Pre-K Weather Theme Unit

~ Pre-K & Preschool theme ideas for learning about the weather ~

Books

Rainy

Stormy

Windy

Cloudy

Seasons

Rhymes

Rain, Rain Nursery Rhyme

Rain, rain, go away,
Come again
Another day.
All the children
Want to play.

Little Wiggle Worm Fingerplay

The little wiggle worm
(wiggle pipe cleaner worm)
Went crawling underground.
(wiggle worm under hand)
Down came the rain;
(wiggle fingers downward)
Soon mud was all around.
(make a disgusted face; open arms wide)
Rain filled the tunnels
(open hand; move fingers together)
And pushed the little worm.
(push worm through the other hand)
So the puddles on the ground
(make an O with hand)
Were the only place to squirm.
(wiggle worm into O)

Whether the Weather

Whether the weather is fine
Or whether the weather is not.
Whether the weather is cold
Or whether the weather is hot.
We'll weather the weather
Whatever the weather
Whether we like it or not.

Mitten Fingerplay

Here is a mitten, (hold up one hand)
A snug, fuzzy one (rub palms together)
With a place for my fingers (wiggle four fingers)
And a place for my thumb. (wiggle thumb)
Here are two mittens, (hold up two hands)
A colorful sight. (move hands back and forth)
One for the left hand; (hold up left hand)
And one for the right. (hold up right hand)
-- from The Mailbox

Songs

Song Book: Mr. Sun
by Raffi

PowerPoint: Mr. Sun
by Raffi

Rainy and Stormy Weather Activities

Rain, Rain Nursery Rhyme

Rain, rain, go away,
Come again
Another day.
All the children
Want to play.

Little Wiggle Worm Fingerplay

Rain Dance

[Large Group]
Children rub their fingers together to make a mist, rub their hands together to make a drizzle, pat knees to make a downpour, stomp the floor to make thunder. Then reverse the movements for the rain to stop.

Rainbows

[Art]
We used markers to draw colored arcs on half of a coffee filter, painted over the filter with the water, and watched the colors blend together.

Umbrella Stamping Game

[Math, Literacy]
Write a letter or numeral on each umbrella, and make a copy for each child. Children will draw a number or letter card from a stack (or roll a die), find that letter/numeral on their mat, and stamp it out. You can use rubber stamps or bingo daubers. As an alternative, you can have children draw an "X" over the umbrella if stamps or bingo daubers are not available.

Umbrella Game
Printable

Raindrop Counting

[Math]
We used blue felt for our math mats and clear flat floral marbles for the raindrop counters. The children listened for thunderclaps (the teacher clapping hand a certain amount of times), and placed that amount of raindrops on the mat. For example, four claps meant to count four raindrops onto the cloud.

Umbrella Grid Game

[Math]
To play a grid game, children roll a game die, identify the numeral and count out that amount of manipulatives. Each manipulative is placed over one picture in the grid. Children play until the whole grid is full. This grid game uses clear flat floral marbles which can be found in craft stores. The clear glass represents rain drops.

Umbrella Grid Game
10 Spaces

Umbrella Grid Game
20 Spaces

Counters: Clear Flat Floral Marbles

Prism Rainbows

[Science]
Children explored prisms to see how light gives us rainbows. The children drew a picture of what they saw in the prism. (Children are exploring properties of light.)

Mud Pies

[Cooking]
We mixed two packages of instant chocolate pudding. The children helped add the "dirt" (pudding mix) and "rain" (milk) to make "mud." To make this part extra fun, I punched holes in a styrofoam bowl and when the children poured the milk into the bowl it dripped like rain into the mixing bowl. The children helped mix the mud with a spoon. They crushed Oreos to make some extra dirt. Each child placed a gummi worm in a cup, added the pudding "mud" and the crushed "dirt".

Rain Prop Box

[Dramatic Play Center]
Raincoats, Rain boots, Umbrellas, Rain/thunder sounds CD

Windy Weather Activities

Windsocks

[Art, Science]
Children decorated white construction paper, and glued rainbow colored crepe streamers along the bottom. We bended the paper into a tube and stapled it. Last, we punched two holes in the top and tied yarn to make a hanger.

What Can the Wind Move?

[Science]
This is a science experiment with wind where children blow on objects to simulate the wind. We first predicted which of these objects can be moved by wind: paper cup, cotton, yarn, block, rock. Then we experimented by blowing on each item to see which would move and which would not. Other objects were placed in the science center for further experimentation: drinking straw, eraser, seashell, feather, leaf, paper clip, spoon.

Cloudy Weather Activities

Cloud Art

[Art]
After reading the book, It Looked Like Spilt Milk, we clipped cotton balls in clothespins, dipped them in white paint, and used them to paint clouds onto blue paper. The children painted their clouds to resemble other shapes, such as a dog, castle, horse, etc. Each page said: "It looked like ________."

Sunny and Warm Weather Activities

Fans

[Art]
Children folded paper fans and decorated them with crayons or markers.

Solar Heat

[Science]
We had a class discussion: Why do we have warm days and cold days? Does the sun give us heat? The children predicted what will melt in the sun: chocolate, butter, birthday candle, cheese, crayons, etc. We placed each item in a foil baking cup, placed them in a muffin tin, and left them for a while in the sunshine. For an extra treat, we also left a foil cup of chocolate chips for each child in the sunshine (covered with clear plastic wrap). When the chocolate melts, the kids have chocolate dip for pretzel sticks! This idea came from the book Mudpies to Magnets.

Cold Weather Activities

See the Winter Ideas page for all of the cold weather activities.

More Activities

Story Retelling

[Literacy]
Choose a Weather-themed book that you would consider good literature (good characters, plot, beginning, middle, end, etc.) Show the book to the children and tell them to think about what happened in the story, and the people (characters) and places they saw in the story. Think about what each character said. Give each child a piece of paper and ask them to draw something they remember from the story. Remind them that this should not be a picture of their cat or their friends, but only pictures of things from the book. After each child has illustrated the story, have them retell the story in their own words. Either record each child with a voice recorder or write their dictation on the page.