Preschool Lesson Plan: Wonderful Weather

I LOVE SPRING! I love to see the flowers bloom and the weather is fascinating! When I was in Montana, I could have a hot day, followed by a snowy day, followed by a rainy day, and if you were lucky maybe you could see a rainbow too! As a part of my eagerness for spring, I have created a preschool weather lesson plan for Evie to explore some different weather patterns!

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Focus/Theme Board

For this lesson I created a Focus Board. I wanted to create something that Evie could interact with every day and become a resource to help with discussions. This board was inspired by my classroom Circle Time Boards, but adjusted for Evie. My board includes:

• A Weather Chart
• A Color-Labeled Rainbow
• Flower Letters
• Sun Numbers (which I also use in our sunshine day)
• Rainbow “Focus Board” Title

*Update* – originally, I had used a plain canvas I had laying around, sticky dots, and I had laminated the items on my board. I probably should have seen this coming but a toddler + canvas + sticky dots + dog hair = DISASTER! All the pieces fell off after moving them a couple of times, after the piece got thrown on the floor a couple of times.

To improve my Focus Board, I took a trip down to my craft store, bought some felt, and created a felt board! I used the same canvas that I used originally. The trick to this is pulling the felt tight across the canvas. The tighter the better! I used little tiny nails that came in a picture hanging kit and according to my husband “build another wall” with how many nails I used.

Finally, I used some velcro dots that I had laying around the house and used the rougher side (is there a technical name for those pieces?) and stuck them on the back of my printables, all of which can be found on the link above! Did I add they were FREE! The board is as good as new now!

Had my board been bigger, I would have also included the shape clouds and daily topics. All of these can be found on this post!

Weather Lesson Plan: Rainbows

Language and Literacy

For this activity, we used the book “Nibbles Colors” and I created a Story Stick!

Evie and I read the book a couple different times. Any time a book as anything she can feel, we will end up reading it a couple different times. Spoiler Alert! Nibbles created quite a few holes, which created a wonderful texture that Evie loved to explore.

After reading the book, Evie and I used our story stick of Nibbles to go on a color search! Nibbles was looking for yummy snacks of different colors. Evie and I would take Nibbles around and look for ‘snacks’ of different colors! I love this activity because it allows Evie to intentionally look for colors around her!

Math

I love using stickers. I really LOVE these shape foam stickers. They have red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and purple shapes so they are PERFECT for our rainbow math lesson.

For this part of our preschool weather lesson plan activity, Evie and I practiced our fine motor skills by pulling off the paper on the back of these foam stickers. She would place them anywhere and then move on the next sticker. A simple activity like this is full of opportunities to be intentional. For each sticker I would say “Oh Evie! You have a (color) (shape) sticker! Where are you going to put it?”. From time to time, I would ask her “Evie, I have a (color) (shape) sticker. Can you find another (color) (shape) sticker?”. These are ways to be intentional with this activity.

With these stickers, your child can categorize them by size, shape, and color!

Science and Sensory

Well. It was supposed to be sunny today. The forecast said it would be sunny ALL week. SO I had planned on creating a rainbow outside…The weather had a different idea. Instead, it rained and it was dark and gloomy.

That’s okay Mother Nature! I have a back up plan. Once upon a time, I wrote a block post about creating a rainbow WITHOUT sunshine! Evie loved doing this activity because she could play with the flashlight! She also loved slapping the walls when a rainbow would appear.

She wasn’t very interested in making her own rainbow but loved to see them when I made them!

Creative Arts

Remember when I said it was raining today? Well…we were going to do some chalk drawing today. Outside chalk drawing will have to wait.

Now. That doesn’t mean it is off the table. It means just the opposite. Chalk is ALL over the table. If you have a disposable or washable tablecloth, I recommend getting it out.

For this activity, I ground up some chalk into chalk powder and created a chalk finger play activity. Evie used her hands and fingers to ‘finger paint’ with chalk!

Music and Movement

Evie loves Mickey Mouse. Well one of our favorite Rainbow songs happens to be by Minnie Mouse. For our Music and Movement activity, I created a rainbow shaker from an old cardboard tube, paint, makers, glue, cotton balls, and rice.

Dancing is such a wonderful form of expression! You can be sure that Evie and I do it every day in our preschool weather lesson plan!

Weather Lesson Plan: Sunshine

Language and Literacy

I don’t know if you know this…I love Eric Carle books. His artwork is unique and there is a book for a majority of topics. In this book, Evie and I searched for the sun! The older she gets the more she searches for objects. Most of the time she can find some of the more common items!

Math

I like to keep these suns up on my Focus Board. Evie and I use them to count every morning. We are working on counting from 1 to 5 right now. I feel as though the numbers on the sun are beneficial so that Evie can start recognizing the number and the order.

Science and Sensory

For this activity, Evie and I explored shadows. I introduced the idea of opposites, light and dark, up and down. This best part of this activity is we can do it outside! You can create a learning opportunity at just about any part of the day. Taking this lesson outside to explore sunshine and shadows is a great way to extend the ‘classroom’ outside.

Now, I don’t know if Mother Natures knows what the weather is supposed to be like on the Sunshine day, but in case it is in fact not sunny outside, check out this awesome shadow puppet post! All you need is a dark room, a flashlight, some cellophane (or colored tissue paper), and imagination!

Creative Arts

I love suncatchers. I think they add something beautiful to a plain old window. As an added bonus, they are super easy to do.

1. Cut out the Sun – This image has an inner circle, make sure you do not lose the black ring on the inside. Those will be added when the contact paper is used! Remove any whitespace on the inside and outside of the sun. You only want the black lines. I use my exacto knife and it saves me so much time!
2. Lay the outline black side down on clear contact paper. You want the sticky side up on the contact paper .
3. Cut out pieces of cellophane or colored tissue paper. I have a love-hate relationship with cellophane. I love how vivid the colors are when they are on the window; however, the little tiny pieces CLING to everything!
4. Stick the tissue paper or cellophane to your suncatcher!
5. I like to add another piece of contact paper to the back of the suncatcher. I feel like it help preserve the artwork a little better and makes a better keepsake!

Music and Movement

In my Preschool Weather Lesson Plan, I love to include music and dancing. It is one of Evie’s favorite things to do! Plus, I have seen a huge improvement in her balance and coordination. For our Sunshine day, we listened to Mr. Sun, Sun, Mr. Golden Sun. We also listened to another one for mom, Here Comes the Sun.

For our Music and Movement section, we get out our instruments and dance! Evie normally hands me the tambourine and she gets the egg shakers. If you don’t have any instruments on hand, check out this post about how to make your own instruments with your extra Easter eggs!

Weather Lesson Plan: Cloudy

Language and Literacy

This is a wonderful book! It encourages imagination as the little cloud changes shapes! I like to pair this book with some cloud watching outside!

Math

In this preschool weather lesson plan, the shape clouds is one of my favorite activities. This activity is easy to do and then you can put them on your Focus Board as well! Simple cut out the shapes and then match the little shapes to the big shapes! There are five different shapes in this activity: a circle, a triangle, a square, a rectangle and an oval.

Science and Sensory

When you are working with clouds, how can you not have a shaving cream sensory bin! Now. Evie is a taster. She loves to taste everything at least once. For instances like this, I also have used whip cream. In your sensory bin, you can practice writing letters, shapes, numbers or your child’s name!

Shaving cream was probably my class’s favorite circle time sensory activity! There is something about the squishiness between your fingers that really get children excited! One way that I make this part of the lesson intentional is by including a laminated version of some of my learning resources (alphabet cards and shape cards) under the shaving cream to challenge children to practice tracing the letter or shape in the shaving cream!

Other Cloud Science Resources

• 4 Types of Clouds from the National Weather Service
• A Cloud Spotter from The STEM Playroom
• Types of Clouds – Dr. Binocs Show (Youtube Video)

Creative Arts

For this art activity, you only need a couple of things:

• Paper
• Cotton Balls
• Glue/sticky dots

Evie loves textures, so in this preschool weather lesson plan, I tried to give her a couple more! She loves pulling apart cotton balls, and who wouldn’t! For this activity, I used the inspirational photos below and had Evie create some clouds on her own paper. I gave her a variety of art supplies to work with, including markers, tissue paper, beads, and pipe cleaners. You can use anything! During this activity, I sat with her and created my own paper and she would look at my paper while doing her own. She would see me do something, and she would try to do it too! What kind of clouds did your child like to make best?

Music and Movement

Are you ready for some more DANCING??? I am! Dancing has become a morning ritual for Evie and I. Since we are halfway through the lesson plan, I review all the old songs before introducing our new song. Evie doesn’t mind, she has become quite fond of these songs 🙂

The song that I included for today was “How’s the Weather?” It does a good job of giving an overview of all the different types of weather. Feel free to bust out the rainbow shaker from the rainbow lesson!

Weather Lesson Plan: Rain

Language and Literacy

Have you read this book? It makes me want to take Evie outside in the rain! Maybe if you are lucky Mother Nature will make it rain for you on this day!

Now, I have a secret. My library for Evie is decent. But this one is not in our book selection. It was in my 3’s classroom though! I loved this book so much. It is a quick, easy read with lots of rhyming.

Now if you are like me and you don’t have this copy, check out the link above OR check out the read aloud here. I’m not normally one to use read alouds with Evie since she would much rather flip the pages, but My Cozy Corner does a great job with this one!

Math

For this activity in my preschool weather lesson plan, I wanted to work in some opportunities for Evie to practice her fine motor skills. This activity is super easy to do! There are a couple of things that you will need to gather:

• Thick paper or paper plate to make a cloud
• Hole puncher
• pipe cleaners
• beads

What you’ll do is you create a paper cloud, use a hole puncher to create 5 holes on the bottom of the cloud, tie pipe cleaners to the cloud and string ‘rain’ beads to your cloud!

As you are stinging beads count the beads! If you have dice, you can roll the dice and use that to tell your child how many beads to add to your cloud!

Science and Sensory

This may be, hands down, Evie’s FAVORITE activity this week. She loves water. She loves playing in water, pouring water, running under the hose just so she can get wet, literally ANYTHING with water. So naturally I had to give her an opportunity to play in water on the Rain day.

For this activity, use a plastic bottle or plastic cup. Poke holes in the bottom of the bottle or cup. Fill up the cup and MAKE IT RAIN! Thankfully we had the opportunity to go outside and use this to water our plant sprouts…I’m super excited about my new flowers and so is Evie, flowers might be our next lesson!

I was kind of hoping it would rain on this day. I would totally have bundled Evie up and go dance in the rain with her. That’s okay though. We created a fun little water sensory bucket for her.

Creative Arts

This was one of my favorites. It’s a process art that can be really cute. Print out the image, use painter’s tape to take over the child with an umbrella. Let your child use a dropper to create ‘rain drops’ onto the paper with loose paint. Your paint still needs body to it. If it is too runny then the final outcome will not be what you expected. However, if your paint is too thick, you will not get the drop effect. Hold the paper vertical so the water drips down the paper. When it is dry pull off the tape and it will look like the child is in the rain!

Music and Movement

Today we are listening to “Singing in the Rain Song“. While listening to this song, I tried to teach Evie some movements to go with the song…Hello Gross Motor Skills! This video also did a great job with the movements as well!

Weather Lesson Plan: Storms

Language and Literacy

How is your child with thunderstorms? Evie isn’t a fan. Loud noises make her run to the nearest parent. So I love books that show some of the great things we can do during a storm or even a power outage. This book does a great job with showing how storms are normal and how we prepare for a storm. Being prepared is a great way to feel more comfortable!

Math

One of the activities that I used to do with my 3’s class was a clapping game where we would learn patterns. I would clap two times and then pat my legs. My class would repeat the sequence. After a while I would change it up to include different patterns.

Talk about an easy, no prep activity! Here are some patterns that you can recreate, but remember it’s storming outside! Make sure you add to the ambiance by quickly tapping your hands on the floor to sound like rain!

• Clap your hands, tap your legs
• Clap, Clap, Tap
• Clap, Stomp your feet
• Stomp, Clap, Clap
• Clap, Stomp, Tap

The possible patterns are endless. I love how there is no prep! We are all busy. We don’t need to spend getting ready to do an activity.

Science and Sensory

For this activity, Evie and I created a storm in a bottle!

For this activity you only need a couple of things:

• 2 plastic bottles
• water
• glitter (optional)
• food coloring (optional)
• a washer
• duct tape

Fill one bottle 3/4 of of the way full. Add food coloring and glitter to make your tornado more visible. Place the washer on top of the bottles. Place the second bottle (empty) with the opening down on top of the washer. Tape the two opening together. Make sure you get a good seal! I won’t say that I didn’t have a couple of leaks the first go around. Be better than me. Seal it good! Flip the bottles so that the full bottle is on the top and swirl until a vortex forms!

Additional Fun!

For older children, create your own barometer! Measure the change in atmospheric pressure throughout the day! Watch as the balloon puff up and down as the pressure changes throughout the day! The best part is you only need 3 things to become a weatherman (or woman):

• Jar
• Balloon
• Rubber band

You cut off the bottom of the balloon. Stretch the balloon over the jar. Use the rubber band to hold the balloon in place. Set the jar outside and observe over time!

Creative Arts

For our last craft in our preschool weather lesson plan, I wanted to use something that we had already created previously! Is there a better way to celebrate a storm than to create a windsock? The best part, you don’t need much to do it! Remember the cotton ball picture from cloud day? Well you can turn picture into a wind sock! Add some extra craft supplies (glitter, paint, crayon drawings, etc.), ask your child what they think a storm looks like?

You can gather natural materials, like leaves, sticks, flowers, or anything else to help make your windsock. After you decorate the wind sock, wrap it into a cylinder shape, attach an arched handle. Use a hole puncher along the bottom to tie string to your windsock! Done! When it gets windy and a storm might be blowing in, your child’s windsock will be able to tell you!

Music and Movement

When it is stormy here, Evie and I curl up with a blanket and play some games? What do animals do? We listened to this “Stormy Weather” song and learned what some animals do!

Final Thoughts

This preschool weather lesson plan was so much fun! Evie and I had a blast going on walks and talking about the weather that we focused on this week. It was fun to try to pair the lesson to the day, but sometimes Mother Nature had other plans. I learned that backup plans are always good ideas!

What do you think? Did you and your littles incorporate any of these ideas into your day? Feel free to share your experiences! I am so thank to be able to be apart of your learning journey! Thanks for reading!