If you’re looking for a way to get your students interested in science, weather activities are a great place to start.
Teaching about the weather is fun and engaging for students because everyone is affected by the weather. It’s something that is quantifiable and measurable and you can start teaching the topic at your students’ current level, whether they’re just learning to read or are able to do some math and graphing.
Do you live in a place where there are lots of thunderstorms? Do you get a lot of snow? Perhaps you’ve had hurricanes or tornadoes. These dramatic weather events are scary for students but they also make it easy to capture their attention and interest. Teaching about the water cycle during a rainstorm makes it easy for students to pay attention!
Fun Weather Activities
A fun way to start your weather activities is by having your students keep a weather journal. Give each student a piece of construction paper and have them fold it in half to make the cover for their journals. Then they can staple some weather recording sheets in the middle. Click here to find weather recording sheets appropriate for your students. Let them decorate their journal covers with crayons or markers, or give them pictures of different weather symbols that they can cut out and glue to the cover. You can set up these journals to go for whatever length of time you choose.
Science Weather Activities
Kids are usually fascinated to learn that fog is really a “cloud.” Show them how fog forms with some simple materials. All you’ll need is a glass jar, hot water, 3 or 4 ice cubes and a small strainer.
Start by filling the jar with the hot water. Leave it in for about a minute, then pour out most of it, leaving onlay about an inch of water in the jar. Set a strainer over the top of the jar and place the ice cubes in it. As the hot water and air meet the cold air from the ice cubes, water will condense and fog will form. Instant cloud!
Here’s another fun, visible weather activity. Create a convection current and show how thunderstorms form. You’ll need a clear plastic container, about the size of a shoebox, hot water dyed with red food coloring, and ice cubes made with blue water.
Using room temperature water, fill the container about two-thirds full. Place a blue ice cube in one end of the container and give it a few minutes for the blue dye to show up in the water. Then gently pour some of the red hot water into the other end of the container. You and your students will see the cold blue water (a cold air mass) stay low and the warm red water (a warm air mass) will rise up and over the top of the blue water. If the temperature difference is great enough, you may even see a convection current forming!
Weather Unit with Science, Math, and Literacy Activities
Plan your weather lessons easily with this all-in-one Weather Unit!
My ‘What’s The Weather?‘ bundle is an integrated unit for teaching the topic of weather. My aim was to make this unit as wide-ranging as possible to suit varied ability levels. The pack content should give teachers enough elements of choice to meet all students’ needs. If students have an early curiosity about the weather, not only could it help them in their Math and Science studies in school, it may even inspire the next generation of forecasters or meteorologists!
Children are often scared of thunderstorms, but they love jumping in puddles of water and looking at rainbows after a storm ends. Making observations about the weather and discussing climate are great ways to teach children about science, especially since weather is something children can easily relate to and understand. Whether it’s clear and sunny or rainy and windy outside, weather and climate affect children’s lives every day. It dictates our wardrobe and sometimes affects our moods. It can bring us together as a community.
This resource contains 127 pages of vocabulary, posters, thinking maps, discussion cards, recording sheets, experiments, forecasting, weather patterning, syllable sorts, and so much more! You’ll find everything you’ll need to teach a complete weather unit with the ability to differentiate it for your students.
Teaching fun weather activities in your classroom is an easy way to connect with your students. Weather is something that affects us all in so many ways, from what we wear each day to our leisure activities.
Have you tried a fun weather activity? We’d love to hear about it!
