Did you know that you can tell the outside temperature by counting a cricket’s chirps? You can also tell what time it is by counting how many times your child has asked for a snack! Distract them from their tummies and learn about the weather at the same time with our free, printable weather chart pdf!
What’s included in our Weather Pack?
Weather Diary – Page 1
Kids love the weather! Splashing in puddles, spotting lightning strikes and eating hailstones, if you don’t stop them in time. Tap into this incredible enthusiasm and use it as an opportunity to learn days of the week, months of the year and their numbers up to 31.
How to Use
- Download and print our free weather diary.
- Tick today’s day – If they struggle to remember the days of the week, a fab tip is to set them to music. Get clapping to the Addams family theme tune with this great song that really helped my girl.
- Tick today’s month – Help them to get familiar with the months of the year by talking about things that happen in some of the months. Is there a birthday, special holiday or big event you could mention? Ask them to recall these each time you revisit this sheet.
- Circle today’s date – If your child can count aloud but doesn’t recognise the written numbers yet, say them together as they follow along with their finger. Older children could be asked to spot the correct number by themselves.
- Tick today’s weather condition – Look outside and talk about the conditions you can see. Tick the closest match. Get them thinking more about the different weather types. Can they name them from our pictures? What’s their favourite weather? What’s yours?
- Colour today’s temperature – If you have an outdoor thermometer read it together. They will love using equipment and feeling like a meteorologist. The temperature can also be found online. Ask them to guess before you look it up. Gold star if they are spot on! Maybe have a competition and see who can make the closest guess. Or, if you haven’t had a chance to look it up yet, you could count the number of cricket chirps in 15 seconds. Add 37 and this will give you the rough temperature in Fahrenheit!
- Fill the Rainfall Gauge – This can also be found online. Or, if you are feeling adventurous why not set up your own weather station? A great activity to get kids outside. A simple rain gauge can be made with a plastic cup and a ruler.
- Add stones to the bottom of a cup, to stop it blowing over.
- Starting from the top of the stones, mark millimetres up the side of the cup.
- Fill with water to the top of the stones and place outside.
- Check how much higher the water is after 24 hours.
- Draw the Weather Picture – Finally, draw a picture of today’s weather. Use colours or embellishments to make it come to life.
Our weather diary can be printed, laminated and written on with a dry wipe marker every day to watch the weather.
Annual weather Chart – Page 2
This chart is a fun way to track the weather and learn the months of the year.
How to Use
- Have your child select a different colour for each weather type and colour in the key.
- Check the weather each day.
- Find the right square to colour using the months along the top and the days down the side.
- Colour today’s square!
- Repeat every day to build a colourful picture of the weather across the year.
As your chart fills up, get your child talking by asking them questions like ‘Which month was sunniest? Which month had your favourite weather? When did we have that big storm?
Did you know? The air around a bolt of lightning can reach 30,000oC. That’s 5 x hotter than the surface of the sun. Or, the same as the inside of a chicken nugget served at a cafe when your toddler is hangry.
Weather Clock – Pages 3 and 4
Our interactive weather clock is a great resource for some hands-on weather fun. Cut out your child’s favourite clock hand on page 4 and use it to point to the correct weather on page 3. A split pin will hold it in place and allow the hand to move. If you can’t find a split pin you can improvise with a pipe cleaner, paper clip or sandwich bag tie. Threading a bead halfway along, before you push your wire through is a great tip to stop it from falling out.
How to Use
- What’s the weather like today? – Display by a window or door and have your child move the clock hand to show the weather each day. A fantastic way to get them learning key weather vocabulary.
- Show me – Name the weather types and ask your child to move the clock hand to show it. Make it trickier by saying things like ‘I would need an umbrella today’ or ‘I’d better not stand under any trees!’
- Small world play – Introduce a new element into their small world play. Hang the clock by their dolls house, train set, farm or dinosaur land. Now they can move the clock to change the weather in their small worlds. Do the dollies need to put on their coats? Has rain flooded the track? Are the dinosaurs struggling to find water? You may find this simple thing breathes a whole new life into your old toys.
Weather Flashcards – Page 5
Use our weather flashcards to help your child learn the weather types and start to recognise the keywords.
How to Use
- Weather clock – Show the flashcards and have your child change the hand on their weather clock to match.
- Memory Game – Print two copies, cut out and lay face down. Take it in turns to turn over two cards each. If they are a match you get to keep them. The player with the most cards by the end wins!
- What to wear? – Lay out a range of clothes like a sun hat, wellies, scarf etc. Show a flashcard and have your child select the best clothing for that weather. They could even put the clothes on if you are looking for a fun way to practice getting dressed. If you have more children they might love the competition of a dressing race. Another option is to dress dolls, a great fine motor skill activity.
- Name it – Show the flashcards and ask your child to name them. Correct guesses go in a pile on the right and incorrect in a pile on the left.
Weather Colour Sheets – Pages 6 to 10
Finally, enjoy our weather colouring sheets. Brighten up our Rain, Snow, Sunny, Thunderstorms and Windy sheets with pencils, pens, paints or crayons.
DOWNLOAD OUR FREE PRINTABLE WEATHER CHART PDF HERE
Did you love our free printable weather chart pdf activities?
If you and your child had a brilliant time learning about the weather with us, how about heading into space with our Free Phases of the Moon Printable Worksheets or our Free Downloadable Earth & Space Activity Book.
By Laura Davies