Singing In The Rain: Learning About Weather in Pre-K

Our Pre-K class has been learning about the weather. We've learned quite a bit through fun activities and experiments.

Counting Raindrops on Cloud Mats

I made these little cloud mats from blue paper. Originally, I made them as a small group game where the children either roll a die or draw a numbered card and count out the number of glass raindrop beads onto the cloud. The children have also delighted in just playing with the mats and beads, making up their own games or designs as they play.

TV Weather Station
I transformed a little area of our Science Center into a tv weather station. One evening I gave the children "homework" and asked them to watch the weather portion of the news. They really enjoyed pretending to be a meteorologist. 

Weather Wheels
We made our own little "weather wheels" by drawing on a paper plate divided into sections. We talked about what type of weather we usually have in our area to decide which conditions (rain, sun, clouds, snow, wind, etc.) to include. As we did this with several small groups, different groups included different weather on their wheels.

Weather Magazines

Disclaimer:   The publishers over at Scholastic's "My Big World" preschool classroom magazines sent us a class supply of the magazines to try out. (While I did receive the issues for free for classroom use, I am not being paid to promote or endorse Scholastic or their magazines. The opinions expressed below are strictly my own based on our class experiences with the magazines.) 

We used Scholastic's "My Big World" preschool classroom magazine as a small group activity, reading together and doing the activity on the back. Thank you, "My Big World" magazine, and especially Janice, for sharing these with us! We really enjoyed them and we learned a lot! 

I was really tickled to see some of the children getting their magazines out later on and having a little "small group" of their own! The magazines are very easy for children to follow and "read along", even if they can't independently read the actual text yet! 

If you'd like more info on ordering "My Big World" magazines for your class, please visit the Scholastic website or click here.

Art
As it often happens, our learning focus often creeps into whatever the students are creating in art center.

Flying Kites
Kite making has been a very popular activity in our art center and flying the homemade kites has been the highlight of our outdoor time!

Singing About Weather
We LOVE The Learning Station's music in our class. They have a wonderful version of "Singing In The Rain" that really gets us moving. If you are not familiar with it, you should check it out! They also have a wonderful youtube station filled with great children's music videos.




Weather Experiments
We've conducted some pretty cool weather experiments in our class. You can read more about the experiments and kite making/flying, plus get a FREE printable weather recording chart on PreK+K Sharing: Exploring Weather With Science Experiments in Preschool.

Books About Weather

These are some of the books we've been reading about weather!

Thanks for visiting!  Be sure to leave a little "comment love"---I'd love for you to share your thoughts! 

Check out the little illuminations facebook fan page and see what we're sharing today!

TOP 10 of 2012

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!!

It's been a wonderful year! I'd like to thank the readers here for taking time to read, comment, share and pin the posts here. I get so many of my classroom ideas from things other teachers share, and little illuminations provides me with a way for me to pay it forward (just a little) by sharing here. I am so thankful to get to know so many wonderful folks via the blogosphere and social media. I was even lucky enough to meet several bloggy buddies this year in person! (note to self: I still need to finish that post about the meet-ups at NAEYC!)

To start the year off, I thought I'd share some of your favorite posts. These are the Top 10 little illuminations posts from 2012!

   10.  Perky Penguins In Pre-K
    9.   Jump Rope For Heart
    8.   All in A Day's Play
    7.   Pet Week Play In Pre-K
    6.   Baby, It's Cold Outside
    5.   A Gift For Dad, A Book and A Bloghop
    4.   Discovery Bottle Inspiration
    3.   Cloudy With A Chance Of Weather
    2.   Making Literacy Connections With Our Names

 And DRUMROLL, please......  the NUMBER 1 post of 2012 is:

    1.   Signing In And Out Of Pre-K

In all honesty, posts about bulletin boards are year-round hits---the number of visits to those posts far outnumber any others. I didn't include them in the list above for that reason. I thought I'd include a list of the TOP 5 Bulletin Board posts of 2012 here:

     5.  Back To School Bulletin Boards...Redux
     4.  Spring Bulletin Boards
     3.  Dr. Seuss Bulletin Boards
     2.  Fabulous Fall Bulletin Boards
     1.  St. Patrick's Day Bulletin Boards

Now, you've seen what was popular on little illuminations. What was YOUR favorite little illuminations post in 2012? Please share it in the comments!


Thanks for visiting!  Be sure to leave a little "comment love"---I'd love for you to share your thoughts! 

Check out the little illuminations facebook fan page and see what we're sharing today!

Cloudy With A Chance of Weather

We've just completed our weather unit and we've tried some really neat things! We recorded the weather each day for a week.

We wrote "weather words" in our journals and even illustrated the pictures.

One of my students gave me these wonderful weather wheels for Christmas. We colored the wheels and put them together, then used them in our circle time weather watching activities.

The publishers over at Scholastic's "Clifford The Big Red Dog" preschool classroom magazines sent us a class supply of the weather issue to try out. We used them as a small group activity, reading together and doing the activity on the back. We especially enjoyed the rainbow, as we've been learning about the colors that comprise a rainbow. Thank you, "Clifford The Big Red Dog" magazine, and especially, Janice, for sharing these with us! We really enjoyed them!

We tried some really cool experiments to simulate weather and cloud processes. This experiment allowed use to see how clouds fill and then rain falls.

This experiment helped us "see" condensation and rain.

We made some cloud murals after reading "It Looked Like Spilt Milk".

We found a way to incorporate some movement in with our weather activities. The teacher calls out a weather word, and the students have to "be the weather"!

Here are some of our favorite weather themed books:

 

 

 



Thanks for visiting! Leave a little "comment love"~I'd love for you to share your thoughts!  

We are now "Informed" Weather Watchers!

We had a very special guest some to ur school to speak with us last week. Jeff Rucker, our local meteorologist with WAGT-26, came to talk to us about weather and weather forecasting. It was an AWESOME visit and we learned so much!

As excited as we all were, I admit that I was a little wary of his visit. Last year, we visited one of our other local stations for a field trip. The entire tour lasted less than 10 minutes. We then invited a different meteorologist to visit and the "weather talk" was so far over the kids' heads (and the teachers!) that they really didn't get anything out of it. I vowed this year to get someone to speak that the kids would enjoy, so they would really be able to learn something from the visit. Well, let me tell you, I did my homework this year, and this visit was fantastic!

Mr. Rucker talked to the kids about different kinds of weather. Did you know that raindrops are actually shaped liked pancakes? We do, thanks to Mr. Rucker!

He also brought a few weather instruments and demonstrated them for us.

That may look like a hair dryer, but for these purposes, it is an official "wind demonstration device"!

This is part of an actual weather balloon that had been deployed and found.

This is a lightning machine. It was pretty cool. We learned first hand how lightning can travel! The kids each got a turn to try it if they chose to.

This one made a little cloud! Did you know that fog is just a little cloud right near the ground?

When he added the top of the device, it made a tornado!

Here's a little video of the tornado in motion. Sorry it's sideways--I turned the camera to get a better shot. :|

Thank you, Jeff Rucker, for an awesome visit! The kids were so excited and learned so much. While watching the visit on the local news that night, I also experienced one of my proudest moments as a teacher. As he played  a little video clip on the news he complimented the children on "asking good questions" and not just "sharing stories". This is something we work on all year. I was SO PROUD of some of the questions the friends asked! The visit definitely made an impression and they are very informed "Weather Watchers" now. They even remember some of the "big" words like "anemometer", "thermometer" and especially, "meteorologist"!