For this lesson you will need:
Paper or whiteboard
Hand Towel
Counting item/jar
Dried Beans
Bowl
Clothing from your closet: pants, t-shirt, sweater, jacket, hat, mittens, boots,
sandals, tennis shoes, shorts, swimsuit, and sunglasses.
Sunscreen
Portable heater
Pillow
Cotton balls (1 per child)
Bowl of water
Scissors
Card Stock/Construction paper (1 per child)
Markers/Crayons
Glue or tape
Cellophane (optional)
Stories: Kippers Book of Weather by Mick Inkpen
What Will the Weather Be? By Lynda Dewitt and Carolyn Croll
Wild Weather Soup by Caroline Formby
The Wind Blew by Pat Hutchins
Little Cloud by Eric Carle
Rice Cakes
Cream Cheese
Pretzel sticks (mini)
Welcome Song: (To tune of Old MacDonald):
Welcome, welcome everyone
So glad that you are here.
Today we’re gonna have some fun
So let’s give out a cheer
Woo hoo!!
Clap clap clap clap
Slap(legs) slap slap slap
Clap clap clap let’s go! (when you shout “let’s go!”, do a group high five in the center)
Question of the Day: When you’re hot, what are some ways you like to cool off?
Allow each child to share their answer. Share your answer with the children as well.
Number of the Day ‘23’: Display the number 23. Explain that before you start preschool, you need to burn off a little bit of energy! Have children choose an exercise for you to do and do it, while they count a loud to 23. Ask them if they’d like to join you for the next exercise. Choose an exercise (jumping jacks, lifting ‘weights’ etc.) and have children count aloud with you as you perform the exercise together. Pass a hand towel around to wipe off their faces and give everyone a big high five!
Have children work together to count out 23 of the designated counting item (coins, marshmallows, candies, etc) and place them in the counting jar. Remind them of the reward they’ll get when the counting jar has been filled!
Letter of the Day ‘W’: Display the letter W on a piece of paper or whiteboard and demonstrate the sound a W makes. Place a bowl on the floor and gather the children around it. Give everyone a few dried beans and explain the game:
Each person in the circle must think of a word that begins with W. One at a time they will say a word that begins with a W after which they will place one of their beans into the bowl in the center. Go around the circle until someone runs out of beans, or until nobody can think of anymore W words!
Demonstrate how the letter Ww is written and allow children to practice in their writing notebooks. Teach the ASL sign for the letter W as well as the signs for Wind and Weather.
Introduction to Topic: Gather the following items of clothing from your closet and place them in a bag: pants, t-shirt, sweater, jacket, hat, mittens, boots, sandals, tennis shoes, shorts, swimsuit, and sunglasses.
Ask children to look outside to see what the weather is like today. Have children take turns pulling one item of clothing out of the bag. Hold it up and ask children if they think the item of clothing is a good thing to be wearing today. If they say ‘no’, throw it on the ground. If they say ‘yes’ have them watch while you put the item of clothing on yourself. Do this until you are wearing a complete ‘weather’ appropriate outfit and the children are satisfied. Keep the clothes on, for the following discussion about weather.
Discussion: Hold up a piece of paper and ask children to name all the different types of weather they can think of. Draw a picture that represents each type of weather as they list them. (Rain cloud, sun, Snow, etc) Ask which type of weather each of them like the best.
Explain that weather is a funny thing, because one day it could be one way, and the next day it could be totally different! Sometimes we even see sunshine, rain AND snow all in the same day! It sure keeps life interesting. Each type of weather is important for different reasons.
SUNNY: Point to the picture you drew of the sun and ask why sunny days are so important to have. Explain that the sun is necessary for plants to grow in the summer time. Ask if any of them plan to have a garden in the summer. “The seeds that we plant in the ground can’t grow up to be big healthy plants unless they get lots of sunshine. And if we don’t have big healthy vegetable plants to eat, what are we going to feed our hungry bellies?”
Explain that sunny days are also great for playing outside! Ask each child to tell you about their favorite things to do on sunny days. Explain that when we play out in the sun, our bodies are able to make an important vitamin called vitamin D, which helps our bones grow strong. Too much sun will give us a sun burn, which can really hurt, so when we’re going to be outside in the sun for a long time we need to be sure to wear SUNSCREEN! (show bottle of sunscreen, and allow each child to apply a small amount to their arms if they’d like.)
CLOUDY: Cloudy days are nice to have when it’s been really hot outside and you need to cool off. The clouds get in front of the sun, making it so the air feels a little cooler. Demonstrate this by turning on a portable space heater if you have one, and point it towards the children so they feel the heat blowing their way. Then take a pillow and put it between the children and the heater, so they are no longer able to feel the heat. This is how clouds work!
Ask children if they’ve ever wondered what clouds are made of. Allow them to come up with their own ideas of what they’re made of.
“There is lot of water in the air around us, but the water is so small we can’t see it! When sun shines on the air, it makes the air warm, and the tiny droplets of water starts to rise up higher in the air. When the water gets really high, it starts to cool off. When millions of cool water droplets gather together high in the air it makes a cloud.”
Have children look outside for any clouds in the sky. Tell them there are many different types of clouds, and sometimes they even look like animals in the sky. Do you see any animals in the clouds today?
RAINY: Ask if anyone likes to play outside when it’s raining. Discuss some of the fun things to do in the rain.
How is rain made? Explain that if the clouds are big enough and have enough water droplets, the droplets bang together and form even bigger drops. When the drops get heavy, they fall and make us all wet! That’s what we call rain!
Explain that rain is important for helping our plants and trees to grow. Without rain, our plants would be very thirsty and would die. When a place doesn’t get rain for a long time it is called a drought! (have children repeat the word drought) Explain that a desert is a place that doesn’t get any rain and because of this, there are no plants or trees, just hot sand and cactuses.
Demonstration: Have each child hold a cotton ball and explain that it is the cloud. Ask them how it feels (light and fluffy) Have them dip it slowly in the water. As they dip it explain that this is like the tiny water droplets gathering together high in the air to make a cloud. After the cotton ball has been completely submerged, have children hold up the cotton ball and describe how it feels now (wet and heavy). Explain that this is how rain clouds are when they are ready to send rain. Have children squeeze the cotton ball to make rain.
STORMY: Thunder and lightening happen when clouds rub together. When two things rub together it makes something we call electricity. Ask children if they’ve ever been shocked. Have children rub their socks along the carpet and then touch a metal doorknob…it should give a slight shock. Explain that when their feet rubbed against the carpet it made electricity, which made you feel a little shock when you touched something else. That’s what happens when two clouds rub against each other.
Storms are fun to listen to and watch, but when we hear thunder and lightening, we need to make sure we go inside because lightening is very dangerous to be around!
SNOWY: Ask children what they like to do in the snow. Explain that snow is another way that we get water. After snow melts, it waters the ground, and adds water to our streams, lakes and rivers. Streams, lakes and rivers provide homes for many fish and other animals. Snow helps us to have enough water to drink when we’re thirsty.
Explain that snow is formed when tiny drops in the air freeze!
WINDY: What is the wind good for? (KITES!!) Explain that wind happens when the warm air rises up and cool air moves in to where the warm air used to be. Wind is great for cooling us off when we’re hot! Wind can be a light breeze, and it can also be a very strong BLOW. Ask children if they can imitate what sound the wind makes.
“Isn’t it great that we have all types of weather? Life would be kind of boring if we only had one type of weather every single day!”
Explain that there are people called weathermen/women who use neat tools to figure out what the weather will be like the next day, and even the next week! We watch these weather people on tv so that we can know what to wear and what kind of activities to plan for the day.
Stories: Kippers Book of Weather by Mick Inkpen
What Will the Weather Be? By Lynda Dewitt and Carolyn Croll
Wild Weather Soup by Caroline Formby
The Wind Blew by Pat Hutchins
Little Cloud by Eric Carle
Craft: Help children make their own sunglasses. Use one of these templates (add longer handles to the sides to make them fit around child’s ears) Decorate and enjoy!
You will need:
cardstock (1 piece per child)
Stickers, crayons, markers and other decorating items
Scissors
Glue
Cellophane (for eye holes) optional
Thanks to the bestkidsbooksite.com for the templates!
Snack: Rice Cake Suns
Use yellow food coloring to color some cream cheese. Have children spread it on a rice cake and use small pretzel sticks as the sun ‘beams’ sticking out from the sides.
You may also have them use raisins or other objects to create faces on their suns.
Service: Choose one of the following for the children to do, depending on the weather in your area. If it's
Sunny: Invite a neighbor or friend out to play, or volunteer to walk a neighbor’s dog
Cloudy/Rainy: Move toys or other objects from the yard to a safe dry place, offer to share your umbrella with someone who doesn’t have one.
Snowy: Shovel the sidewalk or help brush the snow off the car
Windy: Move outside items to a secure place where they won’t be blown away!
Good bye song: To the tune of “If You’re Happy and you Know it”
If you’ve learned a lot today, clap your hands (clap clap)
Here’s the letter of the day (sign the letter W), clap your hands (clap clap)
Oh, we’ve had a lot of fun,
Now our preschool time is done (tap index finger to wrist)
See you next time (wave) and we’ll do it all again! (Clap clap.)
