We have enjoyed learning about weather during a weather unit study in both 2021 and 2022. The first time we studied weather, our children were 4, 2, and 7 months. The most recent time, we had a 6, 4, and 2 year old. We enjoyed several experiments, tv shows about weather, and lots of interesting picture books during both of our units.
I had purchased the Magic School Bus weather kit as something easy to do with my older two when our third baby was born, but we wound up not really using it, so we had a lot of the activities to use in 2021, and several were reusable.
The Water Cycle
We learned the water cycle song and completed several of the Magic School Bus precipitation experiments.
It’s always so nice when the environment cooperates with your lessons! We had this awesome cloud formation to observe during our weather unit in 2022. Back in 2021 we made these super cute cloud viewers using cotton balls when we learned about different types of clouds.
We also played with instant snow. This was really fun, but a word of caution – this stuff makes a MESS. The first time we used it, I brought our sensory table into the house and they played over the tile floor. The snow wound up all over the floor and it became dangerously slippery. The next time we used it, we played with it in the bathtub with beach towels underneath the bin.
Tornadoes
Tornadoes are a favorite here! We enjoyed creating a tornado in a bottle and learning about how tornadoes form. We also practiced our family’s tornado drill so everyone would know what to do in case we ever have to take shelter.
Hurricanes
My (instagram-turned-real-life) friend Anna, a fellow homeschool mom, did this amazing activity with her kids one hurricane season to track a hurricane that was headed our way, and I just knew we would have to include it in our unit. The kids place cooked spaghetti noodles down on a hurricane tracker map showing the different tracks an approaching storm may take. I’ve laminated our maps so that we can use them for future hurricane seasons!
Another really cool hurricane experiment we did was churning up some water and dropping in food coloring so that we could see the way a hurricane forms. I filmed the clip below with the boomerang feature, so just be aware that the hurricane only travels in one direction! First, you rapidly stir a bowl of water in one direction. Then, drop several drops of food coloring into the center of the bowl and watch the way it gathers together to form a hurricane shape. This was a huge hit, and we did it over and over again.
Do you learn primarily through unit studies in your homeschool, too? Make sure to check out our other unit study posts here! Every unit study we’ve done has a companion one-page freebie with examples of resources we used during the unit. You can get the free download for the weather unit study from my TpT store here.
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