I love to include seasonally relevant themes in our Preschool curriculum. Following the seasons as they change is a great way to mix things up and make planning so much easier for you. So once the weather starts to get interesting here in North Texas, I know it’s time to break out the Weather theme. And let me tell you – it does not disappoint! This Weather Preschool theme is packed with Math, Literacy and Fine Motors practice!
Whether you’re teaching in the classroom or at home, you’ll love how easy it is to bring this seasonal theme to life without the overwhelm of planning it all yourself. Below you’ll find tons of activities and tips!
Table of Contents – CLICK to jump ahead!
Weather Theme Sensory Bin
One of the easiest ways to add excitement and hands-on learning to your preschool week is with a themed sensory bin. So many of the activities in our Weather Preschool pack incorporate a sensory bin, so it’s best to knock out the preparation early on! Our weather sensory bin is always a hit—it’s simple to put together and offers tons of playful learning opportunities! Here’s how I like to set ours up!
FIRST, gather your materials. I like to use a plastic storage bin with a lid so I can cover and store the bin once it’s prepared. Choose your filler, like the white cotton balls we use in ours. Something about the cotton balls (or “clouds” as we call them in our weather bin) really makes all the colors in our weather activities POP and gives children a very unique texture to experience. Once you’ve chosen your filler, fill your storage bin as much as you feel comfortable with (knowing each individual child can handle working with different amounts of materials).
NEXT, grab some extra weather themed items like blue marbles for rain drops, plastic snowflakes, cut up yellow straws for rays of sunshine, etc. These items make the perfect backdrop for the printable items in our preschool weather activities! Scatter them throughout your sensory bin filler and watch the theme really come to life!
FINALLY, choose a space that you feel comfortable using the sensory bin with your child. I tuck ours away in our homeschool room with the rest of our Preschool manipulatives, and keep our sensory bin blanket nearby for when it’s time to get to work. The rule with our bins – everything stays on the blanket! This makes clean up SO much easier.
READY, SET, PLAY!!! When your sensory bin is not being used for the printable activities in our weather Preschool theme, allow children to explore freely! Watch them scoop, pour, dig, and more! I love taking our bin our when I need a little extra quiet time for homeschooling an older child, or honestly if I just need an extra minute to sip my hot coffee!
Weather Preschool Theme Overview
This Weather Preschool theme is sure to give your little learners TONS of fun practice! Children will have 15 center-style activities to choose from – 5 Math, 5 Literacy and 5 Fine Motor centers. In addition, I’ve included book recommendations for 5 weather theme picture books and links to their read aloud videos on YouTube!
To use these printables, you can follow the PRE-MADE lesson plans for a week full of fun! Each of the 5 pre-planned days your students will have 1 read aloud, 1 Math activity, 1 Literacy activity, and 1 Fine Motor activity to work on. This is a great pace for little learners! But if you’d like to spread the activities out or rearrange them according your own child’s needs, simply print our provided Build-Your-Own Plans page and make your own plans!
PS See how we use this theme in our Preschool scope and sequence by grabbing our FREE Preschool Curriculum Map below!
Math Activities
This set of printables has 5 fun Weather Preschool theme activities for practicing early Math skills. Children will practice number formation, number identification, counting, colors, and shapes. Our Preschool activities always include the use of small manipulatives for added fine motor skills practice!
One of my favorite weather theme Math activities is the activity shown above! “Find and cover” games are always such a fun way to get kiddos excited about learning, because who doesn’t love playing games?? To use this activity, children choose a could number card from their stack. They’ll find the matching number on the rainbow mat and cover it using a raindrop or manipulative from the sensory bin. Continue until all of the numbers have been covered!
Literacy Activities
In addition to the Math centers, this set includes 5 early Weather Preschool Literacy activities! Children will practice skills like letter identification, letter formation, beginning sounds, and handwriting practice with weather theme vocabulary words!
Included in the Literacy printables from our weather theme is the activity shown above. We love matching mats! They take your regular old “find the answer” practice page and turn it into a game! To use this activity, children choose weather picture cards from their sensory bin and identify the missing beginning sound. Then they’ll use the weather picture card to match the beginning letter on the mat until all of the letters have been covered!
BONUS TIP: Extend this activity by discussing the sound each letter makes, and come up with words that begin with the sounds!
Fine Motor Activities
When working with little learners, strengthening fine motor skills is a must! Our 5 weather theme fine motor activities will have your children working hard and having TONS of fun! They will practice scissor skills, mold using play dough, trace using manipulatives, and so much more!
An activity I love to include in all the themes of our preschool curriculum is a set of play dough prompt cards. We all know that play dough can lose its luster after a while. So adding in activities like prompt cards brings them back to life with a twist!
And… I lesson planned FOR YOU!
This set of activities (and all of the other 45+ sets in our FULL Preschool Curriculum) include a full week of print and go visual lesson plans! It shows you exactly which books and printables to use each day for a 5-day school week, making lesson planning an absolute breeze!
Want to build your own? Or maybe your kiddos are ready for some of the activities but not all of them? That’s great! Use the included Build Your Own lesson plans page! These thematic centers were designed with growing learners ages 2.5 to 5 years old in mind, so this lesson planning page allows you to choose which activities your child is ready for right now!
More March fun!
Ready to learn with your toddlers or Preschoolers ALL MONTH LONG?! You can save TONS when you grab this set of centers in our March Preschool Curriculum! The bundle includes 4 engaging March themes (like St. Patrick’s Day, Lucky Charms, and more!), complete with a week of lesson plans for each! You’ll also get 25 NO PREP St. Patrick’s Day themed fine motor skills worksheets and crafts, and 38 NO PREP Math and Literacy worksheets for extended practice!
Let’s hang out!
I hope this post helped you get a better look at our Weather Theme Preschool activities! Got questions? Let me know! I’d love to chat and get to know you better! You can find us below in some of our favorite places to hang out. Can’t wait to chat with you about your Preschooler’s learning journey!
SAVE THIS POST FOR LATER!
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