Summer is the perfect time to observe weather concepts with our preschoolers. We have sunny days, both warm and cool breezes, rainy days, and even thunderstorms. We adults love to comment on the weather, so not keep that conversation going with our kids? They naturally love to observe nature and ask questions about the world around them. So this is an easy way to add a little education into our summer days. Let’s learn about summer weather together with our kids! And while we’re at it, let’s learn some ASL signs to go along with what we talk about!
First, let’s learn the sign for summer.
And then, take a look at the Nature section of our free Signing Time Dictionary for a bunch of weather signs you can learn with your kids.
Simple Ways to Explore Summer Weather
Look at the sky
Summer skies give us so much beauty to look at. So as we learn about summer weather together with our preschoolers, let’s look up! Whether we have a deep blue sky with fluffy clouds or a dark angry sky with angry clouds, we have lots of weather to talk about either way. And then we also have sunrises and sunsets as well as the night sky. There’s so much we can learn just by looking at the sky.
Here are some ideas for learning summer weather together from the sky.
Talk about clouds and how they collect water vapor until they get so heavy that water literally falls out of them.
Kids love to learn the different types of clouds and then find them in the sky. Cumulus, nimbus, cumulonimbus…look up a diagram of the different types of clouds, and see if you can find them together throughout the summer.
Help your kids learn that the sun is shining, even on cloudy days. It’s just behind the clouds, and that is why it’s still light outside.
What colors do we see in the sunset? Are they the same as yesterday’s sunset colors?
If your kids are up late enough to look at the moon and the stars, you might all enjoy just looking to see what you can find in the night sky. Sometimes there are planets shining brightly, and it’s always fun to look at the marks from the craters on the moon. Or, it might be nice to just look at all the stars and to think about how big the universe is. Looking at the sky is a great way to learn about summer weather together.
Talk about temperature
Summer is a good time to learn about heat. Try leaving one ice cube in the sun and one in the shade, and see which one melts faster. Think about what makes those marshmallows crisp up so quickly when making smores. Maybe leave a marshmallow out in the sun and see what happens!
And then we can learn about summer weather together by talking about hot and cold temperatures and how we measure temperature with degrees. We can even talk about cold temperatures that we experience with popsicles or a cold drink and how those cool our own temperatures down.
Learn about storms
When the thunder starts booming, it’s another good time to learn about summer weather together. Let’s talk about what is really happening when the lightning flashes and the thunder is rumbling. Kids love to count the seconds to see how far away the lightning is from where we are. It’s actually more accurate to say that it’s about 5 seconds per mile away. Either way, we can talk about the different speeds of light and sound and how we see that in the lightning and the thunder.
Play in the wind
Our kids love to watch a pinwheel spinning or hold a kite flying in the air. These summer activities open the door for us to talk about wind. At a preschool level, we can talk about how wind is just moving air. And then we can think about what this moving air can do. It pushes things. And it can move things or carry things.
Bubbles are another good way to learn about wind. Why do the bubbles move around the way they do? Why do they all go the same direction? We can learn about summer weather together by simply playing in the wind and talking about it.
Scientific thinking
When we help our preschoolers learn about summer weather, we are encouraging observation skills and scientific thinking. We’re also helping them to learn new words or signs and to understand nature.
We have some shows at My Signing Time that can help develop these scientific thinking skills too. So as you learn about summer weather together, check out Rachel and the TreeSchoolers or SciShow Kids, and see how much more you can learn together!
What will you do to learn about summer weather together with your kids?