Preschool Weather
🎓 Skills Your Child Will Develop
- 🌍 Nature Literacy — Learning the names, habits, and relationships of plants, animals, and natural phenomena builds the nature literacy that connects children to the living world and lays the groundwork for environmental stewardship.
- 📏 Early Math & Measurement — Measuring ingredients, comparing quantities, and observing size changes connects science directly to mathematical thinking — making science experiments some of the richest early math experiences available.
- 😌 Patience & Delayed Gratification — Experiments with delayed results — growing plants, watching crystals form, tracking weather — teach children to wait for outcomes rather than needing immediate feedback, a skill that predicts academic and life success.
- 📝 Recording & Documentation — Drawing what they observe, recording measurements, and noting results gives children their first experience of scientific documentation — and connects science to literacy and numeracy in an authentic context.
The weather dictates so many of your preschooler’s activities and thus preschoolers quickly become mini meteorologists when they put their heads out the window to find out if their outdoor activities will be scrubbed because of precipitation or temperature. Take advantage of a canceled play date with a preschool weather activity or experiment that will help your child understand why and how weather happens.
Featured Preschool Weather Activities
Make a Weather Board
What's the weather like today? Will your preschooler be able to go outside to play? Let your preschooler help with the decision by making your preschooler the weather forecaster. Make this weather board and post the weather for all to see. This activity will increase your preschooler's awareness of seasonal weather patterns.
Bubbles and the Wind Activity
Wind can be felt but not easily seen. Observe the wind and it's energy with your preschooler by using bubbles! This activity is especially fun right before a storm when the wind is more erratic.
Preschool Weather Activity--Sun Painting
Watch construction paper fade and learn the power of the sun with your preschooler. Do this sun painting activity with your preschooler and create an easy art project that is not only fun, but educational as well.
Featured Preschool Science Product
My First Weather Kit will blow you away! Learn all about extreme weather as you have fun with this complete weather station. Explore why are we having so many hurricanes and typhoons. How does global warming make ocean levels rise? You'll discover all this and more as you become a weather expert!
Around PreschoolRock.com
Preschool Sun Catcher Activity
Your preschooler will enjoy making a sun catcher as a gift or as a decoration for your home. Hang the Sun Catcher from a suction cup hook on your window to brighten the room and celebrate the holidays or just for decoration all year round.
Preschoolers Food Guide Pyramid
How much fruit and vegetables should your preschooler have in a day? Check out this PreschoolRock.com nutrician article and find out what the U.S. Department of Agriculture recommends.
Helpful Tips for Parents
- Integrate science into daily routines: cooking (chemistry), gardening (biology), building (physics), weather watching (meteorology). A science-rich home requires no special equipment.
- Connect science observations to real-world applications: "This is why bridges are built this way" or "This is how your body does that." Application makes science relevant.
- Science fear is learned, not innate. Preschoolers approach science with natural confidence — protect that confidence by keeping science joyful and low-stakes.
- The best science projects are the ones children generate themselves by noticing something in the world and asking why. Adult-imposed experiments are valuable; child-generated experiments are extraordinary.
Frequently Asked Questions
Should I explain the science behind experiments, or let children discover it?
Sequence matters enormously: always let children observe and wonder before explaining. "What do you notice?" and "Why do you think that happened?" should precede any explanation. If children ask why, give a simple, accurate answer — never give incorrect explanations to protect the mystery. After the child has observed and hypothesized, confirming or expanding their theory with correct information is appropriate and satisfying. Explaining first removes the inquiry that makes science learning durable.
How do I keep science learning going between experiments?
Science is a mindset, not a schedule. Keep a magnifying glass accessible for impromptu investigation. Ask "why do you think...?" during daily life. Notice scientific phenomena out loud: "Look at how steam rises from the soup — where does it go?" Maintain a simple nature observation area (a window bird feeder, a terrarium, a weather chart). The child who develops the habit of curiosity about the physical world is doing science continuously, not just during scheduled experiments.
Related reading: See also our color mixing science and our garden science guide for more ideas on this topic.
