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Objective: Students will be able to illustrate a sky with rainy clouds.

Activity Instructions: The teacher will provide each student with a white sheet of paper and colored pencils. The teacher will guide the whole class collectively through each step. At the end of the lesson, every student will have completed a colored drawing of the sky.

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Objective: Students will use tools and materials to design a demonstration of a tornado.

Activity Instructions: Students will be put into groups of four, each group will be given two empty water bottles, a cup of water, and tape. The teacher will perform a demonstration as the class follows along. The end of one of the water bottles will be empty, the other will be filled with water. The empty water bottle will be taped to the top of the full water bottle. The full water bottle will be spun and quickly flipped over, causing a tornado effect.

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vortex bottle connectors- tornado in a bottle

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Demonstrate a vortex in your classroom! Some people refer to it as a tornado in a bottle. Show that in order for water to flow down, air must flow up. These amazing connectors screw onto two plastic soda bottles (you can buy new ones from E.I., Item number BOT-600 and allow students and teachers to create a water vortex.

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Objective: Students will participate in a play that demonstrates the factors of a thunderstorm.

Activity Instructions: Each student will be handed a script of the "Types of Weather" play. Every student will be given a role and a costume that is assigned for each role. The play will be performed in class after rehearsing a few times.

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This Weather Station dramatic play center helps kids learn about weather symbols, temperature and more! It’s suitable for kids in Pre-K, Preschool and

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Objective: Students will popcorn read "What will the weather be?" by Lynda Dewitt.

Activity Instructions: Students will grab a copy of "What will the weather be?" and read in their seats starting at page 1. Students will guide each other through popcorn reading by alternating between pages.

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Objective: Students will participate in a sing-a-long and play "Pass the Sun".

Activity Instructions: All students will sit in a circle on the carpet with the teacher. Everyone will learn and sing along to the song "How's the Weather?". As everyone is singing, a toy sun will be passed around the circle, and whoever is holding it when the song ends loses. The game continues until there is only one person left in the circle.

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How's The Weather? | ft. the Super Simple Puppets | Super Simple Songs

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Objective: Students will explore the function of clouds by creating their own demonstrative model of clouds.

Activity Instructions: Students will be put in groups of four. Each group will be provided with cotton balls, water, a dropper, a strainer, and an empty container. The teacher will make sure each group is following along with the class demonstration. The strainer will be filled with cotton balls and then placed on top of the empty container. Drops of water will slowly be added onto the cotton balls until it slowly starts "raining".

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This week I set up an invitation to explore clouds and rain with cotton balls and water, but added a dropper into the mix for added fine motor practice.

The PLAYful Preschool theme for this week is weather. The team has a lot of great lessons planned for you, so make sure you check them all out below!

This science activity is very quick to set up, but the fun lasts for a long time! Evan didn't want to stop playing with it. He kept asking me to add more water to the cup and more cotton balls to the strainer. Once I stopped adding water, he continued playing with the wet cotton balls as well.

The best part is that the entire time he was playing and exploring he was also learning science concepts and getting loads of fine motor practice!

Materials Needed to Explore Clouds and Rain

Cotton balls

Strainer/Steamer basket - I used my steamer basket because it fit the jar I wanted to use better

Water

Dropper

Blue food coloring (optional)

Prep Needed to Explore Clouds and Rain

1. Place a strainer on top of a clear jar, bowl or vase.

2. Fill the strainer with cotton balls.

3. Fill a glass with water and add a few drops of blue food coloring, if you would like.

4. Place a dropper nearby.

Exploring Clouds and Rain for Fine Motor Practice

Have the child fill the dropper with water and then squirt the water on the cotton balls. Have them repeat this process until the clouds become so full of water that they start to drip. Eventually the water will start to rain down into the jar.

As your child is doing this you can explain that this process is similar to that of clouds and rain. The clouds get so full of water that eventually the water starts to fall from the cloud and it rains.

After repeating this over and over again, Evan began squeezing the soaking wet cotton balls into the jar with his hands. Then he would soak all the cotton balls in water again and repeat.

The use of the dropper was excellent fine motor practice for him. Squeezing the water out of the cotton balls with his hands was too.

I'm not sure he would have ever stopped doing this activity on his own accord. Eventually it was time to eat lunch and I had to convince him to stop. He definitely enjoyed it!

Plan Your Weather Themed #PLAYfulPreschool Learning Week:

Preschool Songs: I'm a Cloud by Growing Book By Book

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Explore Clouds and Rain for Fine Motor Practice

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This week I set up an invitation to explore clouds and rain with cotton balls and water, but added a dropper into the mix for added fine motor practice. The PLAYful Preschool theme for this week is weather. The team has a lot of great lessons planned for you, so make sure you check them all out below!

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Objective: Students will be able to use xylophones to imitate the sounds of raindrops.

Activity Instructions: Two students will be paired by the teacher and they will be stationed at one xylophone, provided with two mallets for each partner. Everyone will be guided with the teacher as a class through the lesson to create raindrop sounds.

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Objective: Students will be able to observe appropriate activities for each weather type.

Activity Instructions: Everyone will be grouped in groups of four. Each group will be given a plastic bag that contains a total of 20 cards, 10 weather cards, and 10 activity cards. Each group member will help by matching the weather to its appropriate activity.

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Objective: Students will determine the type of weather each day and at the end of the semester the class will calculate the total for each weather type.

Activity Instructions: Each morning before circle time, the class will determine if the weather is sunny, rainy, cloudy, foggy, or other. Then they will add a tally under that decided weather. Towards the end of the semester, they will count up how many tallies each weather type has and determine which one has the greatest amount.

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I have always used some kind of weather graph in my classrooms. They're a great way to teach children math and science skills, as well as critical thinking. Plus, the kiddos always seem to enjoy being a "weather reporter"! I thought I'd take a moment to share how I used my preschool weather chart in the classroom.

How we use our preschool weather chart

I print out a new weather graph each month, back it with construction paper, and place it next to our calendar. Every day, our weather reporter checks what's going on outside. She then documents the results on the graph. We tend to use a different color marker for each weather category, but we're not always consistent with this. The students make a few observations about the calendar each day - "Oh, rainy has 3 now!", "I think sunny's going to win!", etc.

At the end of each month, we have a longer discussion about the preschool weather chart. The kids and I count how many of each weather we've had that month. Sometimes I write the appropriate number at the end of the line, sometimes the children do so. Then we compare and contrast the weather, discussing more, less, and equal. We also talk about the seasons and what kinds of weather to expect for each one. We then declare a "winner" in the month's weather, which always entertains the children.

We keep the graphs from each month throughout the school year. I laminate them, hole punch them, and create a weather book. It's updated each month, and we keep it in our reading center. It is consistently a hit with my students, and it has been every year I've used it! I love it when the kiddos come to me randomly, exclaiming over a new observation they've made - "Look! In September we had 10 sunny days, and in April we did too!"

Kindergarten and preschool weather chart

I made my own weather graph years ago, and I tweak it every few years. Right now, it includes a variety of weather patterns - sunny, rainy, cloudy, snowy, windy, and foggy. Here's a (free) generic black and white copy of the graph I use.

For a more detailed, colorful version, check out my Teachers Notebook shop:

The clip art I used was from DJ Inkers' Kiddlywinks Clip Art collection (affiliate link). The font is DJ Chunky (also an affiliate link).

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Kindergarten and Preschool Weather Chart

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I have always used some kind of weather graph in my classrooms. They're a great way to teach children math and science skills, as well as critical thinking. Plus, the kiddos always seem to enjoy being a "weather reporter"! I thought I'd take a moment to share how I used my preschool weather chart in the classroom.

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Objective: Students will perform a play involving creative dancing with the use of music.

Activity Instructions: Everyone will be given materials to construct factors of weather (sun, clouds, rain, wind, etc.) and create their own dance to go along with the music for the play.