"Blown Away" - Exploring Weather

Wind is a fun and curious concept to explore - especially when the 'wind storm' is indoors. Trish at Preschool Playbook posted these fun introductory activities to help your preschoolers learn about this fascinating weather phenomenon.

Sensory Exploration of Wind

With a hair dryer {one with different speed and temperature settings!}, Trish invited her students to use their senses to explore different 'types of wind'. They discovered that wind can be soft, gentle, and quiet, as well as strong and loud. Additionally, if you have temperature settings on your dryer, your preschoolers can also discover that wind can bring gusts of cold and warm air. Making Predictions: Will It Blow Away?"

Next, Trish collected several items from around the classroom {a balloon, a tissue, a sheet to paper, a pencil, a toy action figure, a block, etc.} and invited her students to use their knowledge of wind to determine if the object would blow away or be able to stand against the wind. Have students fill out a simple worksheet to record their predictions or make a classroom graph to keep a tally of votes for each object. Once each item has been tested, compare the actual results with the predictions and discuss any discrepancies, etc. Consider adding a mini-graphing lesson, creating visual representations of the results and teaching your students how to interpret them. For fun, Trish kept a box fan running during student play time, giving students the opportunity to test their own items and predictions.

Windy Crafts

Here are a few fun ideas for incorporating wind into your craft time:

• Make pinwheels {like Trish and her students} to test, creating wind with your mouth, the blow dryer, and fan, identifying which "wind making device" turns the wheel the fastest.
• Make a wind sock.
• Make wind chimes.

For the full lesson, visit Preschool Playbook!