As spring approaches we see a lot of changes in the weater which make it a great time to explore with some fun weather activities for kids and weather experiments for kids to help children understand more about wind, rain, clouds, and more! I’ll show you how to make a weather vane the EASY way, make a homemade compass and more weather kindergarten, preschool, pre-k, first grade, 2nd grade, 3rd grade, and 4th graders will be interested in. So grab a couple simple materials you probably have at home and make this homemade weather vane today.
How to make a weather vane
This fun DIY Weather vane is such a fun weather activities for preschoolers, kindergartners, grade 1, grade 2, grade 3, and grade 4 students. The how to make a weather van is a fun way to study the winder, weather, and clouds with young kids, because the results are so tangible and relevant to their lives. Is the temperature too low? Maybe we should play inside instead of going to the park. Is there a chance of precipitation today? Better take a jacket and umbrella if we have somewhere to go. Even kids as young as preschool and kindergarten can learn to read a thermometer or make simple scientific apparatus such as a wind sock or rain gauge. Even if they don’t learn the difference between cirrus and cumulus, in today’s fast paced society, every child should spend at least some time cloud watching. This science project will teach you how to make a weather vane.
Historically, weather vanes have been in existence and used to help predict the weather for over 2,000 years. Unfortunately, these predictions are not always very accurate. However, although meteorology is a lot more complicated than the direction the wind is coming from, knowing this information can be used to make better educated guesses about the weather.
Make a weather vane
For added educational value, kids can easily make their own homemade compass to help orient their weather vane while simultaneously learning something about the Earth’s magnetic field.
For example, if the wind is coming from the north in the northern hemisphere, one might expect the temperature to cool off since average temperatures are typically colder the closer one gets to the Earth’s poles. (In the southern hemisphere, southern winds would be more likely to have a cooling effect.) Conversely, if the wind was coming from the direction of the equator (so the south in the northern hemisphere, north in southern hemisphere), one might predict warmer weather is on its way. If you live near an ocean, wind from that direction might suggest an increase in humidity (the amount of moisture in the air). Whether or not their predictions are reliable, kids can have fun practicing their weather forecasting skills.
Weather vane
All you need for this weather project for kids are a few simple materials you already have at your house or in your classroom. So grab your supplies and let me show you how to make a wind vane.
- straw
- unsharpened, unused pencil
- empty circular plastic container with lid (such as sour cream, cottage cheese, yogurt, etc.)
- playdough (enough to fill the bottom of your container about 1/2 inch)
- ball pin
- 1 sheet of card stock
- needle
- refrigerator magnet (ours looks like a silver push pin in the picture above)
- small square piece of Styrofoam (at least about 1″ x 1″)
- bowl
- glue
- scissors
- x-acto knife
- pencil
- markers
- tape (optional)
- ruler (optional)
Homemade Weather Vane
Let’s walk you through the simple steps for how build a weather vane. First, trace the lid of the plastic container onto the cardstock and cut it out. Use the X-acto knife to make an “x”-shaped hole in the lid of the plastic container and use the hole to mark the center of your circle. If desired, draw a compass rose onto your cardstock circle. Otherwise, just label the 4 cardinal direction with N, S, E, and W. Glue the circle onto the lid.
DIY weather vane
If desired, cut out and decorate a piece of cardstock to wrap around your plastic container. Ours says, “Which Way Does the Wind Blow?” and I had my kids decorate thier homemade wind vane with a weather theme (storm clouds, sun, rain, lightening, etc.)
How to make a wind vane
Attach the label to the plastic container with tape or glue. Fill the inside of the container with about 1/2 inch of play dough. After the glue dries on the lid, use the X-acto knife to cut an “x” in the center of the paper and push the unused pencil through the lid.
DIY wind vane
Place the lid back on the container, pushing the pencil into the playdough so that the pencil is firmly held in place sticking straight out of the container.
Next, flatten your straw a bit, so that you can see a crease on the top and bottom. (If your straw has a bendy section, cut if off first.) Using the creases as a guide, cut a small slit on the top and bottom of each end (4 slits total). Each slit should be about 1/4 inch in length.
Cut out a square and triangle from the cardstock to make an arrow’s tail and point. Our square was 3″ on each side and our triangle had a 2 inch base and a 1.5 inch height. However, the exact dimensions (and even shape) are not really that important. What is important is that the tail of the arrow is much larger (has a greater surface area) than the point.
Decorate the tail and point if desired.
Place the square and triangle onto the ends of the straw. Add a little glue along each slit for added security.
Wind vane project
Using the crease in the straw again as a guide, push a ball pin through the straw and into the pencil, doing your best to make everything as straight as possible. Since the square end of the straw is heavier than the triangle, placing the pin a little closer to that end will help it be better balanced and remain straight instead of tipped. Our pin is located about 1/3 of the length of the straw (about 2.5 inches) from the square end (2/3 of the length (about 5 inches) from the triangle end).
How to build a weather vane
Now that I’ve showed you how to build a weather vane, your weather vane is ready! Before you use it however, you’ll want to orient the directions properly so that you know which direction the wind is coming from. To do this, you could use your own compass. However it is more fun to make your own.
Weather Vane DIY
The first thing you need to do to make your homemade compass is to magnetize your needle by rubbing the magnet in the same direction from one end of the needle to the other for about a minute. (Do not rub it back and forth.)
Next, glue the magnetized needle onto the Styrofoam.
Weather vanes
After the glue dries, place the Styrofoam and needle into a bowl of water and the needle will line up with the Earth’s magnetic field which runs between the North pole to the South pole. You can check the accuracy of your homemade compass with a real compass.
How to make a compass at home
Unfortunately, you will not know which end of your needle is north and which is south, so hopefully you will have a vague idea which direction is north already. Or use the sun as a guide, remember the sun rises in the east and sets in the west.
Once you know which direction is north, simply orient your weather vane so that your compass rose is properly aligned.
How to make a weathervane
The way the weather vane works is that the wind is more likely to push the tail end of the arrow than the point end since the tail end has greater surface area. The wind pushes the tail in the direction it is blowing, causing the arrow to point in the direction the wind came from. Kids can test this by simply blowing on the weather vane and seeing how the arrow always turns to point back at them. Have fun watching your kids be young meteorologists!
Weather Activities
- Simple Air Pressure Experiments for kids
- EPIC Lego Water Cycle Model for Kids
- Rain Cloud for Kids experiment and free worksheet
- How to Make a Weather Vane – easy weather science project for elementary age students
Weather Science
- Type of Cloud Activities for Kids with FREE Printable Worksheets
- Cold Front Weather Science Experiments for Kids
- Water Cycle in a Bag Weather Activity with free printable worksheet
- Amazing Rising Water with burning candle Air Pressure Experiment
- Free Printable Water Cycle for Kids Flip Book
Weather Theme
- Lots of fun ideas for a weather theme this week
- Grow a Rainbow Activity for Kids
- Clever Rain Craft for kids to make
- Hibernation preschool activities learning about weather
- Severe Storms for Kids – includes tornado in a bottle, what to do in an emergency, and storm worksheets for kids
- 2 Hands-on Water Cycle Activities for Kids
Weather Printables
- Large Printable Weather Unit for kids
- Free Printable Seasons Worksheets w/ Free 4 Season Printables
- FREE Printable Water Cycle Worksheets for Kids
- Lots of weather printables to help kids learn about weather terms while epracticing math and literacy skills
- Clouds for Kids Mini Book
Spring Alphabet Printables
- Seed Find the Letter Worksheets perfect for spring letter learning
- Spring Letter Reveral Worksheets
- Ladybug free alphabet printables activity
- Alphabet Popsicles – hands-on phonics game for pre-k and kindergarten
- Spring Showers Letter Matching Game for kids
- Free Printable Bunny Alphabet Matching Game
- Spring Initial i Blends Game
- Bug Free Printable Sight Word Games
- Farm Sight Word Games for Kindergarten
- Word Family Flower Template to cut & paste
- Butterfly Printable Rhyming Games
- Flower Sight Word Maze Worksheets
Spring Math
- April Showers Multiplication Craft
- Butterfly Spring Addition Mats Activity for Kindergarten
- Spring Number Puzzle to trace, count, and match
- Butterfly Addition math puzzles for spring and summer
- Spring Counting Games for Kindergarten 1-20
- Printable Spring Math Number Sense to 20 Activity
- Free Number Sense Worksheets for spring
- Learning Colors Spring Sorting Activity
- Spring place value cards printable free
- Butterfly Math missing addend game
- Flower Number Name Puzzle Worksheet
- Spring Math Games – Double Digit Addition Math Game for Spring
- Free printable Spring Math Activities for Preschoolers
Spring Math for Preschoolers
- Hands-on counting with Rainbow activities for preschoolers
- Playdough Ladybug Counting Activity
- Bird Filefolder Addition Game
- Spring Suduko Easy – free printable problem solving skills activity for kids
- April showers Spring Math activity working on number sense
- Addition clouds – spring math activities for preschoolers
- Spring math worksheets for pre-k and kindergarten
- Umbrella Craft Preschool for workign on counting to 10 with free template
Kindergarten Spring Math
- Catch 20 Bug Counting Activity for preschoolers and kindergartners
- Number Sense Butterfly Activities for Preschoolers
- Garden Telling Time Worksheets pdf free
- Frog multiplication game printable
- Math frog grade 4 worksheets
- Addition frog math game for kids
- Carrot Shape Playdough Mats
- Hungry Caterpillar Number Tracing Worksheets
- Days of the week printables featuring the Hungry Caterpillar
- Spring math activities for preschool using clip cards
Free Spring Printables
- Spring Bingo Dauber Sheets featuring clothes
- Counting to 20 Spring Playdough Mats
- Garden Printables with fun in the garden worksheet answers
- Kindergarten Spring Worksheets
- Free printable Flower scavenger hunt
- Spring printable bookmarks for kids
- Free printable spring directed drawing
- Spring worksheets for kindergarten
- Roll and Dab spring activity sheets for toddlers
- Learning colors for toddlers games sorting kite tassles (free printable)
- Spring Coloring Sheets
- Bug Coloring Sheets
Spring Crafts for Kids
Whether you want to make colorful spring rainbow crafts, umbrella rain crafts, butterfly crafts, or baby animal craft projects, we’ve got some cute ideas!
- Simple Windsock Craft for kids
- Rainbow Painting with Kids using hot wheel cars
- Painting Spring Flowers with Celery flower activities for toddlers
- Simply stunning spring art for toddlers with a washable inkpad
- Rainbow Ice Cream Stick Craft
- Tissue Paper Butterly Craft for Kids
- Cute, printable Name flower craft
- Pretty Egg Carton Flowers
- Super cute and easy-to-make pasta necklace craft
Responses
Thank you for sharing this fun, and useful craft!! I can’t wait to make these with my grandchildren!
Thanks
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