Do your students ever wonder why the sky is blue or why it rains? Or maybe they want to learn how to read a thermometer or predict the weather for their next outdoor adventure. Well, you’ve come to the right place! From experiments to crafts, we’ve got you covered with exciting and interactive ways to learn about the weather. Try out these 17 weather activities for the primary classroom. #14 is a student favorite!
Looking for the easiest way to plan your science unit on weather? With ETTC Premium, you have unlimited access to a vast array of weather-themed resources, including worksheets, activity pages, and lesson plans, that can be used to meet your needs. Being a member of Education to the Core Premium is a game changer when it comes to planning units. Simply type the topic you are planning for and BAM, multiple resources are at your fingertips to instantly click on, download, and print.
1. Solar Oven S’mores
Marshmallows. Chocolate. Graham crackers. Usually, these would accompany a bonfire, but not when you’re learning about the weather! I can’t think of a more delicious and engaging way to explore the power of the sun than by building a solar oven and cooking up a delicious s’more.
Weather Activity 2. Be a Meteorologist
I’m sure that you go over the weather during your calendar time each day. Do you have a designated Meteorologist each day or week? We have a quick no prep way that they can deliver the weather each day to your class. Or, take your entire class outside with papers and clipboards and have them observe the weather.
3. Make Your Own Thermometer
With just a few simple ingredients, you can make your own thermometer. While this thermometer won’t tell you exact temperatures, it will tell you relative temperatures and kids have a blast making and checking the temperature. Add an actual thermometer reading activity to help your students read number lines.
4. Make a Rainbow
Rainbows are super trendy, colorful, and a fascinating science concept. There are loads of ways you can make your own rainbow, but one of the coolest is to explore how to make a rainbow using a mirror, a dish of water, and sunlight. Challenge your students to discover how to make this rainbow, move it around, and experiment with other light sources to make a rainbow. Even better, see if they can make a rainbow bubble snake!
Weather Activity 5. Make Your Own Rain Gauge
Growing up in the Pacific Northwest, it was never a question of IF it was going to rain, but HOW MUCH it would rain. Making your own rain gauge is super simple using a ruler, marker, and a recycled plastic bottle.
Another fun activity is to leave the gauge out in the winter if you get snow where you are and measure the amount of snow. Then, bring the gauge inside and let the snow melt. Predict how much water you think the snow will melt into and compare your results to the prediction.
6. STEM Challenge – Build a Shelter
This is a fun activity that challenges your students to build a shelter that will protect an ice cube from the sun and keep it from melting. Let your students’ creativity run wild with this activity where the sky is the limit for materials to build their shelter. Then, after they have their plan sketched and detailed, have them gather the materials and put their plan into action. See whose structure protects the ice best and keeps the cube in the solid-state longest!
7. Water Cycle in Action DIY
Use a recycled plastic bottle or a plastic sandwich bag with blue-tinted water to build a miniature model of the water cycle. By placing the project in a sunny place, kids will easily see evidence of the water cycle happening before their very eyes. Having them create their own water cycle will help them understand the process so much better than just hearing or reading about it.
8. Weather Observations Book
Perfect to use every morning or after lunch during your weather unit. Each student has a booklet where they record the type of weather, temperature, and any other notes they want to make about what they see and feel outside that day.
Weather Activity 9. Cloud Watching
Do you ever take your students outside just to observe nature? In college, I had a professor take us outside and tell us to do exactly that and it was one of the most impactful classes I’ve ever been in!
Read a book about clouds and then take your class outside – preferably on a late spring or early fall day when the chances of those big, beautiful cumulus clouds are greater. Have them pick a comfy spot, lay down, and just watch the clouds. Let them talk about what they see up there.
The extensions to this activity are endless – writing, creating a class book, art projects, cloud identification, etc. Cloud watching encourages a connection to nature, reinforces science content, encourages creativity, and nurtures wonder – and all kids deserve to have their curiosity and wonder nurtured!
10. Check Out Cool Resources
The available online resources related to weather are virtually endless. From watching ‘Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs’ to a National Geographic video, watching the weather can be really cool. Especially extreme weather. NASA Climate Kids has a great website with games and information on weather and climate and YouTube is full of kid-friendly videos on the topic!
Weather Activity 11. Make a Kite
Follow the instructions for this easy paper kite for kids or make your own design. Decorate your kite however you want and then take it outside and fly away! Experiment with different designs, strings, and streamers. Just make sure you stay away from trees! The wind is not a visible thing kids can see so it is a little more abstract of a concept – it is something they can feel the effects of, but not see. This activity makes it a little more concrete for them.
12. Make a Weather Vane
Another way for students to “see” wind is to create a weather vane. Using simple easy-to-find materials ( straw, pencil, clay, notecard, and pin), your students can create their own tool to measure the wind. To see if they will work take them outside on a windy day and place on different parts of the playground. Your students can observe if any of the weather vanes move.
13. Make a Cloud in a Jar
Cloud formation might seem like magic in this activity, but the process becomes blatantly real and obvious after you talk about what is actually happening. There’s nothing and then suddenly a cloud appears when you introduce the particles for the vapor to condense upon. Kids will want to repeat this process over and over!
Weather Activity 14. Weather Movement Breaks
Kids. Need. To. Move. Let me say it again, just in case you’ve forgotten – kids need to move! Grab this dice activity and get rolling whenever you’re in need of a brain/movement break and reap the benefits of happy students (they’ll love twirling like a tornado or melting like an icicle) and watch them become more focused and able to engage when you get back to the work at hand.
15. Sing About the Weather
One of those tips for learning tricky material is to make up silly songs and acronyms. Well, not only will singing about the weather help your students remember the concepts, it is FUN! If you’re like me, you wouldn’t be caught dead singing in front of other adults, but singing with kids? Heck, yes!
Make up your own songs or check out some we’ve found for you! Toss one of these songs in your morning meeting or sing it during class, but remember, some kids will need repeated exposure to the song before they’re ready to start singing with you – even if the songs have the words on the screen for them to read – so plan on having the song you pick your lesson plans for a bit.
16. Freeze a Bubble
If you live somewhere where the weather gets cold, consider yourself lucky. Ahhh, what? Lucky? To have to deal with frigid temperatures? YES! You are one of the lucky ones who can take your students out on a below-freezing day and blow bubbles – then observe them freezing! Pick a day that has as little wind as possible and use a homemade bubble solution with corn syrup (like the one found here) for the best results.
Weather Activity 17. Have a Weather Dress-Up Day
I will take any opportunity to dress up (Don’t believe me? See the picture of me, below, being the sun in a field of sunflowers during the Zoom teaching spring of 2020 – ignore the faulty green screen).
Give students options to select from or let them come up with their own weather vocabulary to dress like (I would love to see a good tornado costume!) and then after you’ve been at school a while, give the class a chance to guess what weather word each student is representing.
Be sure to have a plan for students who aren’t able to make a costume – sending a list of simple ideas (dress in all blue for ‘rain,’ for example), having extra accessories, or creating the costume accessories at school can all work!
These have all been a hit in my classroom. Be sure to try out some of these ideas in your next weather unit! What else do you love to do when you’re teaching about the weather? I’d love to hear your great ideas for weather activities for the primary classroom- please share them below! And if you have a weather dress-up day, puhleeeeease share those pictures, too!
Written by: Kristin Halverson
At Education to the Core, we exist to help our teachers build a stronger classroom as they connect with our community to find trusted, state-of-the-art resources designed by teachers for teachers. We aspire to be the world’s leading & most trusted community for educational resources for teachers. We improve the lives of every teacher and learner with the most comprehensive, reliable, and inclusive educational resources.
If you enjoyed what we have to offer at ETTC, be sure to join our email list, so you won’t miss a beat. We are here to help with all your resource needs. Become a Premium Member of Education to the Core and receive immediate access to thousands of printable activities. For one small monthly or annual fee, everything ETTC can be at your fingertips all of the time.
