Mini Preschool: Weather

As usual when it's my turn to host preschool, I find so many fun ideas I want to use, and then have a hard time narrowing them down. The theme for this month is Spring. And I decided to do weather using the saying, March comes in like a lion and goes out like a lamb.

Last week at Suzy's, she had music activities for the kids to do as they arrived to keep them busy until everyone got there. I thought this was such a brilliant idea, so I copied. As each child arrived, I gave them a cotton ball, which I told them was a cloud, and a straw. I told them they had to make wind using the straw to try and move their cloud across the floor. I think it worked really well. Thanks for the idea Suzy!

Once everyone was here. I sat everyone down behind a masking tape line on the floor. I did this because sometimes when we read a story, the kids crowd around the story teller so tightly that no one gets to see. So I thought I'd try getting them to sit behind a line. It worked ok. We did a hello song to get everyone focused up front. Then I asked if anyone knew what month it was? I told them it was March and that march is important because it's the month where the weather outside changes from Winter weather to Spring weather. We talked about what Winter weather was and what Spring weather was, and how it March we often get some of each, with no particular rhyme or reason to it. I told them that some people say that March has lion weather and lamb weather. Then I asked them what sounds a lion makes. They roared for me. And we talked about how lions are kind of fierce and wild. Then we described some weather that is fierce and wild. Snow, hard rain, cold strong wind, sleet, etc. are what we came up with. Then I asked them what a lamb says. The said baaaaa. And we talked about how lambs are gentle and quiet and soft, and came up with some types of weather that are like a lamb. Sunshine, warm gentle breezes, light spring rain, etc.

Then we went into the kitchen and made lion and lamb paper plates. I got the patterns for those here. The lamb kind of turned out looking like a rabbit in my opinion, but oh well. I didn't mention this specifically to the kids, but I think at our house for the rest of March, every day I will ask Linc and Ivan if the day is more like a lion or a lamb outside, and then we'll hand the appropriate paper plate up.

Next we came back out into the living room. I played a weather song and we did actions to it. The tune is to Oh My Darlin' Clementine.

Sunny, sunny
Sunny, sunny
It is sunny in the sky
S-u-n-n-y sunny
It is sunny in the sky.

And the same over again with cloudy, rainy, windy, and snowy.

That was our wiggle activity, although it was kind of low key. Then I had the kids sit down on the floor with their metal cookie sheets that they brought (as we soon found out, I should have specified magnetic, instead of metal, because some people brought aluminum and it's didn't work as well for them) I gave them a stack of small magnet (which you can buy a pack of 50 at Walmart for a couple buck) and a print out of the sun with holes. The objective was to put the magnets in the holes and "stick" the sun to the cookie sheet. This idea is good for learning one to one correspondence, and I found it here.

While the kids were working with their magnets, I read them the story It's Raining It's Pouring by Kin Eagle. It adds on different weather situations the the old man finds himself in. Some of them are kind of a stretch, but it's a cute book. I decided to read while the kids had something to do with their hands as an effort to eliminate the mass crowding of the story teller that usually happens. I think it worked pretty well.

After that we played Dress For the Weather. I'd taken two paper people and taped them to my flannel board, along with all kinds of clothes for different weather. Each kid got a turn to dress a person, and then we talked about what kind of weather it might be outside to make the person choose to wear that. It was a little stretched. I don't think the kids cared as much about dressing for a particular kind of weather as they did about dressing their person in whatever looked the coolest to them. I was actually really surprised how into this the kids were. Tears were shed and fits were thrown because we weren't taking turns fast enough.

We did weather boats next, which I thought would be the favorite activity, but we'd spent a lot of time on dressing for the weather, so we kind of had to rush through this one. Everyone got a little boat made out of a piece of Styrofoam, a tooth pick, and a square of construction paper. The kid whose turn it was would come up and put their boat in the ocean (a 9x13 pan full of water). Then they would roll the cardboard dice (made with love, by Aaron) to get either a picture of a sun, the wind, or a rain cloud. And then they would have to perform that specific weather on their boat. So if they rolled the sun they got to shine a flashlight down on their boat. If they rolled wind, they got to use a straw to blow on their boat. And if they got rain they got to spray their boat with a squirt bottle (this was the obvious favorite).

And last we made snacks. We made our lions out of a rice cake, peanut butter, chow mien noodles, and raisins. The lambs were a half an apple covered in marshmallow creme with Kix stuck to the back, a big marshmallow for the head, raisins for the eyes, and two mini marshmallow stuck onto four tooth picks for the legs. I think they turned out pretty cute, and they even tasted good. I got the ideas for these here and here.

For those of you who ask, here's a copy of my lesson plan:

March Preschool- In Like a Lion, Out Like a Lamb- Weather

Waiting Activity- Give each kid a cotton ball and a straw and let them be the wind, while you wait for everyone to arrive.

Introduction- Does anybody know what month it is? It’s March. March is important because it’s the month where the weather outside changes from Winter weather to Spring weather. Who can tell me some different kinds of winter weather? Spring weather? March is kind of a funny month because the weather goes back and forth, back and forth a lot. Some people say that March has lion weather and lamb weather.

Explain Lion and Lamb weather- ask them questions like “What would make the weather ferocious like a lion? (rain, cold wind, storms, sleet, etc)” and “What would make the weather gentle like a lamb? (sunshine, warm breezes, etc.)”

Lion/lamb paper plates- divide kids in half so one group does lion plate first and the other does lamb

Song about weather- have the kids act out the different kinds of weather in the song.

Story/Magnets- Read It’s raining, It’s pouring to the kids while they place magnets on their pictures on cookie sheets. If they haven’t finished the magnet page at the end of the story, read them The North Wind and the Sun.

Dress for the weather- Have the kids dress paper dolls for different kinds of weather

Weather Boats- give each kid a Styrofoam boat. They take turns rolling the dice to get different kinds of weather. They have to create that weather for their boat. (Flashlight for sun, blow with a straw for wind, squirt bottle for rain)

Lion/lamb snacks- Each kid gets a rice cake, some chow mien noodles, raisins, half an apple, a handful of Kix, 8 mini marshmallow, 1 big marshmallow, 4 tooth picks, and a plastic knife. Adults will give each child a scoop of peanut butter on their rice cake and a scoop of marshmallow creme on their apple.

I was exhausted after preschool today. I don't know if the kids were a bit more rowdy than normal, or if my late nights have been catching up to me. I love our preschool group. I think it's good for so many things. One of the things that's hard for me though, is that I want all the kids to be able to do everything hands on, for as long as they want, which just isn't possible. Ideally every kid would have had their own set of paper doll and clothes and they could have all happily dressed and redressed to their hearts content until they were tired of it. Or they would have all gotten to create every different kind of weather for their boat, and had time left over to come up with their own kinds of weather. But I know that's not reasonable or possible in the hour and a half time limit. But it does make me grateful for the decision we've made to homeschool, because in a lot of aspects of our kids' education we can do those things. If Linc wants to play with stacks of magnets all afternoon and find out what they'll stick to besides the cookie sheet, or experiment with why they push away from each other when you turn them a certain way, or how tall he can stack them before they tip over, or whatever...then he can. The freedom of it. That's the aspect I love most about homeschooling.