Monsoon Season! Sign of Spring?

Wow! We are certainly getting quite a bit of rain today. I couldn't help but hear and watch the rain fall down all day today, and the winds were extremely strong! The sounds and power of the winds today actually woke me up, as it blew against the side of my house. It rained all day- about 2 inches an hour! However, if it wasn't getting closer to spring and if it wasn't as warm as it is outside, then this rain could have very well have been a major snow storm! Therefore, I am very pleased and happy to consider this rain to be another sign of springs approaching arrival.

As a teacher, I could incorporate this dreary, natural occurance into a positive teaching moment. Many kids at school may be upset that the rain is keeping them from going outside to play, but there could be a way to change children's perceptions of the rain. A lesson about rain and precipitation could be implemented: learn how rain forms in clouds, measure how big is a raindrop, collect rain and examine the droplet on a slide under a microscope, and measure how much rain is falling each hour. Children could interact directly with the rain, and create a meaningful, hands-on minds-on learning experience.

In addition, I noticed as I was driving over the Newburgh-Beacon Bridge that the ice that had recently covered all of the Hudson River is now almost all gone! Just a few days ago th ice, although not one solid sheet of ice, completely covered the Hudson River, and now almost all of the ice has melted. All of the snow on my lawn has melted as well, and now everything is very muddy. In addition, as I was trudging through the mud on a hiking trail at the museum, I could hear many different species of birds singing in the trees. These are all signs of increasingly warm temperatures, however! Therefore, the 40 degree temps, rain, and melting snow and ice, and singing birds are all reassuring signs that spring is indeed on its way.