Showers and Flowers

The weather for this week shows lots of rain in the beginning and lots of warm sun at the end.  So, we're going to talk about rain today and tomorrow and flowers Wednesday and Thursday (showers and flowers).  This morning we made a rain gauge out of a 2 liter bottle.  We cut the top off, then put rocks in the bottom, used a ruler to mark a 0, 1, 2, and 3 inch mark, filled water up to the zero, turned the top upside down like a funnel and put it inside the bottom half of the bottle.  We've been watching all day to see if the rain has made the water rise.  Rachel and Ford drew a picture of the rain gauge and we marked where the water was this morning and what time it was.  Then at snack time, we marked again (it had risen about half an inch...not too precise, but it was a good guestimate!).  We were going to mark again at lunch, but no more rain had fallen, so after nap time we'll just make a note on their charts that it was at the same place.  Rachel wants to leave it outside all week and see if we can get it up to 3 inches.  If we had put it out last night, it would be there!!!  Then they each labeled their pictures with the words "Rain Gauge" and wrote their names on them.  We read some books.  Rachel wrote some rhyming words (flower, shower, power, and tower) and then today's date.  Ruby did a lot of coloring and helped when she could this morning (she put rocks in the bottom of the rain gauge!).  We were able to practice some violin this morning, play fairies, read a book about weather, play trains, build with blocks, and read all of our library books one more time.  It's just been a yucky weather day and we've been trying our best to stay busy.  Vanessa and the boys stopped by for a short little play time and everyone got to slide and do forward rolls on our homemade couch cushion slide :)
We also are trying out assigned jobs this week.  On their charts, they each have a specific job to help with.  Rachel's assignment is dishes, Ford's is laundry, and Ruby's is straightening the playroom.  I think if we switch between those three jobs over the next few weeks everyone will get a turn learning how to do things around here.