Exploring Hail with Little Kids
Encourage creative thinking and problem-solving skills while learning about hail with your preschool and kindergarten learners. You’re definitely not going to want to miss this quick & easy process art activity!
This week we’re learning about Storms and our favorite topic was hail. Little kids love process art and this Exploring Hail activity was an especially great way to experience important science concepts in a fun and hands-on way!
Hail is made up of ice balls that fall from clouds. They can be as small as beans or as large as golf balls. Hail can create loud sounds when hitting objects.
Painting is one of my favorite ways to teach little kids important skills. Not only is it great for fine motor practice and sensory exploration, but there is also lots of learning that happens intuitively with activities like this Exploring Hail Process Art.
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A huge thanks to Experience Early Learning (formerly Mother Goose Time) for providing us with their Experience Preschool curriculum for free in exchange for sharing our honest and authentic stories resulting from our personal experiences. It’s been such a huge blessing to us! As always, my opinions on awesome stuff for little kids are 100% my own.

Exploring Hail
What you’ll need
- Inspiration Photo
- Rubber Ball
- Paper
- Paint
- Cardboard Box or Tray
Here’s how to do it
Set Up
- Set out the Inspiration Photo and additional supplies.
- Put paper in a cardboard box or in a tray.
Prompts
- What do you see happening in the photo?
- What do you think will happen if you dip the ball in paint then drop it on paper?
- How else could you paint with the balls?
- How do the balls remind you of hail?
Observe
- Notice how the child either rolls or drops the rubber balls.
- What did he predict might happen when he dropped the ball?
- How did he continue to experiment and paint with the ball?
Today’s process art experience was similar to the Ball Painting activity that we did during our Science Lab theme. That activity taught us about friction and what happens when we roll a ball across a piece of paper, but today it was all about hail and dipping a ball into paint and then dropping it onto paper.
Either way, we’re experimenting with not only important science concepts but also cause and effect and the scientific method. Talk about a win-win! Like I said, there’s lots of learning packed into this quick and easy Exploring Hail art activity. Try it out with your little kids today!
Don’t forget to check back if you’re interested in seeing what we’re up to next week with our Explore the Rainforest theme from Experience Early Learning (formerly Mother Goose Time).
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