If you’re looking for an idea for a rainy or chilly day, you don’t have to worry. These weather activities for kids will keep the little ones entertained and engaged all winter long. They’ll learn about the sky, storms, and more without realizing they’re getting smarter!
There are so many amazing websites with interactive lessons on everything related to physics, engineering, weather patterns, and more that you can use at home with your kids. Make a day of it with this fun and informative weather activities for kids list.
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1. Start With A Weather Journal
Visit your local library, school, or book store. They have tons of great resources for kids to keep them engaged and informed about weather in general and the day’s forecast. Make a day of it, and create some fun graphs and charts using their information. Or just make charts at home as a family while watching the weather report on TV.
2. Make It Rain
Create a mood piece with your child by pouring rain, making it snow, or storming out the windows. You can also make a funny mess in the kitchen (see below) to get them involved.
3. Head Outside
Take your child outside to see the backyard lightning and hear thunder rumbles while studying the sky from their porch or driveway. It’s also a good idea to have an umbrella handy just in case!
4. Fractions In Snowflake
Use a white sheet of paper, chocolate chips, or colored sprinkles to make a giant snowflake. Use your child’s math skills to figure out how many chocolate chips or sprinkles it takes for the shape to be one fraction. You can also use this activity to help them learn about fractions in general.
5. Painting With Rain
This is an easy one and a lot of fun, too. Just fill a plastic container with water and let your child dip their paintbrush. Using their brush strokes, you can give them very simple shapes to paint on the driveway or sidewalk to focus on the water. Or you can give them paper and let them create artwork using the rain.
6. Create Your Miniature Water Cycle
Get some construction paper, crayons, or colored pencils and take them outside for a water cycle lesson. Create a “water table” in your backyard and have them paint, sculpt or draw the water cycle and draw it out on the paper. Or use their hands to turn over and create puddles that fill back up with water from their stomping feet.
7. Ice And Heat Make Rain
You need a sock, a pad of fabric softener, and an empty plastic container. Fill the container with water and freeze it. Put the sock on your child’s hand and add two tablespoons of fabric softener to the ice. Then have them rub their hand all over the ice until it melts, which causes rain!
8. Cottonball Clouds
Get a bag of cotton balls, lots and lots of them. Fill your bathtub with warm water, and then soak the cotton balls. When they are saturated, have your child watch them float up to the ceiling like little clouds. Turn on a movie or start your music player for background noise so you can watch their cute little clouds dance around the bathroom.
9. “How’s The Weather Today” Song
This is a really easy song for kids to learn about the weather. It’s also great for a quick and easy music activity – just turn on your music player and have them follow along to the song as they dance, march or jump around.
10. Make A Puddle Mess
Collect a bunch of cotton balls and pop them in the bathroom for this messy fun mess. Just give them a kid-sized stick and have them dip it in water, then take that wet stick and neatly collect the cotton balls with it into a pile on the ground. You can also use this activity to teach your child about different size puddles, why the puddles look like they do, or how they form.
11. Watch The Fog Roll In
Take your child outside on a nice day to watch the fog roll in. Point out how far away it is, how it moves and how it would feel to walk through it. You can even make a game of it by seeing if you can spot something far away that they can’t see – then they have to pick up their binoculars or telescope and try to find what you’ve spotted.
12. Watch The Cloud Alphabet Dance
This is so easy, but it’s also so much fun. Have your child stand in front of you and break out into the cloud alphabet – UH-OH, P-POW, A-ANN, etc. You can then have them trace the letter with their finger or even stamp it with their feet.
13. Make a Cloud Poster
Collect a bunch of cloud-shaped objects and shapes from around the house. Then hang them up on the wall as clouds to make an alphabet chart for your child to copy. You can also print it out and have him paste it onto a poster board for extra “learning” fun.
14. Rainbow Reflections
This is a great activity with your child on a rainy day. When you go outside, look for rainbows in the puddles and have her try to find one. Then ask her what color the rainbow is, where it’s pointing, etc. Have her stand in front of the rainbow (keeping out of the way of any traffic), and then put your rainbow refraction experiment into action.
15. Handprints On The Sun
Give your child some hand sanitizer, a jar lid, and a beach umbrella. They’ll have so much fun with this one! You just need to get your child to make some handprints in the sand. And since you’re going to be outside anyway, you might as well bring along these handprint beach toys and play with them while your kids do the prints.
16. Predict Rain
This is a great way to practice reading the weather, learning about different types of weather, and learning how the weather works. Ask your child to draw a picture of what it looks like outside based on whether it’s raining outside, snowing, or storming. Have them draw what you see out the window and match their drawing to the actual weather.
17. Create Your Lightning
Collect some flashlights (especially if it’s stormy out), a couple of plastic bottles, and a piece of tinfoil. You also need to have lots of popsicle sticks and paper or cardboard. Have your child cover the bottom of their plastic bottle with foil to create their lightning bolt. Then have them go out in the yard and try to find the flashlights that will match their fake bolts.
18. Wind Pinwheels
You need to collect a stack of books and throw them out in the yard. It’s hard to explain this one, but it’s a fun game for kids and lets them spend some time outdoors on windy days. Just have your child hold onto their favorite book and try to keep it balanced on top of the pile of books or even their head. They will also get a chance to test how much strength they have by trying to squish their book with their fingers, too!
19. Predicting Thunder
Set up these fun little science experiments to help your child predict when the next storm will hit so they can get their raincoat and umbrella ready!
20. Create Lightning In Your Mouth
This is a neat activity for older kids (5+ or so) to do by themselves. You need to collect a couple of straws, tape, grapes, and aluminum foil. Have your child tape the end of the straw together, forcing it together until it’s sealed well. Then have them put the foil around their finger and wrap the ends around their fingers like lightning. Put those two things on top of a grape – and WHOOSH! Lightning in your mouth!
21. Make A Thunderstorm Front
This will be fun to do while the rain is coming down. Have your child stand in your front yard and pretend that the clouds will rain. Draw a line (maybe with their finger) from where it will start raining, all the way across your yard, back up, and over to where it’s not going to rain.
22. Fog It Up!
It’s not exactly a science experiment, but it’s fun. You need to collect some dishwashing liquid, water, and a deflated soccer ball. Pour the dishwashing liquid into the ball and squeeze it until all the air is out. Then you can toss it back and forth like a beach ball that spits out the fog!
23. Sun Sensitive Art
If your child is old enough, you can help them create some sun artworks of their own! The most important thing is to teach them how to use a stick to mark out the shapes they want. You might want to give them some paint, too, just in case it gets dark.
24. Swirl Up A tornado
The key to this is a small rotating fan. You can use it to blow up a plastic bag, create some tornado art or even blow the leaves off the ground! Make sure the fan is on low so that it doesn’t hurt your child. And make sure he or she stays well away from it, too!
25. Make A Warm And Cold Front Model
Set up this really fun – and really easy – sensory activity. You need two bowls, 2 cups of water, and some food coloring. Pour one color into each bowl, then have your child hold his hand inside the water until it’s warm. Then use some tongs to place his hand in the cold water for a little bit and see how long he can stand it!
26. Grow A Snowflake
This is a great way to spend some of those winter days. Have your child help you pour some water into a bowl and then add food coloring. Then you can use these fun little ice trays so that they can watch the snowflakes grow!
27. DIY Weather Sensory Bottle
You can do this with your child on a lazy day at home. You make your weather bottle by filling a 2-liter soda or juice bottle with water and other things that will make it interesting. Then freeze it in the winter or during warmer months. You might want to use some science experiments to go along with this one (like the seeds in a jar experiment).
28. Make Magic Snowballs
This is another great activity to do if you want to play in the yard during the winter or even just for fun on a rainy day. Make up your magic snowballs by mixing water and dishwashing liquid and filling a plastic bag. Then, see if your child can throw it out of their hand without it melting!
29. Observe The Intensity Of The Wind
This is a great exercise game and will also teach your child how strong the wind is in your area! Have them jump up and down as fast as they can for one minute, then sit down and take off some layers. Then it’s time to play tag or just run around the yard!
30. Homemade Rain Gauge
It’s nice to have your child observe the rain and see how much the rain gauge is pouring down. This would be a great outdoor activity for kids this time of year. You can make it their own by using their favorite colors and patterns.