Regardless of the time of year, exploring the weather with your students through hands-on activities is always a good idea. From engaging in reading and writing about weather phenomena to conducting fun experiments, here’s a comprehensive list of weather activities for the classroom, suitable for preschool through middle school.
1. Read Books About Weather
What You Need: A collection of read-aloud weather books.
Read-alouds are one of the simplest yet most effective classroom activities for teaching children about the weather. Generate excitement in your students by diving into a selection of weather-related books. Read a few aloud, showcase them in your classroom library, and encourage students to explore them with peers.
Learn more: Awesome Weather Books for Kids
2. Watch the Fog Roll In
What You Need: A glass jar or glass, hot water, a metal strainer, ice cubes.
To create this fog effect, fill a glass or jar with hot water for around a minute. Pour out most of the water, leaving about 1 to 2 inches in the bottom. Place a strainer filled with ice cubes on top. As the cold air from the ice interacts with the warm, humid air inside, fog will form. This weather activity is sure to elicit awe from your students!
3. Crack a Few Weather Jokes
What You Need: Free Weather Jokes for Kids Google Slides.
Introduce a bit of humor into your weather activities with weather-themed jokes! For example, “Why is the sun so smart? Because it has over 5,000 degrees!” Incorporate this collection of jokes and riddles into your classroom to bring some laughter.
4. Reflect a Rainbow
What You Need: A glass jar and a white sheet of paper.
To create a rainbow effect, fill a glass with water to the brim. Position the glass on a table, ensuring half is over the edge (be cautious not to let it fall!). Allow sunlight to shine through the glass, then place a white sheet of paper on the floor beneath it. Adjust the glass and paper until a rainbow appears on the sheet.
Explain to students that light consists of various colors: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, and violet. When light passes through the water, it refracts and separates into all the colors of a rainbow!
5. Learn Weather Vocabulary Words
What You Need: Weather word wall labels with visuals for each term.
Equip your students with the vocabulary to describe various weather phenomena. Words such as sunny, cloudy, stormy, blizzard, flood, hurricane, and terms for the four seasons can be utilized in multiple activities, helping students fill in their weather journals. Prepare a set of weather word cards for center activities or create a weather word wall for reference and practice.
6. Predict Rain Using Pine Cones
What You Need: A collection of pine cones.
Set up a pine cone weather station! Place several pine cones on a windowsill in your classroom. Observe the pine cones daily alongside the weather. Explain that when the weather is dry, the pine cones remain open, while they close when rain is imminent! This is an excellent way to discuss weather prediction with students.
How does it work? Pine cones naturally open and close based on humidity to aid in seed dispersal.
7. Create Your Own Lightning
What You Need: An aluminum pie tin, a wool sock, a Styrofoam block, a pencil with an eraser, and a thumbtack.
To start, push a thumbtack through the center of a pie tin from the underside. Attach the eraser end of a pencil to the thumbtack and set the tin aside. Then, vigorously rub a wool sock against a block of Styrofoam for a few minutes. Next, pick up the aluminum pie pan using the pencil as a handle and place it on top of the Styrofoam block. Touch the aluminum pie pan with your finger—you should feel a shock! If not, try rubbing the sock on the Styrofoam again. Make sure to turn the lights off before touching the pan again to observe a spark resembling lightning!
How does this work? This demonstrates static electricity. Lightning occurs when negative charges (electrons) in the cloud are attracted to positive charges (protons) on the ground, resulting in a spark similar to a mini lightning bolt.
8. Make a Severe-Weather Plan for Your Family
What You Need: Paper and a pencil.
Understanding what to do and where to go in case of severe weather is crucial for every family member. While many families already have fire safety plans, it’s essential to establish procedures for dealing with tornadoes, floods, or hurricanes. Creating a plan beforehand ensures everyone knows how to stay safe during an event.
9. Use Shaving Cream to Make Rain
What You Need: A jar or glass, water, shaving cream, and food coloring.
This simple and fun experiment involves filling a jar two-thirds full with water, then adding a generous amount of shaving cream on top (representing clouds). After that, add a few drops of blue food coloring on top and observe as it “rains.” Explain to your students that this mimics how clouds become heavy with water and eventually release it as rain.
10. Conjure Up Lightning in Your Mouth
What You Need: A mirror, a dark room, wintergreen Life Savers.
Dim the lights and have students wait until their eyes adjust to the darkness. Bite down on a wintergreen candy while looking in the mirror and chew with your mouth open. Students will see sparks and glitters as they do this.
How does this work? This phenomenon, known as triboluminescence, occurs when you crush the candy, generating electric fields similar to electricity in a lightning storm. The wintergreen candy makes it brighter by converting ultraviolet light into visible blue light.
11. Track a Thunderstorm
What You Need: A thunderstorm, a stopwatch, and a journal.
This thrilling activity can be done with your students on a stormy day. Once you see a lightning flash, start the stopwatch immediately and stop when you hear the thunder. Have students record their time. For every five seconds, the storm is 1 mile away, so divide their time by five to determine the distance of the lightning.
How does this work? Light travels faster than sound, which is why there’s a delay between seeing the lightning and hearing the thunder.
12. Make a Thunderstorm Front
What You Need: A clear plastic shoebox, red food coloring, and blue food coloring ice cubes.
To create this model, fill a plastic shoebox two-thirds full with lukewarm water and let it adjust to room temperature. Insert a blue ice cube into the container, then drop three drops of red food coloring at the opposite end. Watch what happens!
How does this work? The colder blue water sinks while the warmer red water rises, demonstrating convection as the warm air is pushed upward by the cold front, leading to a thunderstorm.
13. Create a Water Cycle in a Bag
What You Need: Quart-size snack bags, a Sharpie, food coloring, and tape.
Download our free worksheet bundle for step-by-step instructions to help students create their own water cycle models using everyday materials. Each student can tape their bag to a window and observe the water cycle’s stages daily.
14. Create a Tornado in a Bottle
What You Need: Two 2-liter clear plastic bottles (clean and empty), water, food coloring, and duct tape.
This classic weather experiment is always a hit! Fill one of the bottles two-thirds full with water and add a few drops of food coloring. Seal the two bottles together tightly with duct tape, ensuring no leaks. Turn the bottles upside down and swirl the top bottle in a circular motion to create a tornado effect as the water rushes into the bottom bottle.
How does it work? The swirling motion creates a vortex, simulating a tornado.
15. Make a Warm and Cold Front Model
What You Need: Two drinking glasses, red and blue food coloring, a glass bowl, and cardboard.
Fill one glass with cold water and a couple of drops of blue food coloring, and fill the other glass with hot water and red food coloring. Cut a piece of cardboard to fit snugly into a glass bowl, partitioning it into two sections. Quickly pour the hot water into one half of the bowl and the cold water into the other half. Remove the cardboard separator, and watch as the water swirls and settles, with the cold water at the bottom, the hot water at the top, and a purple zone of mixed colors in between.
16. Play a Round of Weather Charades
What You Need: Paper, pencils, and a paper bag.
Write different weather types—such as lightning, blizzard, rainbow, etc.—on slips of paper and place them in a bag. Divide the students into two teams. A player from team one picks a slip and acts out the weather term without speaking. If their team guesses correctly, they earn a point; if not, the other team gets a chance to guess. Continue until all terms are acted out!
17. Use Ice and Heat to Make Rain
What You Need: A glass jar, a plate, hot water, and ice cubes.
For this impactful experiment, fill a jar one-third full with hot water and place a plate full of ice cubes on top. As the warm water vapor rises and meets the cold plate, condensation forms and streams down the sides of the jar, simulating rain.
18. Grow a Snowflake
What You Need: String, a wide-mouthed jar, long white pipe cleaners, blue food coloring, boiling water, borax, and a pencil.
To craft a snowflake frame, cut a long white pipe cleaner into thirds and twist the sections together to form a six-sided star. Tie the snowflake to the pencil with string. Carefully fill the jar with boiling water (an adult should do this) and add three tablespoons of borax for each cup of water. Stir until dissolved, then hang the snowflake in the jar. Let it sit overnight, and witness the formation of a crystal snowflake!
How does this work? This borax crystal experiment creates a supersaturated solution that crystallizes as it cools, attaching to the pipe cleaner and forming ice-like crystals.
19. Make Magic Snowballs
What You Need: Frozen baking soda, cold water, and vinegar in squirt bottles.
To create fluffy, moldable snowballs, mix two parts baking soda with one part water. Let students squirt vinegar onto their snowballs to create a fizzing and bubbling reaction. It’s a fun way to explore chemical reactions while enjoying winter-themed activities!
20. Keep a Daily Weather Log
What You Need: Printable daily weather logs and crayons, markers, or colored pencils.
Weather occurs daily, yet we often overlook it. To help students pay more attention, have them create a daily weather log. They can use a journal, a homemade booklet, or download our free weather bundle that includes a pre-made weather log ready for use.
21. Catch the Wind with a Pinwheel
What You Need: Pinwheels.
Pinwheels offer a fun way to teach kids about wind power. Purchase a variety of colorful pinwheels or have students create their own using tutorials found online. Each day, when you go outside to observe the weather, let students test the strength and direction of the wind with their pinwheels.
22. Make a Simple Wind Sock
What You Need: A large plastic bag (like a grocery bag), an empty plastic container (like a yogurt tub), clear packing tape, string or yarn, and ribbons or streamers for decoration.
Begin by cutting the rim off the plastic tub. Wrap the edge of the plastic bag around the rim and secure it with tape. Use a hole punch to create a hole in the bag just below the plastic ring. If you don’t have a hole punch, a pencil will work too. Tie a string through the hole and attach it to a high post or railing.
23. Make a Cloud Poster
What You Need: Dark construction paper, cotton balls, black markers, and glue.
This hands-on activity allows students to learn about clouds creatively. Using an information poster or a projected website that illustrates different cloud types (cumulus, cirrus, stratus, etc.), students will replicate these clouds by gluing manipulated cotton balls onto their paper, labeling, and writing facts about each type.
24. Craft a Wind Vane
What You Need: A paper cup, pencil, straw, straight pin, paper plate, and construction paper scraps.
To make a wind vane, turn the paper cup upside down and poke a sharpened pencil down through the middle. Poke a straight pin through the center of the straw and attach it to the eraser end of the pencil. The straw should be perpendicular to the pencil. Cut two small slits at one end of the straw and insert a rectangle of construction paper to create an arrow. Finally, divide the bottom of a paper plate into four quadrants and label them N, S, E, and W before gluing the paper cup weather vane on top.
25. Measure Rain Volume
What You Need: A 2-liter bottle, a Sharpie, stones, water, scissors, and a ruler.
Create a rain gauge by cutting away the top third of the 2-liter plastic bottle. Pack a few stones into the bottom to stabilize it and fill with enough water to cover them. Insert a plastic ruler in the center and record the water level. Invert the top section of the bottle to act as a funnel and place it outside to collect and measure rainfall.
26. Create Art with the Power of the Sun
What You Need: Photo-sensitive paper and various objects like leaves, sticks, and paper clips.
Make beautiful nature prints using sunlight. Place the photo-sensitive paper with its bright-blue side facing up in a shallow tub, arrange objects on top, and leave it in the sun for 2 to 4 minutes. Remove the objects and soak the paper in water for a minute. As it dries, the image will sharpen, creating a lovely display piece.
27. Measure Atmospheric Pressure with a DIY Barometer
What You Need: A dry, empty frozen juice can or coffee can (lid removed), latex balloon, rubber band, tape, two drinking straws, and card stock.
Stretch the balloon over the top of the can and secure it with a rubber band. This becomes your homemade drum. Tape one end of a drinking straw to the center of the balloon, ensuring it hangs to one side. Fold a piece of cardstock in half vertically and mark increments every quarter inch. Set the DIY barometer next to this measurement card. As external air pressure changes, the balloon will inflate or deflate, causing the straw to move up or down, allowing you to take pressure readings throughout the day.
28. Make a Colorful Weather Wheel
What You Need: Paper plates, brads, markers, and construction paper.
Each student receives a paper plate. Have them mark the center and draw lines to divide it into quadrants, illustrating different weather scenes—sunny, rainy, snowy, and windy. Finally, create an arrow from construction paper and attach it to the center. Students can adjust the arrow daily based on the weather.
29. Make a DIY Thermometer
What You Need: A wide-neck clear plastic bottle, water, rubbing alcohol, a clear plastic drinking straw, modeling clay, and food coloring.
Fill the bottle about one-quarter full with equal parts water and rubbing alcohol, adding a few drops of food coloring. Mold modeling clay into a thick disc and create a hole in the center. Push the straw through the hole and secure the clay around the bottle’s opening, ensuring that the straw doesn’t touch the bottom. Warm the bottom of the bottle with your hands and watch the liquid rise through the straw as the molecules expand with heat!
30. Evaporation Experiment
What You Need: Cups and water.
Label and set out cups of water in various locations around the classroom (e.g., in the sun, in the shade, outside the window). Check back over several days to see which cup evaporates the fastest, providing a real-world example of evaporation.
31. Orchestrate a Storm Soundscape
What You Need: Various musical instruments.
Gather a selection of instruments or classroom items (e.g., rain sticks, drums, foil, fans, blocks, cups) and distribute them. Call out different weather types (thunder, rain, wind, tornado, etc.) and let the students create corresponding sounds.
32. Graph the Weather
What You Need: Paper, pencils, and/or markers.
Transform your daily weather report into a math lesson! Experiment with displaying your weather data in various graph formats—line graphs, bar graphs, pie charts, etc.
33. Create a Rainy Art Project with Salt
What You Need: Paper, watercolors, and salt.
Students can paint vibrant rain scenes using watercolors. While the paint is still wet, sprinkle salt onto the artwork to create a “raindrop” texture. Display these beautiful rainy day paintings in the classroom or hallway.
34. Make a Weather Collage
What You Need: Magazines, paper, and glue.
Provide a selection of magazines for students to cut out images representing various weather types—sunshine, clouds, rain, etc. They can then glue these images onto a piece of construction paper to create a collage that transitions from sunny to stormy.
35. Go on a Weather Scavenger Hunt
What You Need: Paper and weather clues.
Take your students outside for a weather scavenger hunt! Create a list of clues that include items like “something blown by the wind,” “a reflection of the sky,” or “a shadow.”
36. Make Wind Chimes
What You Need: Plastic cups and string.
Provide each student with a plastic cup (like a Solo cup) and have them use a hole punch to create five to eight holes just below the rim. Next, they can tie equal lengths of string or yarn to each hole. Students can then use various craft supplies to decorate their wind chimes. On a windy day, take your students outside to listen to the sounds they make!
37. Write Weather Stories
What You Need: Paper and pencils.
Encourage creativity by providing a list of weather-themed story titles to spark students’ imaginations. Suggestions include “The Day the Sunlight Slept In,” “The Storm That Stole My Homework,” and “The Boy Who Caught the Breeze.” Brainstorm together to generate more exciting titles.
38. Write Weather Poetry
What You Need: Paper, pencils, and/or markers.
Weather is a fantastic topic for poetry! Encourage students to write haikus or acrostic poems using weather-related words, ensuring they include vivid descriptions and sensory details.
39. Play Weather Bingo
What You Need: Bingo cards and markers.
Create bingo cards featuring weather vocabulary such as “humidity,” “front,” “gust,” “dew point,” and “forecast.” Call out definitions or clues, and have students mark their cards with the correct answers. The first to get bingo wins, and then students can swap cards for another round!
40. Make Your Own Sun Prints
What You Need: Color construction paper and small objects.
Show students how sunlight can be used to create art through simple sun prints. All you need is construction paper, a few small objects (like leaves or classroom supplies), and a sunny spot. Have students arrange their objects on the paper and leave it in the sun. As the light hits the paper, the exposed areas will fade while the covered shapes remain dark, revealing a clear print. This fun experiment connects the sun’s energy to weather and seasons!
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