Are you starting a weather theme in your preschool classroom or homeschool? Keep reading for the most engaging What’s the Weather preschool activities around!
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WHAT’S THE WEATHER PRESCHOOL ACTIVITIES
One of the coolest (and warmest!) themes to teach (whether you’re homeschooling or teaching in a preschool or kindergarten classroom) is What’s the Weather.
Little ones will have a storming good time when learning about and participating in activities about the weather! They love playing in the rain & snow, and rainbows & clouds have them looking up in the sky! This leads to interactive play and STEM exploration. So let’s get ready to check the temperature and build new skills!
Keep reading for over 20 weather activities for your preschool, pre-k, and kindergarten students. These ideas include literacy, math, fine and gross motor skills, art, and more. Grab your printables for math & literacy here. Oh, and there’s a freebie, too!
If you want a copy of my yearly themes (including an editable version where you can type in your own themes), check out this freebie. (*Please note: You will need to download this file to your computer and then open it with Adobe in order to add your own themes. You cannot add your themes from your web browser.)
WHAT’S THE WEATHER ACTIVITIES: LITERACY
Before you get started with your weather theme, make sure you have your books all ready to go! For this unit, we’re going to use our spring book list, which has over 20 books for you to choose from! This list includes LOTS of books about changing weather and rainstorms. Make sure to request these from your local library (or order them from Amazon) a few weeks before you start your theme.
But my absolute favorite book to read during our weather unit is “Good Night, Little Blue Truck”. It’s a story about a storm that frightens all the animals, but the Little Blue Truck takes care of them. It’s super cute!
You’re definitely going to want to start your What’s the Weather theme with these vocabulary cards! Do your littles know what a thermometer is used for? Of course, they have probably seen a rainbow, but do they know what a tornado looks like? These cards are the perfect way to introduce your little ones to the 15 weather related words they’ll be learning about over the course of this theme. You can use these vocabulary cards in your writing center or in a Write the Room activity where they will choose a vocabulary card, say the word, and match it to the picture on the activity page. Then they write the word on the line.
“Color the Room” is a variation of “Write the Room,” where you hide the vocabulary word cards around the room for your little one to find and have them match the picture on the card to the picture on the activity page. They can choose to color the matching picture or simply circle it. This is a great variation for little ones who aren’t ready to write the words on their own yet.
This is a fun and interactive activity that can be used in many different ways to practice letter identification and letter sounds. Little ones will be saying the name of the pictures on the Sunny Day Picture Puzzle mat, telling you what the beginning sound is, finding the letter that spells that sound, and placing it on the mat. For more advanced little ones, they can choose a letter and find the picture that starts with that letter. Can they tell you more words that start with that letter?
Syllable awareness is an important phonological awareness skill that little ones need to become strong readers. It’s always good to start by counting the syllables in your little one’s names. This activity asks your child to choose a raindrop picture card, say what the picture is showing, count the syllables in the name (1-4), and place the raindrop by the correct umbrella. Clapping, stomping, tapping, or snapping to each syllable as they say the word can be helpful in determining the number of syllables.
This activity is all about finding pictures that rhyme with the word “sun”. Have your little one name all the picture cards and decide if the word rhymes with “sun” or not. Then have them place it on the correct side of the mat. Can they tell you more words that rhyme with “sun”?
Review what opposite words are and practice common ones with your little one (this builds up their vocabulary!) The rainbow halves in this activity need to be matched together by finding the words that are opposites of each other. Your little one will choose a picture card, say the word that the picture is showing, and find the picture that shows its opposite. These rainbow halves can also be used to play “Go Fish” or “Memory” for more opposite fun!
For this activity, your little one will be making CVC words. They will choose a card that has two weather pictures on it, match the first picture to the onset of the word (beginning letter) and the second picture to the rime (the vowel and all the letters after the vowel). (*Learn more about onset-rime in this post!) After writing the letters on the line, they will blend the letter sounds together following the direction of the arrow. For more interactive fun, you can have them touch their heads as they say the first letter sound, their shoulders for the middle sound, and their hips for the ending. For more of a challenge, they can alphabetize the words they make.
Coloring by code is always a favorite activity for little ones! As they color the pictures, have them say the letter sound of each space. Can they tell you words that start with each letter?
This is a great activity that incorporates fine motor skills practice as your little ones will be using scissors and glue. First, watch a video or read a book about the water cycle. Second, have them cut out the four stages of the water cycle and put them in order. This is good for working on their sequencing skills. Finally, have them glue the stages onto the Water Cycle mat. For more fun, they can act out the four stages. There’s even an extension project included that will show how condensation forms!
WHAT’S THE WEATHER ACTIVITIES: MATH
This ten frame activity can be used in different ways. Little ones can choose a picture card and count the snowflakes. Then, they will place the same number of snowflake cards (or cotton balls) on the ten frame. Or you can place some snowflake cards on the ten frame and have them find the picture with that number of snowflakes on it. For more advanced little ones, you can give them an addition problem and have them put the answer using snowflake cards on the ten frame. And don’t forget to have them write the number in shaving cream to make it extra fun!
For this activity, little ones will count out small blue manipulatives (such as small blue pom poms or gems) to match the numbered raindrop card and place them on the activity mat. You can also use this activity to work on addition and subtraction.
Subitizing is the ability to recognize a number of shapes or objects without having to count them. This activity has your little ones placing the numbered cards on the table and finding the kite picture cards that show that number (dice, fingers, and tally marks). Practicing this skill will help them to develop a strong foundation for doing more complex math problems.
This activity has your little ones creating different repeating patterns. It’s helpful if you go over what a repeating pattern is. For example: TAP CLAP TAP CLAP or TAP TAP JUMP TAP TAP JUMP. Then, they will choose a weather pattern card, find the matching weather cards, and create AB, AAB, ABB , AABB, or ABCD patterns on the weather forecast mat. Can they make their own weather patterns for you to copy?
Little ones will be learning to count by tens in this activity. Start by having them count by 1s. Then, watch this video about counting by 10s and have them practice many times. When they are ready, have them choose a thermometer, read the temperature, and decide if it is “Less than 50″or “More than 50”, and place it on the correct side of the mat. Can they sort all the thermometers?
For this activity, little ones will be putting the thermometers in order from highest to lowest. Using play dough rolled into snakes, they will measure the temperature of each thermometer. After each one is measured, they will order them from longest to shortest. You can talk about how the higher numbers correspond to hotter temperatures and the lower numbers are colder. They can also measure the temperatures with a ruler and compare the standard vs. nonstandard measurements.
Little ones will be creating storms in this activity. They will roll a dice, tell you the number, and find the matching weather card for that number. They will keep adding to their storm until they roll a 6, which will let them clear all the storm cards from their mat and replace them with the rainbow card. This activity can be used as a game for more than one player. Whoever rolls a 6 first, clears up the storm, and gets a rainbow wins the game!
Does your little one know that there are different names for the clouds we see in the sky? Have them watch this video about the different clouds that are named on the spinner. Take turns spinning the spinner, saying the name of the cloud, and filling in the boxes above the name. Which cloud was the winner? Alternatively, if it is a cloudy day, they can look up and decide which type of clouds they see in the sky.
These FREE counting cards can be used for all sorts of counting activities with the weather theme… counting clouds, raindrops, or even leaves that have been blown from a tree by the wind! They could even count shadows made by the sun. Have them tell you what they want to count…anything works to reinforce number learning!
This activity (along with all of our freebies!) can be downloaded from the Free Activity Library. If you’re already a member of our email community, you can click HERE to head to the Free Activity Library, enter your password (it’s on your most current email from me), and download your copy!
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WHAT’S THE WEATHER: HANDS-ON ACTIVITIES, CRAFTS, AND SNACKS
This is a cute art project that’s sure to brighten up your little one’s day! Start by cutting a paper plate in half and then cutting a small “U” shape out from the bottom. Cotton balls are then glued on for clouds. The rainbow can be made from pieces of tissue paper, construction paper squares, or simply colored with dot markers.
Here’s another rainbow craft project that uses different colored play dough snakes to form the rainbow. This is always a hit with my students (and my own kids at home!)
This is a colorful candy craft that is so easy and so beautiful to make! Little ones just need to place candy around the outside of a white plate and slowly pour some warm water in the middle. (Skittles work best, but we’ve also tried M&Ms.) They will be oohing and aahing as the colors bleed into a colorful rainbow. They can try different color combinations or patterns of the candies to see which one they like best!
This activity has your little ones painting clouds that they see in the sky. First, take a piece of black construction paper or card stock and cut a large square out from the middle. Then, little ones will hold the paper up to the sky to frame the clouds that they will paint. Using equal parts of shaving cream and glue, they will paint their clouds on a sheet of blue construction paper. Finally, they can glue their cloud painting to the back of the black frame. Can they tell you what kind of clouds they painted? (Review the 4 types of clouds from the “Types of Clouds”activity!)
As they say, “There’s always room for jello!”. This delicious treat is made with prepared blue jello, whipped cream, and rainbow sprinkles. Just layer the jello with the whipped cream in a clear cup and add the sprinkles on top. Little ones can pretend they are up in the sky eating the clouds! Yummy!
Sensory activities are great for stimulating your little one’s imaginations. All you need is a pan with shaving cream for them to create clouds. Of course, they can also write their name, letters, numbers, or draw pictures in their “clouds”! This is good, clean fun that smells good, too!
WHAT’S THE WEATHER PRESCHOOL & PRE-K FUN
I hope these ideas helped you fill-in your Weather lesson plans for your preschool classroom or homeschool! All of the printables for this unit can be found in my What’s the Weather Preschool Activity Pack.
What types of weather preschool activities do you plan for your little one? Do you have any fun activities that would be great to add to this list? Comment below or find me on Instagram [@littleslovelearningblog] and let me know!
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Happy Learning!
