the process slowly, returning to an occasional finger tap. (You have simulated a rainstorm starting with a few drops and moving into a downpour and then diminishing.)
- Discuss student observations of the rain game. Ask students: What did this remind you of? What sense(s) did you use to experience this?
- Create a KWL chart about what students know about rain. Use the following questions to facilitate the conversation: Why do we need rain? What would happen if it did not rain? What other forms of weather provide water to the earth? How is rain made? Where does rain go? What bodies of water collect the rain?
- Make rain. Bring water to a boil over a heat source. Once the steam is rising (evaporating), place a plate with ice cubes over the rising steam. Ask students to observe what happens on the underside of the plate. (Condensation will form and droplets of water will begin to fall.) Explain to them that this is what happens with clouds to create rainfall. Show the Interactive Water Cycle from The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS).
Build
- Read Bringing the Rain to Kapiti Plain and locate Kenya on a map. (Or show the Reading Rainbow episode Bringing the Rain to Kapiti Plain.)
- Use the Kapiti Discussion Questions to facilitate student understanding of the text.
- Talk about “rainmakers.” In Kapiti Plain, the rainmaker was the bow and arrow. Share with students that some cultures dance, sing, chant, pray to a rain god, or use instruments to encourage the rain to come.
- Read and discuss “Where is the Rain” Poem & Discussion.
- Introduce onomatopoeia words and chant the “Rain Song” in echo format. The teacher should say a phrase and have the students repeat it. Share the translation of the song with students. Explain that the African words – chapha and Gqum – are to sound like rain and thunder. Have students list examples of onomatopoeia or play the Onomatopoeia Game.
Apply
- Introduce the rainstick. Show students a Map of Chile. Explain to them that Chileans use rainsticks to encourage rain to fall. Show them your home-made rainstick. Tell them that real rainsticks are made from the cactus plant.
- Make rainsticks. Rainsticks can be made a variety of ways. Use the Rainstick Directions to create a simple version of the Chilean rainstick.
Reflect
- Assess students’ knowledge by having them write a short rain poem with onomatopoeia words. Ask students to use their senses to capture the feeling. Use the following sentence starters to support emergent writers: “When it rains, I …,” “The thunder…,” “The ground…”
- Have each student perform his or her poem and add the instrumentation of the rainstick.
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Original Writer
Michelle Heidinger
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Adaptation
Carol Parenzan Smalley
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Editor
JoDee Scissors
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Updated
December 18, 2023
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