Science activity
Weather Journal
Become a weather watcher! Each morning, draw a tiny picture of today's sky. After 5 days, count up your sunny days, cloudy days, and rainy days.
Materials and setup
- journal
- pencil
- stick thermometer or weather app
- paper towel tube
- streamers
- tape
- compass (or compass app)
- phone with barometer app (upper-elementary)
How this changes by age
Pre-K (ages 3–4)
Become a weather watcher! Each morning, draw a tiny picture of today's sky. After 5 days, count up your sunny days, cloudy days, and rainy days.
Steps
- Each morning, look out the window or step outside together. Ask: 'Is it sunny, cloudy, or rainy?'
- Draw one weather symbol for today on your weather page: a sun, a cloud, or rain drops.
- Tape today's drawing onto a 5-day weather strip.
- Do this for 5 mornings in a row. Try to do it at the same time each day.
- On day 5, count together: 'How many sunny days did we have? How many cloudy days? How many rainy days?'
- Tell a grown-up one thing that surprised you.
- Draw today's sky in a weekly weather journal.
Learning objectives
- Practice daily observation as a science routine
- Represent observations with a simple symbol
- Count and compare categories from real-world data
Kindergarten (ages 5–6)
Track the temperature in the morning AND afternoon for one week. Graph it. Which day was warmest — and can you guess why?
Steps
- Set up a 'thermometer station': use a stick thermometer outside in the shade, or a weather app showing your local temperature.
- Each day for 7 days, write down the temperature in the morning (around 8am) and again in the afternoon (around 2pm).
- Make a simple bar graph: one bar per day, with morning and afternoon stacked or side by side.
- Find the warmest day. Talk about it: 'Why might that day have been warmer? Was it sunnier? Less windy?'
- Show your graph to a family member and tell them what you noticed.
- Tell a grown-up one thing that surprised you.
Learning objectives
- Read a thermometer or weather app and record numbers
- Build a bar graph from your own data
- Begin to connect weather conditions (sun, wind) to temperature
Early elementary (ages 6–8)
Spend two weeks tracking four weather variables — temperature, cloud cover, wind direction, and humidity — and find a pattern in your local climate.
Steps
- Build a homemade wind sock: tape streamers to one end of a paper towel tube and hang it outside in an open spot. The streamers point AWAY from the wind direction (so wind FROM the west blows them eastward).
- Each day for 14 days, record at the same time: temperature (°F or °C), cloud cover (clear / partly cloudy / mostly cloudy / overcast), wind direction (N, S, E, W using your wind sock and a compass), and humidity (qualitative: dry, normal, sticky).
- Keep all data in one journal table. Add a notes column for anything unusual (storm, fog, very still air).
- After 2 weeks, look for patterns. Did sticky days tend to be hot? Did wind usually come from the same direction? Did cloudy days run cooler?
- Write 3 conclusions about your local weather based on your evidence. Use the phrase 'My data shows...' to start each one.
- In one sentence, tell a parent or sibling what surprised you today.
Learning objectives
- Collect multi-variable observations consistently over two weeks
- Use a homemade instrument to measure a real-world variable
- Identify patterns in your own data and write evidence-based conclusions
Upper elementary (ages 8–10)
Become a real forecaster. Track temperature, pressure, precipitation, and fronts for 2 weeks. Predict tomorrow's weather every evening, score yourself, and compare to the local TV forecast.
Steps
- Install a free barometer/weather app on a phone or tablet. Each day for 14 days at 6pm, record: temperature, barometric pressure (and whether it is rising, falling, or steady), precipitation amount, cloud cover, and wind direction.
- Learn the basics of frontal analysis: a falling barometer often signals an approaching low-pressure system and rain; a rising barometer often signals fair weather. Cold fronts bring sharp temperature drops; warm fronts bring gradual warming and steady rain.
- Each evening at 6pm, write a one-line forecast for tomorrow's weather (high temp, precipitation, cloud cover). Base it on your data and what you've learned about pressure and fronts.
- At noon the next day, check the actual conditions. Score your forecast: hit or miss for each of high temp (within 5°F), precipitation (yes/no), cloud cover (matched the general category).
- Also record the local TV (or weather.gov) forecast for the same day at 6pm the night before. Score it the same way.
- After 14 days, calculate YOUR forecast accuracy as a percentage (hits ÷ total predictions). Calculate the TV forecast accuracy the same way. Which was more accurate? By how much? Write 1 paragraph explaining what your data shows and what you'd improve in your forecasting if you did this for another month.
- In one sentence, tell a parent or sibling what surprised you today.
Learning objectives
- Use barometric pressure trends and frontal concepts to make real forecasts
- Score and quantify your own forecast accuracy as a percentage
- Compare your performance to a professional forecast and reason about the difference
Safety and evidence note
Read the full activity before beginning. An adult should supervise tools, heat, food, outdoor work, movement, and experiments as appropriate. Completion records that the activity was done; the child’s explanation, work sample, photo, or demonstration is stronger evidence of learning than a completion check alone.
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