KidsSoup - Weather

Preschool Weather Activities and Crafts

jgarcia — Sun, 19 Jul 2015 19:55:50 +0000

Preschool and Kindergarten Weather Activities, Lessons, and Crafts. "April showers bring May flowers." This saying reminds us that rain helps flowers to grow. It also helps vegetables and other plants to grow. Rain is very important. Without it our rivers and lakes would be empty and we wouldn't have enough water to drink. Use our great weather, rain, clouds, and rainbow activities and printables to help your children learn about the water cycle and the many ways that people use water. Our weather unit and lessons also provide opportunities for your children to learn about weather and its effects. With our fun preschool and kindergarten activities and lessons, children will be able to practice many skills—letter recoginition, counting and numbers, science observation and exploration, and writing, as well as expanding their vocabulary and engaging in other literacy activities. Our weather theme is organized in such a way that you can quickly choose the activities, lessons, and crafts that are just right for your children.

With our Weather lesson plans and activities your preschool and kindergarten children will

Acquire new weather vocabulary
Write about their favorite weather
Learn about the water cycle, rain, and rainbows
Explore the rainbow colors
Experience and disover the power of the sun
Practice fine motor skills
Discover the properties of wind

Samples of our Peschool and Kindergarten weather crafts and activities available in our KidsSoup Resource Library:

Themes and Projects

FREE

The Weather and the Four Seasons Lesson Plan

Crafts

Weather Dial Craft

Sun Visor Craft and Sun Safety

R for Rain

Preschool Activities:

Media Root

SaveSave

Free Weather Crafts, Preschool Activities, and Printables

Preschool Weather Centers

Dramatic Play Area

Daily Weather Report (Weather Cards and Activitiy available inside our KidsSoup Resource Libary)

Preschool Activities:

Media Root

Sensory Play

Cloudy Sky
Attach some contact paper sticky side out on a window. Provide cotton balls, a felt sun, and some felt rain drops to place on the sticky and let children make the weather of the day, or some cloud pictures.

Preschool Activities:

Media Root

Gross Motor Skills

Puddle Jumping
Take children outside and draw some circles with chalk on the floor. Encourge children to empty a bucket full of water in each circle. Then, let children jump from puddle to puddle or over the puddle. Indoors: Cut out some puddle shapes out of blue craft paper and attach on the floor.

Weather Circle Time Activities

What's the Weather Today? (Printables and lesson available inside our KidsSoup Resource Libary)

Chart the weather for each day of the month or week. The month of April is a great time because in many areas the weather can vary greatly. Ask children to name as many descriptive words as they can about the day! For example, is it sunny, warm, rainy, cloudy, windy, cold, etc? Place the weather card on the appropriate day of the week on the My Weekly Weather Report chart.

Preschool Activities:

Media Root

Extension Activity: Let children choose and sort the clothing and talk about the activities they can do in that type of weather.

Preschool Activities:

Media Root

Umbrella Walk
Talk about umbrellas with children. Explain that people use umbrellas to keep the sun and rain off. Open up an umbrella and have children see how many of them can fit under it. Go for a walk with children in the rain with the umbrella. Have them listen to the rain as it hits the umbrella. If it's sunny, go for a walk with children and the umbrella and discuss how the umbrella shades them from the sun. After children are back inside make a coffee filter umbrella craft.

Coffee Filter Umbrella Craft (Craft description with step-by-step pictures available inside our KidsSoup Resource Libary)
Wet the circle coffee filter with water. Use a paintbrush to drip watercolors on the wet paper. Let dry. Fold the coffee filter two times. Twist two pipe cleaners together and form in to a cane shape. Insert the pipe cleaner inside the umbrella. Add a stapler to the bottom of the umbrella.

Preschool Activities:

Media Root

Weather Rhymes and Book Suggestion

Rain, Rain, Go Away

Rain, rain, go away.
Come again some other day.
We want to go outside and play.
Come again some other day.

Rain on the Green Grass

Rain on the green grass,
And rain on the trees.
Rain on the rooftop,
But not on me!

Weather Watch preschool and kindergarten weekly plan and lessons (Printables and lesson available inside our KidsSoup Resource Libary)

Preschool Activities:

Media Root

Eency-Weency Spider
The eency-weency spider

Went up the water spout. (Move hands up while touching index finger and thumb alternately.)
Down came the rain (Move hands down while wiggling fingers.)
And washed the spider out. (Cross arms.)
Out came the sun (Make a circle with arms above head.)
And dried up all the rain.
And the eency-weency spider

Went up the spout again. (Start spider moving up again.)

Science Activity Evaporation
Fill two jars with the same amount of water and mark the level of the water on the outside of the jars. Put a lid on one of the jars. Place the jars in a sunny place for a few days. Discuss with children what happened. Have children note that there is more water gone from the jar without lid and that inside the jar with the lid they can see tiny drops of water. Ask questions like: What happened to the water in the jar with no lid? (The water went into the air. It evaporated.) What happened to the water in the jar with a lid? (The water stayed in the jar, Because of the lid, the water wasn?t able to escape or evaporate.)

Rainbows Activities and Lessons

Preschool Activities:

Media Root

Rainbow Colors

Rainbow purple,
Rainbow blue,
Rainbow green and yellow, too.
Rainbow orange,
Rainbow red,
Rainbow smiling overhead.
(Author unknown)

Rainbow Salad Snack
Let children make a "rainbow" salad using the following fruits: red strawberries, orange oranges, yellow pineapple, green apples, blue blueberries, and purple grapes. Children will learn the colors of the rainbow while making and eating a delicious and nutritious snack!

Free Weather Printables


Find the Matching Umbrella	Umbrella Tracing Worksheet	Rain Prewriting Skill Worksheet

Other Great Preschool and Kindergarten Weather Theme Activities and Links:

SaveSave

Other weather related KidsSoup preschool and kindergarten themes and activities:

Preschool Activities: Media Root	Preschool Activities: Media Root	Preschool Activities: Media Root	Preschool Activities: Media Root
Weather Watch Weekly Lesson Plans	Wind and Air Activities and Crafts	The Weather and the Four Seasons	Rainbows of my Own Story Time

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Wind and Air Activities, Crafts, Games, and Printables

jgarcia — Sun, 19 Jul 2015 19:55:50 +0000

Wind and Air Preschool and Kindergarten Activities, Crafts, Science Lessons, Games, and Printables.

Wind and air are blowing into town for this theme. Children will explore both phenomenon through song, literature, science, movement, math, and art. They will have hours of learning fun making wind socks, painting with straws, conducting science experiments, matching kites, racing cotton balls, spelling in bubbles, and many more activities and games starring wind and air as the central attractions.

Samples of our more than 70 wind and air preschool and kindergarten crafts, activities, games, and printables available in our KidsSoup Resource Library:

Preschool Activities:

Media Root

Free Wind and Air Crafts, Preschool and Kindergarten Activities, and Printables

Key Science Concepts Wind can move things. Wind is moving air.

1. Discuss that the wind can move things. The wind moves the clouds in the sky. It can move sailboats on the water. Together with children, think and demonstrate different ways they can make the air move and create a breeze (blowing, waving the hands, using a fan, etc.). Ask if they know of any tools or machines that move air (hair dryers, fans, etc.).

Discuss with children that in the story "The Three Little Pigs" the wolf uses the air from his lungs to blow the pigs' houses down. Explain that when air moves it is called wind. Strong winds are able to move heavy objects effortlessly.

Explain to children that air is invisible to the human eye and impossible to feel until it moves. Ask children to hold their breath for five seconds and then breathe out and while holding a hand in front of their mouth to feel the air. Talk about how air helps to move things such as kites, parachutes, birds, leaves, etc.

Hand out a ping pong ball to each child and let them blow and move the ball around the floor. Expierence with different strengths of blowing and different distances and angles from the ball.

Science Table Provide a variety of objects (straw, twigs, wooden blocks, ping pong balls, Lego blocks, leaves, different sized rocks, paper, balloons, etc.). Let children use their breath or a straw to blow and try moving the objects around the table without touching them. Children will discover which objects they can move and which they can't. Let children record their findings.

Extension: Let children use a blow-dryer to move the objects.

Wind Activities and Rhymes

The Playful Wind
Original Author Unknown

The wind came out to play one day. (Cup hands and pretend to blow like the wind.)
He swept the clouds out of his way. (Make a sweeping motion with hands.)
He blew the leaves and away they flew. (Make fluttering motions with fingers.)
The trees bent low and their branches did too! (Lift arms up high and lower them.)
The wind blew the great big ships at sea. (Repeat sweeping motion.)
The wind blew the kite away from me. (Cup hand over eyes and tilt head as if watching kite go.)

I See the Wind
Original Author Unknown
(Tune: Hush Little Baby)

I see the wind when the leaves dance by. (Wave hands in front of body.)
I see the wind when the clothes wave "Hi!" (Wave hello.)
I see the wind when the trees bend low. (Put arms over head and bend to the side.)
I see the wind when the flags all blow. (Stand up and wave arms above head.)
I see the wind when the kites fly high. (Stretch arms up high.)
I see the wind when the clouds float by. (Put arms down and wave hands gently.)
I see the wind when it blows my hair. (Lift hair with hands.)
I see the wind 'most everywhere! (Hold hands out with palms up.)

Wind and kite coloring pages and other activities found on the web

Kite coloring page

Kite Writing

Wind-Catcher Craft

What you need:
Plastic grocery bag
Black Sharpie
Crepe streamers (optional)
Stapler
Yarn
Scissors

Hand out a grocery plastic bag and a Sharpie to each child. Press the plastic grocery bag flat in front of them. Let children draw eyes, eyebrows, and a nose on the plastic bag. Explain that the bag opening will be the mouth of the air catcher. If desired, glue some crepe streamers to the top for hair. Tie the ends of a two-foot long piece of yarn to the two handles of the plastic grocery bag. On a windy day, let children take their "Wind-Catcher" outside to try to catch the wind. Let children hold the yarn in their hands and let the wind fill the "Wind-Catcher."

Blowing Bubbles
Let children go outside and blow bubbles. Talk about how bubbles are filled with air. Let the wind do the bubble-blowing work on a windy day. To make giant-sized bubbles, mix up a batch of bubble brew in a large tub using 2/3 cup Dawn or Joy dish detergent and 1 tablespoon glycerin per gallon of water. Let the bubble brew sit for 24 hours before using. Shape wire coat hangers or floral wire into big bubble wands. The large end of a funnel can also be dipped in bubble solution and blown through from the smaller end.

Wind and Air Book Suggestion

Kite Flying

Other wind and air related KidsSoup preschool and kindergarten activities and resources:


The Three Little Pigs	Weather	W for Wind