Collect rainwater in a container. Have students look at it under a microscope and compare it with tap water, pond water, and water that has been sitting in BRINGING THE RAIN TO a puddle. KAPITI PLAIN As a class, make a book called “Rainy Day Fun.” Have each student make a Author: Verna Aardema page about something to do on a rainy day. Encourage them to be descrip- Illustrator: Beatriz Vidal tive, i.e., give directions for playing a game or making a craft. Revisit the book Publisher: Dial Books for Young Readers on rainy, indoor recess days. THEME: On a rainy day, after the rain has stopped, take a class walk outside and find A rainy day offers opportunities to explore creative pastimes and to appreciate puddles of different sizes. Have students make a chalk outline of the puddles. the wonder of weather. Wait an hour and visit the puddles again and draw another chalk line. Mea- sure the distance between the two lines. Have students estimate how long it PROGRAM SUMMARY: will take the puddles to dry up completely. Revisit the puddles several times A cumulative tale relates how Ki-Pat, a young African boy, brought rain to the more, drawing a new line each time. Discuss the change in the puddles in drought-stricken Kapiti Plain. LeVar talks about rainy day activities both inside relation to their size. and outside the house. Viewers go on an aerial chase of a thunderstorm and Provide materials so students can do experiments with making rainbows. Try visit the National Center for Atmospheric Research and learn various aspects the experiment that LeVar did in the program. Put a glass of water half-on, of weather study from a team of experts. half-off a window sill so the sunlight hits it directly. “Catch” the rainbow on a TOPICS FOR DISCUSSION: piece of paper on the floor. Other simple rainbow experiments include: 1) hold a prism or crystal in the sunlight and turn the prism so that it casts a rainbow Before watching the program, discuss what happens when rain doesn’t fall. on a light-colored wall; 2) put a mirror in a pan of water and set it in the sun so Discuss weather superstitions. Several were mentioned in the program. that the sunlight reflects off the mirror onto the wall, giving a rippled rainbow; Locate other weather lore and share it with the students. Invite them to pass 3) pour a little cooking oil in a shallow dish of water and set the dish in the along some of these superstitions to their families so they can keep an eye sunlight to show off the colors on top of the water. out for any that might come true. Have students make a collage rainbow. Section off a large piece of bulletin Review storm safety procedures with students. board paper and label the sections the colors of the rainbow. Make available all sorts of materials in rainbow colors, such as cloth scraps (they need not be Locate Africa and the country of Kenya on a map of the world. Discuss what a solid color), ribbon, yarn, buttons, fabric trims, wallpaper scraps, construc- the geography of “plains” regions is in any country. tion paper (a paper handprint of everyone in the class is a nice addition to Discuss with students the concepts of “prediction” and “forecasting.” Is it the rainbow), catalogs and magazines (so students may cut out pictures of possible to predict the weather incorrectly? How might this happen? Why is it objects in the appropriate colors and glue them to the rainbow), wrapping pa- helpful for people to know what the weather might be for any given day? per, and any other items in rainbow colors. Display the rainbow in a prominent CURRICULUM EXTENSION ACTIVITIES: place and admire its color and design. Obtain a copy of the book and read it to the class. Ask students what they The next time a thunderstorm appears to be headed your way, teach students notice about the way it is written (it rhymes and it repeats phrases). Divide how to calculate how far away the lightning is. Count or use a clock to deter- the class into small groups and assign a repetitive part of the story to each mine the number of seconds between the flash of lightning and the thunder. group. Read the story again as a choral reading in which each group reads its Divide the number of seconds by five. The answer will tell how many miles assigned part when it appears. away the lightning is. Every five seconds equals one mile. Invite a local television or radio meteorologist into the classroom to talk with the students about weather forecasting. READING RAINBOW TEACHER’S GUIDE 2004 WNYPBA. All rights reserved. Program #4 — Bringing the Rain to Kapiti Plain RELATED THEMES: LISTEN TO THE RAIN by Bill Martin, Jr. & John Archambault, illus. by James Endicott (Henry Holt) seasons THE SIERRA CLUB BOOK OF WEATHER WISDOM RELATED READING RAINBOW PROGRAMS: by Vicki McVey (Little, Brown) Program #86 — Come a Tide THAT SKY, THAT RAIN Program #103 — Summer by Carolyn Otto, illus. by Megan Lloyd (Crowell) Program #80 — Snowy Day: Stories and Poems THUNDER CAKE ABOUT THE AUTHOR: by Patricia Polacco (Philomel) Verna Aardema is a storyteller of traditional tales whose adaptations of RAINY, RAINY SATURDAY cultural variants have won numerous awards. She is the author of Reading by Jack Prelutsky (Greenwillow) Rainbow feature book Borreguita and the Coyote and review book, Why Mosquitoes Buzz in People’s Ears. She lives with her husband in Florida. THE BIGGEST FROG IN AUSTRALIA by Susan L. Roth (Simon & Schuster) ABOUT THE ILLUSTRATOR: WET WORLD Beatriz Vidal was born in Argentina. Her artwork has appeared on UNICEF by Norma Simon, illus. by Alexi Natchev (Candlewick) cards, in magazines, and has been exhibited in the United States and abroad. Since the publication of Bringing the Rain to Kapiti Plain, her first book for children, she has illustrated several other books in her unique folk art style. She presently divides her time between Argentina and New York City. BOOKS REVIEWED BY CHILDREN: THE CLOUD BOOK by Tomie dePaola (Holiday House) PETER SPIER’S RAIN by Peter Spier (Doubleday) A STORY A STORY by Gail E. Haley (Atheneum) SUPPLEMENTARY BOOKLIST: RAINY DAY KATE by Lenore Blegvad, illus. by Erik Blegvad (McElderry) THE STORY OF LIGHTNING AND THUNDER retold by Ashley Bryan (Atheneum) WEATHER WORDS AND WHAT THEY MEAN by Gail Gibbons (Holiday House)) THE STORM by Marc Harshman, illus. by Mark Mohr (Cobblehill/Dutton) CHUBBO’S POOL by Betsy Lewin (Clarion) READING RAINBOW TEACHER’S GUIDE 2004 WNYPBA. All rights reserved. Program #4 — Bringing the Rain to Kapiti Plain.