Tag Archives: Weather

Clouds and a Cotton Ball

Natural Disasters, Weather Leave a comment

For this activity, your little one demonstrated how rain falls from clouds with the help of cotton balls, turkey basters, and water. To initiate this activity, your budding meteorologist learned about the physical properties of clouds, how they are created, hold water, and eventually form hurricanes. This activity accessed several areas of development.

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By adding water to the cotton balls, each student experimented with a variety of measurement concepts such as volume, density, and weight. As they regarded the varying amount of water seeping from their “clouds”, they experienced the physical components of cause and effect. Lastly, they acquired new language, as they discussed how their clouds changed shape with the added water.

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What Happens to Rain?

Seasons Leave a comment

Teaching scientific concepts to young children poses unique challenges, so in our classroom, we use simple vocabulary and fun projects to keep them captivated! Water rotation is an ideal introduction to rain formation, so we talked about where rain comes from and where it goes! With Playdoh, sticks, salt shakers, and blue water, we practiced making it rain on our “land” and then watched as it returned to the “ocean”. Hands-on activities such as these reinforce complicated concepts and allow your preschoolers to grasp how rain works!

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Seasons Trees

Seasons Leave a comment

Young children are aware of the seasons, and can recognize the changes they perceive throughout the year. Because they are naturally curious, they question the differences that distinguish one season from the other. This activity served to do just that! Using sticks, different colored leaves, cotton, and Playdoh, we created our very own trees! These trees were special because they transformed throughout the changing seasons. We began with spring, discussed its characteristics, and constructed our trees to resemble the abundance and newness of life. As we continued through the seasons, our trees changed. Leaves changed color, fell, and were eventually covered by snow. As your little one moved from season to season, they were given vocabulary to describe the changes they were experiencing. By building and rebuilding their trees, your little one was able to practice and apply their understanding of new concepts, and had fun while doing it!

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Cloud Jars

Seasons, Weather 1 Comment

Using paper towels, eye droppers, and blue water, we explored the exciting science behind cloud and rain formation! Using the eye droppers, we dropped blue water onto the paper towels. As the towel became saturated, the “rain” began to pour inside the jar! Sensory and discovery activities offer a means to introduce scientific concepts to young children.

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As they engage in the activity, they are practicing what they are learning. The actions they take part in allow them to experience a concept. As we were doing this activity, your little one was encouraged to talk about what they saw and what they were doing.

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Doing this enables their understanding of the physical and mental processes they are experiencing and provides them with the vocabulary to describe it.

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