Weather Activities for Preschool
The weather tends to be a focal point for our daily activities for the classroom teacher. Weather can be the reason we want to pull our hair out or be the reason we have a great learning day and no conflict. We might not talk about how the weather affects our daily teaching but, it can play a vital role in how smooth our day can be. The weather activities for preschool can help teach your students about the weather.
The same can be true for the winter months in the areas that get snow. Just as much as rain can be a detriment to getting fresh air and energy out; the same can be said with snow. At least with snow, I love bringing it into the class as a sensory experience and adding to the fun of an inside day.
Teaching weather activities for preschool can be fun for learning and awareness of the various weather conditions that you might experience for your climate. Teaching kids about the weather is a vital life skill when it comes to picking clothes that are weather appropriate and staying healthy.
Fine Motor Weather Activities
I love using theme-related activities to work on skills that might not be as fun if you called them like they are. The term fine motor activities to young children would be lost, using the term matching activity instead; will engage your kids to have fun while building vital fine motor skills with the pincer grasp and will build cognitive skills. Learning to match like items is a skill that will be built on later in life. You can also work on things that are different and related to the theme. Toddlers and preschool fine motor weather activities will aid in teaching these essential skills.
For example; you can have a rainbow and a raindrop. Both are different, however; to see a rainbow it must rain first. You can teach how they can be related with an if, then statement, and a but not all the time. Rainbows are beautiful but they don’t always come with the rain. I use these matching activities to label new key information. This can build expressive and receptive language skills and they are also great for small-group learning that builds social skills. The time teachers have is vital and precious so using one activity to work on many developmental skills is crucial in developing the whole child. These activities help assess what each child needs whether it is more practice or more of a challenge.
Another preschool fine motor weather activity is the Dress for the weather activity. This will help teach you what clothes are appropriate for the weather where you live for the day. What we need in the summer is different than in the winter when snow falls. Teaching these skills helps children learn a basic life skill needed for survival. This activity can be a whole group or individual depending on the needs of your class. Allowing children to learn and make choices gives them ownership of their learning. This allows the teacher to reinforce their learning skills or build from prior knowledge.
Preschool activities For The Theme
There are a ton of preschool activities about weather when you search for theme-related activities. One activity that I love is: I spy. The I spy activity is best for older toddlers and preschoolers. Preschoolers can do these activities more independently than toddlers. The I spy weather has icons where the kids can pick up a weather icon and then find that icon on the I spy board. Then they can count the images that are the same and practice writing the number in the box or make tally marks. I like adding counting into the I spy activity to build one-to-one correspondence. For the kids that need more help, you can write the number after the students count the icon. I like to laminate these activities and use dry-erase markers or washable markers to mark the board. This might be one of my favorite weather activities for preschool.
Preschool Weather Graph
I love using graphs to gather information from preschoolers and older toddlers. It’s nice to use graphs for a favorite item for a theme. The weather activities for preschool do not disappoint. There is a graph for the weather. This graph can be used for the class’ favorite weather or to graph the weather for each day of the week. I also use the completed graphs to work on counting skills. The preschool weather graph can also be used with the weather wheel and the kids can spin and graph the weather that the arrow lands on.
Weather math activities for preschool
There are many ways you can add weather math activities for preschool learning. Counting objects, measuring lengths, and using pattern cards are just a few activities you can add to your class activities to build math skills. The weather counting book helps to teach one-to-one correspondence when counting and learning about weather icons. Adding movement games that are linked with the learning theme is a great way to build physical skills and learn a new concept at the same time. The puddle jumping activity is a great way to work on jumping skills and while the kids jump the puddles they can count their jumps and puddles together. You can also use the puddles and make raindrops to match the number with the raindrops to fill the puddle. By adding weather math activities for preschool you are giving kids the opportunity to build their number concept skills.
If you like these weather activities for preschool then check out the weather packet below:
For more resources for your weather theme check out these resources:
Check out my Weather Board on Pinterest for more activities: https://www.pinterest.com/weiss0266/flamingoes/spring-weather/
For some weather-related process art ideas check out this website from pre-k pages: https://www.pre-kpages.com/three-weather-art-activities/
Cloud in a Jar Experiment from teach preschool: https://teachpreschool.org/2012/03/10/clouds-in-jars-and-on-the-table-top-too/
Toddler Interactive Binder VIP Gift: blog/toddler-interactive-binder
