Weather is such a fun theme to explore with young learners. I have always taught this unit in the spring but you can use it any time of year. If you’re preparing to dive into a study of weather in your classroom, I know you’ll love what I’m sharing today! Keep reading to see some of my favorite weather activities and books for the primary classroom.
Getting Ready to Explore Weather in Your Classroom
Get ready to have fun with your kids! This topic is such a blast to explore. Weather is all around us, making it a wonderful, concrete theme to use in your lessons. While some children might have experience with all kinds of weather, others live in mild climates and the concept of snow and even heavy rain will be brand new. This theme captures interest in an instant and opens up the opportunity for new vocabulary, deep thinking, and plenty of fun.
Before you dive into teaching this theme, it’s time to get organized! That’s where I come in. I’m going to lay out my process for planning and preparing when it comes to weather activities. There are lots of great resources out there, so let’s get started!
Plan Your Introduction to Weather Activities
Before we start pulling out the centers, printing worksheets, and gathering materials it’s important to think about how you plan to introduce this topic. In my room, I lean on two valuable resources to do this – educational videos and picture books. These are my go-to’s for every theme under the sun, including weather!
Weather Videos
Choosing a fun, introductory video about the weather is a great way to open this unit. I’m a big fan of all the free resources on YouTube. You can find just about anything! This video covers tons of interesting topics about weather including factors that affect the weather, temperature, meteorologists, humidity, air pressure, wind, and more!
In my room, just as we are starting our weather unit, I will pop this video up for students to watch. Afterward, we will have a group discussion and chat about things they already knew, didn’t know, and questions they have. I write these things down on a big piece of chart paper and we revisit them as we work on other components of our weather study. As questions are answered, we fill them in on the chart! This makes a great interactive way to track your learning.
Another option is to play a video that kids can sing along to about the weather. In my classroom, I love starting the day with a song and dance to set a happy tone and shake out any wiggles. You can put on a song like this for a few days in a row and let students learn the words as they sing along. The fun weather theme will be a great way to kick off your lessons!
Weather Books
Now, onto books! There are so many wonderful weather books out there. I have a long list of them that I love using throughout our weather unit. They make a great introduction to our weather activities, but are also wonderful ways to connect stories to what we are learning in our lessons.
General Weather Books
All About Weather by Huda Harajli is perfect for your youngest little learners in the bunch! This book explores the differences in weather as the seasons change. It’s a perfect way to introduce the concept of temperature and other important weather terms.
Everything Weather by Kathy Furgang is a book that you’ll want to flip through again and again! Filled with real photos and interesting facts, you’ll probably want to read a little of this book at a time and allow your students to take a closer look. This book covers all kinds of weather and is a great addition to your collection.
Books on Specific Types of Weather
Sun by Sam Usher provides vivid, descriptive examples of what it feels like when the sun is very HOT. Students will love following along as they listen to the story of a boy and his grandfather out for a picnic on a very hot day.
Kite Day by Will Hillenbrand is wonderful for teaching students about wind. This adorable story about friends Bear and Mole will make your students smile while also detailing how strong winds and stormy weather can take hold of a kite (and other things) in an instant!
Shapes in the Sky by Josepha Sherman will unravel the wonder of clouds. This book is filled with great vocabulary words and provides descriptions for cumulus, cumulonimbus, stratus, and cirrus clouds. There are also pictures and tips on how to spot each kind.
Snow by Uri Shulevitz is a great read for your classroom, especially if you live in an area that doesn’t get snow. This book uses beautiful illustrations and in-depth descriptions of what it’s like to walk through the snow in your town.
Don’t forget, you can find all of my favorite weather books here if you need more inspiration! And don’t forget to check your local library too. I am always finding new favorites on this topic.
Weather Activities Your Students Will Love!
Alright friends, after our introduction to our weather unit, it’s time for the fun part! Weather activities! As I already said, I love this topic. So you’d better believe I have a lot of great weather activities too! I have a whole unit devoted to this amazing science topic. As a bonus, it also covers bugs – which usually comes up a fair bit as we discuss the weather and spend time outside observing it.
In my Weather and Bugs Thematic Unit, I have a variety of weather activities for primary learners. The goal behind this unit is that you’d have everything you need to teach this topic in one place. There are mini readers, math and literacy centers, writing activities, crafts, and no-prep worksheets. It’s a jam-packed unit to keep your kids learning and having fun! Let’s take a closer look at some of the weather activities inside.
Weather Centers and Games
In my room, we love center time! It’s an opportunity to lean into learning games and practice skills in a fun, hands-on way. I have tons of weather-themed centers inside the unit, but here are some of our favorites:
- Letter Match Games
- Feed the Kite Syllables
- More or Less Clip Cards
- Weather Subtraction Games
- Lightning Measuring Center and many more!
I like to prep these activities ahead of time and store them in zipper bags. Then, each day, I will grab a few bags to set out in our center area. I empty the bags onto trays or in baskets and allow students to choose one to work on. Having them ready to go like this makes it easy to switch things up throughout the week. We use them over and over again to practice these important math and literacy skills in a fun, weather-themed way!
Weather Activities for Writing Practice
Writing is so much fun in the primary classroom. As students learn proper letter formation, then move on to words, and finally sentences, it’s pretty incredible to see the progress that occurs! Since I know all students work at different paces and levels, I have included a wide variety of writing activities to choose from. No matter at what level your students are writing, there’s a little something for everyone including:
- Vocabulary Tracing Pages
- Directed Drawing Writing Prompts
- Sun & Lightning Writing Craftivities
- Would You Rather? Thematic Posters & Writing Prompts
These activities are great for independent work time, centers, as well as whole-group learning. You can use the vocabulary pages to kick off your unit. Introduce new words and have students practice tracing them. Then, have them hang onto those pages to inspire the other writing prompts in the unit!
My favorite writing activities in this unit are the Sun and Lightning Craftivities. Students get to build a craft and then write some facts they learned during our study of the weather. Everyone always has a different viewpoint, and these are a great to close out the unit!
Weather Color by Code Activities
Do you need a fun and engaging way to weave skills practice into your routine? I know I certainly did! That’s exactly why I created Weather Color by Code Pages. These weather activities make it fun and easy to practice skills such as letter recognition, number recognition, sight words, and number sense. Each page features a hidden picture that is revealed when the page is colored in according to the code.
I use these for morning work, center time, independent learning, and even homework. Oh, and I can’t forget the sub tub! That’s another great use for these pages. The best part, though, is that they are super engaging for students! My kids love these activities and I love that they offer such a fun way to practice these important skills.
Customize these Pages to Your Needs
Another great thing about these Weather Color by Code Pages is that they are fully editable! While there are pre-filled pages included for letters, numbers, sight words, and number sense – there are also blank pages that you can customize to meet your needs. All you need to do is open the editable template in Adobe or PowerPoint and fill in the blue boxes with your desired focus skills. Then print and go and you’ve got an instant, custom activity for your students.
These pages work well for CVC words, spelling words, vocabulary words, and more! The options are truly endless! This is such a great feature because it means the pages grow with your students. You’ll be able to use them again and again as students progress in skill sets or as new challenges. Check them out if you’re looking for a fun and easy way to weave more skills practice into your routine.
Putting These Weather Activities All Together
Well, there you have it! This is exactly how I plan out my weather unit in my room. Once I have all these components ready, I put them together for a complete and engaging study of the weather. Another fun activity that I didn’t mention, but goes hand-in-hand with this theme, is to get outside and observe the weather! You don’t have to do it every day, but taking a few opportunities to do so and chatting through descriptions of what it’s like outside is a fun way to connect what you’re learning with real life. I hope these weather activities, books, and ideas are helpful to you as you sit down and prepare your own weather lesson plan!
Looking for More Themes to Explore?
Weather is just one of my favorite thematic units. Check out these posts to see some more fun topics you can explore with your students.
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