Walking in the Rain

by Alan M. Barker

Suitable for Reception / Key Stage 1

Aims

To give thanks for rain and recognize that water is vital for life.

Preparation and materials

• You will need your raincoat, hat and wellington boots. 

Assembly

1. Observe that most people dislike rainy days. Wet weather can certainly disrupt outdoor activities, but rain is essential for life on planet Earth.
2. Invite the children to join in an imaginary rainy day walk. Put on your wet weather gear and proceed along the following lines, encouraging everyone to use all their senses. Take your time and allow the children to contribute to the role play and take in each of the following sensory aspects of the experience of rain.
   
   – Listen, it’s raining! Can you hear the raindrops beating against the window and drumming on the roof? Let’s put on our raincoats and go outside. Can you hear other sounds that the rain makes? Splish on to the leaves and splash into puddles. It’s gurgling down gutters.
   – Take a deep breath. What can you smell? Is it the scent of flowers, damp leaves, even the muddy soil? Rain washes and refreshes everything. The world around us would be very dusty without rain. We would be very dusty and dirty, too! Rain provides water for us to wash our clothes and bodies.
   – Feel the rain on your face. It falls from grey clouds. It’s warm and gentle. Will the weather become stormy? What will the clouds look like then? How will that rain feel? Let’s be thankful for the clothes that keep us warm and dry. Think of people who work outside in all weathers.
   – Look at the rain making bubbles in the puddles and streaming down the gutter in the road. It’s disappearing down drains. Where will it go? The rain will find its way into streams and rivers and, eventually, the sea! Some will be dried up by the sun and make new clouds. Much of the rain soaks into the soil and is sucked up by the roots of trees and plants. Look at them growing! Without rain they would die!
   – Stick out your tongues to see if the rain has any taste. It’s pure and clear. It’s gathered in big lakes called reservoirs. It becomes the water that’s piped to our homes. Like plants, we need to drink lots of water! It’s good for us. Without it we too would die.
3. Finish by observing that it’s good to get back into the dry! Discard your wet weather gear and invite the children to reflect what they have learned about the importance of rain. Stress that rain brings life!

Time for reflection

Invite the children to pause for prayer and reflection, holding their hands palms uppermost, as if to feel for rain.

Prayer
Lord,
Let’s be thankful for  . . .
the senses that help us to enjoy and explore the Earth.
Let’s be thankful for  . . .
refreshing rain, the water of life.
Amen.

Song/music

The words of ‘Thank you, Lord, for this new day’ (Come and Praise, 32)could be freely adapted, as I have here.

Thank you, Lord, for rainy days,
Thank you, Lord, for rainy days,
Thank you, Lord, for rainy days,
Here at (name) school. or Right where we are.

Pitter, patter. splish, splash, splosh,*
Pitter, patter. splish, splash, splosh,
Pitter, patter. splish, splash, splosh,
Sing a song of rain!

Thank you, Lord, for wellie boots (repeat x 3)
For jumping through the puddles!

Thank you, Lord, for flowers and plants (repeat x 3)
Growing green and tall!

Thank you, Lord, for streams and rivers (repeat x 3)
Flowing to the sea!

Thank you, Lord, for pure clean water (repeat x 3)
To wash and cook and drink.

* The words of this line could be split and sung by different groups.

 ‘It’s always wet’ (Wonderful Water,Out of the Ark Music, 2007)‘Wet, wet, wet’ (It must be Spring,Out of the Ark Music, 2001)