It’s March in Delaware which means that one day you are playing outside in shorts and the next you are preparing for snow. This week is the perfect example. We have seen a rainy day, a cloudy day, two somewhat sunny but very windy days, and they are calling for two inches of snow before the week is over. What a perfect week to study weather!
Other than reading our usual stack of weather related books, we also took advantage of the sunny days to venture outside. There is no better way to study weather than to get out and experience it first hand!
Journaling to Teach Weather
We have an air museum that my kids absolutely LOVE, because what kids don’t love airplanes. They have been bugging and bugging me to go check it out. So this week I made good on my promise and off to the air museum we went.
I packed our journals and after about 10 minutes, we parked it under the wing of a massive airplane and sat down. We looked up at the sky, talked about what we saw. Then, I gave the kids their journals and asked them to draw the weather or what they saw in the sky.
Now you have to remember my kiddos are almost 3, and 4 years old. I wasn’t expecting Picasso, I just wanted them to observe and draw.
On this particular day, there was a storm moving in so we had a great variety in clouds both light and wispy as well as large rain clouds. As we continued to walk around the museum the wind picked up, the rain clouds moved out, and the sun moved in. So before we left I had them stop and draw again. This time talking about the sun and wind. They also added in their favorite airplane from the day.
Why Journaling
At this age, the pictures are hard to make out and we didn’t get super scientific, however journaling encouraged them to take in the weather around them. It also encouraged us to go deeper into our conversations about what clouds look like, why it was drizzling that day, why the wind picked up, etc.
As they were drawing, they were excitedly showing me their clouds or pointing at clouds in the sky and asking me how to draw them.
A few days later we headed up to the park (to soak up some sun before it snows) and they asked why I didn’t bring the journals. They were looking forward to drawing the weather at the playground and adding in their favorite part of the park. Silly me, why didn’t I anticipate that?!?!
Journaling can be a great tool for any age. If you don’t expect perfection and just encourage them to do their best it introduces kids to drawing and gives them the freedom to explore. For my little ones it encouraged them to just observe more closely and opened the door for some fun conversations about all types of weather.
How can you use journaling with your preschoolers?
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