Rain on the Green Grass: Spring Poem

Poems and nursery rhymes are such a fun and effective way for young children to develop their language skills. If you are looking for an engaging, cute, and skill-packed spring poem to share with your preschoolers, try this version of “Rain on the Green Grass.”

To begin, recite the poem and place the corresponding picture on the board:

“Rain on the green grass, 

Rain on the tree.

Rain on the rooftop,

But not on me!”

Invite the young learners to say it out loud with you. This is called “choral reading” and is so good for the students’ oral language development.

When children recite poems together:

• they learn new vocabulary (rooftop)
• they play with the sound of rhymes (tree – me)
• they enjoy the cadence, repeating phrases, and rhythm of the words
• they build a bank of memorized text that they can later use to develop “Concept of Word”

After students have memorized the 4 line poem, it’s time to practice “word replacement.” When students can take a phrase out and replace it when another phrase, they are demonstrating flexibility and a playful understanding of language. They are developing Concept of Word through oral language. This is a huge deal!

Try the poem like this:

“Rain on the flowers,

Rain on the tree.

Rain on the rooftop,

But not on me!”

Young children will erupt in giggles with this change. Making new poems like this is silly and playful! Try it again with another word replacement:

“Rain on the gray mouse,

Rain on the tree.

Rain on the rooftop,

But not on me!”

How to Make Rain on the Green Grass Poem visuals (as pictured)

• The tabletop flannel board is a felt accessory from ArtFelt.net. It is 24″x24″ and has blue felt on one side and black felt on the other. It’s sturdy and the perfect size for circle time lessons.
• We used felt pieces from a number of different sets. (Our ArtFelt collection is amazing!) The grass, tree, house, white clouds, and flowers are from The Crayon Box that Talked.
• The little animal puppets are also from ArtFelt. We absolutely love everything they make. The pieces are versatile; they can be used as finger puppets or as flannel board pieces.
• The raindrops, girl in a raincoat, and umbrella are simply pieces of clipart (available here from Whimsy Clips) that we printed, cut out, and attached a “scratchy” piece of velcro to the back. Scratchy velcro sticks really well to the flannel board.

Save money and get creative as necessary! It would be easy to draw these pictures or cut them out of construction paper. Young children will appreciate the visuals and not judge the quality. We promise!

Print a PDF copy of “Rain on the Green Grass“:

Are you looking for other cute poems to do with preschoolers during Circle Time? Try this “Five Brave Firefighters” counting and rhyming poem:

Pin for later: