The Rain Came Down Drip Painting {David Shannon Virtual Book Club for Kids}

David Shannon is our featured author this month for the Virtual Book Club for Kids. We enjoyed three of his stories the most (read more about them through my Amazon affiliate links): Duck on a Bike, The Rain Came Down, and Good Boy, Fergus!. The Rain Came Down was requested the most by my son, so we decided to complete an art project using drip painting.

The Rain Came Down

The Rain Came Down is an amusing cause and effect story about how a rainstorm can affect the people and animals on a city street. The rain causes the chicken to make noise, so the dog barks at the chicken. The dad yells at the dog and wakes the baby. The mom yells at them all. A police officer stops to see what’s going on in their house. His car is blocking traffic. Cars down the street honk. Shop owners come outside for various reasons, bump into one another, and start bickering. The story continues with one thing after another happening all because the rain came down.

The story has a nice rhythm to it. We read it so often, my 3 year old can tell me what happens next in the story.

Drip Painting Art

Creating our own rainy day pictures seemed like a perfect connection to the book. We tried drip painting for the first time.

Here’s what you’ll need to recreate our art:

paper
paint
brushes
acetate or transparency paper
markers
scissors
cookie cutter animals {optional}

Water down some paint for the rain. Paint a good amount of paint at the top of your paper. {I showed Aiden how I wanted him to paint the top only with a dry brush. He still painted a squiggle down the middle before I could show him again what I meant.}

Hold the paper up so the paint drips down like rain.

Aiden wanted to use the safari cookie cutters we just found at the store for his art. You can choose animal cookie cutter shapes as well, you could draw your own pictures, or you could find pictures in a magazine or online.

Place some paint on a plastic lid or tray. Spread it around. Dip the cookie cutter in the paint.

Place the cookie cutter on the paper and fill in with paint.

Cut out umbrellas from colored acetate. I had transparency paper, so I colored umbrellas with markers.

Here are our finished art pieces.

Virtual Book Club for Kids Co-Hosts

Here are the blogs co-hosting the Virtual Book Club for Kids. Be sure to see what David Shannon books and activities they chose. You can also check out the group’s Facebook page.

Toddler Approved – Rainy Day Mum – Adventures in Reading with Kids – 3 Dinosaurs – Royal Baloo – The Educators’ Spin On It – Inspiration Laboratories – Pleasantest Thing – Edventures with Kids – Two Big Two Little –Playing With Words 365 – Kitchen Counter Chronicles – Outlaw Mom – Mommy and Me Book Club – Crafty Moms Share – No Twiddle Twaddle – The Good Long Road – Ready. Set. Read 2 Me – Reading Confetti – Mama Smiles– Juggling with Kids– Mom to 2 Posh Lil Divas – Creekside Learning – Creative Family Fun – The Usual Mayhem –Teach Preschool – PlayDrMom – CraftoArt – Here Come the Girls – Being a Conscious Parent – Smiling like Sunshine – Crayon Freckles – Train Up a Child – Smile Play Learn – Enchanted Homeschooling Mom – Coffee Cups and Crayons – Having Fun at Chelle’s House – Love, Play, Learn – Juggling With Kids – Motherhood on a Dime – Growing Book by Book – This Reading Mama – Fantastic Fun and Learning

<div align="center"><a href="http://www.facebook.com/VirtualBookClubForKids" title="Virtual Book Club for Kids" target="_blank"><img src="https://i984.photobucket.com/albums/ae323/toddlerapproved/virtualbookclub-2012.jpg" alt="Virtual Book Club for Kids" width="125" height="125" style="border:none;" /></a></div>

Now it’s your turn! Link up your posts about a David Shannon book you read and your related activity {project, craft, recipe, etc.}. Grab a button and spread the word.