“Little Rainclouds” is our favorite way to water a garden with a large group. It is slow, calm, relaxing, and feels great on a hot day. It’s especially great to pair this watering activity with some prompts for meditation or mindfulness practices to take advantage of the calm energy this watering technique creates.
What you’ll need:
- Enough cups for everyone participating. (Have a stack of plastic cups on hand to reuse over and over for this activity.)
- 4-6, 5-gallon buckets full of water and distributed around the garden where watering needs to take place.
How it works:
- Demonstrate to students how to fill up a cup without spilling and splashing, and walk to a spot in the garden that needs water.
- Holding the full cup in one hand place your other hand palm facing up with slightly open fingers above the soil next to a plant or over newly planted seeds. This hand is your raincloud!
- Slowly pour water into your palm letting droplets gently fall onto the soil while you move your hands over the soil evenly watering.
- You can adapt this for students who need support with motor control by dipping a hand into the cup and then sprinkling water as it drips from their hands into the soil
- Repeat over and over until there is no more water in the buckets. (You may need to refill the buckets a couple of times to thoroughly water the garden and fully enjoy the peaceful feeling of cool water flowing over your hands while you water the garden and observe all the wonders it has to offer.)
