Waterfall-Water-Wall

Normally it happens here on Playing by the book that we come across a book that we love and then we find a way to “play” the book, but occasionally it happens the other way round. A couple of months back I saw this amazing water wall at Let the children play, and soon after the same idea re-interpreted by Teacher Tom. I knew this project would be a hit with my girls, involving as it does lots of “junk”, “engineering”, water and (as noted in the original water wall post) power tools…

Using an electric drill and a load of bolts and butterfly nuts (also known as wing nuts) we attached various recycled containers to an old fence panel that had been languishing unloved behind our shed. I did let M use the electric drill, but taking a photo of that was a challenge too far!

We connected hosepipe cut offs to some of our bottles. To make a seal we used plasticine to fill the gaps and then our favourite all purpose heavy-duty, fix-it tape – duck tape.

We placed some collecting containers at the bottom of the panel so that we could recycle as much water as possible and then the girls were let loose with their watering cans.

They both absolutely loved making their own “waterfall-water-wall” and soon developed other ways of playing with their creation!

I didn’t manage to get any photos, but another thing we did was to put a water-colour tablet (like you might use to play in the bath) in one of the top containers and then watched how the water changed colour as it rushed down. If we had had a longer system for the water to travel down we might have tried colour mixing – say, putting a yellow tablet at the top, a blue tablet in the middle, and then hopefully we would have seen green water emerge at the bottom.

In planning for the water wall I tried to find a great book that we could read once back indoors drying out from all our water play. I did my usual series of searches, looking for a book either about rain or waterfalls and eventually decided upon Rain Rain Rivers by Uri Shulevitz.

Ostensibly, a simple observation of rainfall, first on windows, then down gutters, into streams and eventually into the ocean Uri Shulevitz has written a paean to the rejuvenating powers of water, the delights of being warm inside listening to, observing the rain, and the opportunities it brings for play, from sailing boats in puddles to stamping in mud and (in my favourite line in the book, reminding me of Oscar Wilde) “jump[ing] over pieces of sky in the gutter“.

Lots of alliteration helps capture the rush of water over the landscape, or in our case, down our waterfall-water-wall. Repetition and phrase internal rhymes create an accumulative rhythm, mirroring the onward flow of water downstream to its final destination.

A very subdued palette is used for the rain drenched illustrations (there’s more colour on the front cover of this book than anywhere else). Sometimes washed out, bleak and often expansive the images are calming and somehow comforting – the rain that falls, and us as we watch it, run in it, are part of some bigger continuity. Image and text are finely tuned, pared down to something simple, yet resonant.

If you and your kids are fed up of the rain this is the perfect book for you to fall in love with the wet weather again. If, on the other hand you’re missing the rain (as we are here) this book will only fill you with more longing! A picture book that both girls loved – uncomplicated and short enough to keep J’s attention and meditative enough to intrigue M. I’d also recommend this if you’re looking for a book for early readers that isn’t an early reader per se – the vocabulary is straightforward and yet the poetry of the text and the beautiful illustrations make for a very satisfying read for both child learner and adult listener!

We’ve been listening to:

Chase the Rain by Secret Agent 23 Skidoo

Rain by The Candy Band

Robin in the Rain by Raffi

Ain’t Gonna Rain by The Hollow Trees

Here Comes the Rain Itsy by Genius + Love (this one has to get you dancing!)

Peace like a River by Elizabeth Mitchell – currently available on her Myspace page

Singin’ in the Rain sung by Gene Kelly (well, we had to include it didn’t we!)

Some more play and craft ideas that would work alongside this lovely book:

Play with liquids other than water – Deb from Science@Home has a inspirational list of ideas to get you going!

Create some art work using rain – here’s an idea from Let’s Explore, or another option from Ordinary Life Magic, and a similar take on this fun activity from Elsie Marley

Try this Rain in a Bag activity from FamilyEducation.com

And if you’re after a DIY project I love the look of this rain guttering transformed into kids’ bookshelves from Raising Olives

What are your favourite rainy day books and activities? Can you recommend any other books that we might have enjoyed alongside making our waterfall-water-wall?