Dry Shelters - Monsoon Learning Activity

Here in Arizona, we have a summer monsoon that can often be very dramatic, and scary for kids. It sounds weird to talk about a monsoon and heavy rain in the desert, but it happens every year. Here's some information from Arizona State University about our monsoon...

 The Arizona Monsoon is a well-defined meteorological event (technically called a meteorological 'singularity') that occurs during the summer throughout the southwest portion of North America. During the winter time, the primary wind flow in Arizona is from the west or northwest—from California and Nevada. As we move into the summer, the winds shift to a southerly or southeasterly direction. Moisture streams northward from the Pacific Ocean and the Gulf of Mexico. This shift produces a radical change in moisture conditions statewide.

Recently at Tripp's weekly library group, we got the chance to explore making dry shelters during rain. Our teachers set out material like cardboard, blocks, straws, and other items and asked us to work with our kids to make a shelter for someone (Little People toys) from the "rain" (a spray bottle of water).

This activity was a little tricky to me because Tripp's not quite at the age to grasp something like this. He's also not a huge fan of building with blocks; he'd rather knock them down, if anything. So ultimately our shelter ended up being more of my design - I tried to engage Tripp but he wanted to play with cars (maybe I should have presented it as a shelter for cars instead!).

This is one I plan to revisit later, maybe next year, when he can grasp the idea of sheltering from the rain. I think it will be fun to hunt around our house to find material to protect a doll from the rain. Filing this one away!