Hobbies And Interests
Outside Games
Take your weather learning experiences outside and show children what happens to the things around them in their natural environment. Make a precipitation gauge for them to check when it is raining or snowing out. Let them report to you daily how much water has fallen. To make a gauge, all you need is a clear glass and a permanent marker. Inside the glass, write the correct measurements needed to perform a reading, such as centimeters and inches. Let it sit out in an open area and read it on mornings after you have had rain or snowfall. Another activity that you can do outside is talk to the children about wind---that you cannot see wind, but you can feel it. Have them observe their environment and note if the leaves on the trees are moving or whether they can feel the air blowing on their face. Ask them to rate how the breeze feels on a scale of one to seven, with one being very light air and seven being the strongest wind they have ever felt. Have the children keep a daily journal of their ratings and observations and talk about them together at the end of the week. Find out what they learned about wind from all of their "detective work."
Indoor Games
Bring the weather inside by showing the children how they can make a cloud indoors. Pour 2.5 centimeters of hot water into a glass jar. Put a few cubes of ice on a baking dish and center it on top of the jar. When the air inside rises and is cooled off by the ice, the vapor it contains shrinks into droplets that make a cloud. Another engaging indoor activity is to make a tornado by filling a big bowl or tub two-thirds full of warm water. Next, stir lightly counterclockwise and add some food coloring or vegetable oil with an eye or medicine dropper to the top of the spinning water. Take note of how the color moves to the outside and forms bands, just as the clouds do in a tornado.
Online Games
There are many weather activities and games offered online that children can play. These websites allow children to create their own weather situations and watch what happens---along with customizing houses and nature scenes in their own virtual world. Learning about weather through an online experience also enables children to work and learn at their own pace.