Are you tired of wasting your valuable time searching high and low for the weather lessons you need for your upper elementary students? There are so many weather activities all over Pinterest, but we find most of the weather lessons are for preschoolers, which is not exactly what our students need.
We focus on creating materials for teachers who teach the same things to the same age we do. Most of what we create comes from not being able to find what we need. Weather worksheets are just plain boring and not at all aligned with our teaching style, so we’ve created weather experiments and activities that we use in our classroom. We want to help you by putting everything in one place so you don’t have to use all your time collecting lessons from all over the place.
Let’s talk about your teaching style. Are you a stand-and-deliver teacher, or do you let students experiment whenever possible? Now, the weather is one of those units that is a little more challenging to experiment with because as much as we would like to, we can’t control the weather.
But there are lots of experiments for kids that are related to weather. What kid doesn’t love an experiment (especially instead of a worksheet)?
Weather Experiments for Grades 3-6
Measuring Temperature
One of the easiest experiments is to measure temperature in different parts of your school or classroom. You will need a set of basic thermometers that measure in Celsius. We found basic ones at our local hardware store. Place them around the room or school a few hours before you need them with a little sign that says you’re measuring temperature (so people don’t move them before you get back). Collect the measurements and compare the results to look for patterns. Are there certain areas that are warmer or colder?
Weather Concept: Warm air rises, and as it cools, it falls back toward the ground. A heater against the wall warms the air next to it, that air rises, and cooler air from across the room moves in to take its place. This circulation of air is called convection.
Create Condensation
This one is very easy. Fill a plastic water bottle three-quarters full of water and put it in the freezer the day before this experiment. At the beginning of your science lesson, take the bottle out of the freezer and leave it on a table where it will start to thaw. As it thaws, there will be beads of water on the outside of the container.
Weather Concept: Condensation happens when warm, moist air touches a cold surface. The cold bottle cools the air next to it, and the water vapour in that air turns into beads of liquid on the outside of the bottle.
Low and High Pressure
This is a tricky concept for students to grasp, but with this little demonstration, it’s pretty clear. You will need a fan, two pieces of paper and two students to do this experiment. Place both pieces of paper side by side with the fan aimed at them. If you turn on the fan, the papers will blow off the table. Ask one student to place their hand flat on one of the pieces of paper. The other student will place one finger very lightly on their paper (as if they are barely touching it). Now turn on the fan. The student holding on to the paper with their whole hand will be able to keep the paper on the table while the student barely holding on will have the paper slip away. This is an example of high and low pressure.
Weather Concept: High pressure means the air molecules are packed together very tightly and do not allow moisture to travel through the sky easily. Clouds are much less likely to form. When there is low pressure, the air molecules can move around, allowing more moisture droplets to collect together into clouds. Low pressure allows the air to move, so this is also when we get more wind.
The Water Cycle
You might have seen this one all over the internet. Get a zippered plastic bag. Draw with a permanent marker onto the bag to label each of the parts. Label the bottom collection, the top condensation, the left side evaporation, and the right side precipitation. Place a little bit of water in the bottom of the bag and zip it shut. Tape it to a sunny window and wait a few days to see what happens. You should see water droplets forming on the inside of the bag. As they get too heavy to just stay hanging onto the surface of the bag, they start to fall back down to the bottom.
Weather Concept: Water travels around the planet through a process of evaporation (water droplets leave the surface and rise upward toward the sky), condensation (water vapour collects into clouds), precipitation (droplets fall back to Earth) and collection (water collects across surface areas in lakes and rivers). This is a very basic model of the water cycle. There are other ways water travels through our planet (like transpiration), but this is a great introduction for your students.
Build an Anemometer
Using four small paper cups, four straws, a pencil with an eraser, a little ball of modelling clay, and a straight pin, challenge your students to work in groups to build a weather device that will measure if the wind is slow or fast. This is called an anemometer.
Glue the cups to the end of the straws so they can catch air. Cross the straws in a plus sign and glue them together. Use the straight pin to poke through the centre of the straws into the eraser on the pencil so that the straws can spin. Use the modelling clay to hold the pencil standing up.
Rather than telling your students how to do this experiment, challenge them to see if they can create something that works. They will come up with lots of different ideas and not all of them will work, but that’s the point. At the end of the experiment show them a model that works properly by using a fan to show how the anemometer spins when the wind picks up.
Weather Concept: An anemometer measures wind speed. The faster the wind blows, the faster the cups on the anemometer will spin.
Weather Vane or Windsock
Have your students create a weather vane. Think of a flag. When the wind blows it shows the direction the wind is blowing. Ask students to come up with ways to show which way the wind is blowing by building and experimenting with a device. The simplest way is to place a straight pin through a straw so that it spins. Poke the pin into an eraser so that it stands freely. Place a little paper flag on one end of the straw. When the wind blows, the flag will blow away from the wind. Use a fan or blow really hard to test it out. The difference between a vane and a windsock is the materials that are used. A weather vane typically uses a hard surface that moves while a windsock uses a soft material that can flow in the wind.
Weather Concept: Wind direction is measured by the direction from which it travels. A weather vane or windsock helps decide which way the wind is blowing. Windsocks are commonly seen at airports.
Ninja Note: One year, we let students brainstorm for a few days before doing this experiment in class. They were allowed to bring their own materials for the build day. One of the best windsocks we ever saw was a student who stapled a hotel shower cap to a metre stick. It worked perfectly, and he was nice enough to bring one shower cap for every student in the class. His mom was the manager of a local hotel. If you ever want a great class picture, put shower caps on the whole class and pose with a smile.
What else can I do to teach weather concepts to my students?
Record Weather
Before you even teach this unit, take some time to record the weather in your area for a few days or weeks before starting the official teaching.
Look Up Weather Records
Try searching for weather records for your area. What is the coldest day in history? The warmest? What is the weather usually like? What is a rare event? Have your students make a chart. Maybe have students research weather records for different places across Canada and compare the results.
Research Extreme Weather Events
Students are fascinated by extreme weather. Make a list of weather events that your students can research. What was the weather like? What caused it? When and where did it happen? Maybe have students each create a slide for a larger slide show. Some interesting Canadian research topics might be:
- Hurricane Hazel (1954)
- Quebec Ice Storm (1998)
- Edmonton Tornado, also called the Black Friday Tornado (1987)
We have added new extreme weather lessons for the new Alberta Grade 6 science. Find more details about science for Alberta teachers here.
Extreme Weather Lessons & Activities: in our BN Shop ($CAD) or our TpT Store ($USD).
Extreme Weather Collaborative Poster: in our BN Shop ($CAD) or our TpT Store ($USD).
Giving students the chance to experiment and research helps deepen their understanding of concepts and makes learning fun.
Need More Weather Lessons?
We wrote an entire weather unit and put all of these lessons together in one giant bundle, along with so many more. You can find the Weather Unit Bundle in our BN Shop ($CAD) and TpT Store ($USD).
We know how easy it is to get sucked into the online vortex of lesson plans so we’ve worked diligently to make sure these lessons are worth your time. They do not need to be purchased as a bundle, but with the links below, you can preview each of the items we’ve written in more detail.
There is an outcome in our curriculum that asks students to test fabric and decide which materials work best in specific weather conditions. For years, all this meant for us was to check to see if students were dressing appropriately for the weather outside, which is not exactly fascinating for students. Instead, we created weather experiments with our students. They loved them, and we think you will too. These specific weather experiments are found in our clothing and fabric testing product, and we have never found anything like them anywhere online, so they’ll be one-of-a-kind lessons that will stick with your students.
Weather lessons give students many ways to learn: drawing, role-playing, designing, readers’ theatre and so many more. We’ve tried to create lessons that teach students to use the scientific method or creative thinking skills in a real-world way.
Find Specific Weather Lessons for Grades 3-6
In our weather unit, you can find all of these topics taught through engaging lesson plans that come with everything you need to teach them:
- Clouds in our BN Shop ($CAD) or TpT Store ($USD)
- Precipitation in our BN Shop ($CAD) or TpT Store ($USD)
- Weather patterns and climate, including seasons and air pressure, in our BN Shop ($CAD) or TpT Store ($USD)
- Wind speed and direction in our BN Shop ($CAD) or TpT Store ($USD)
- Weather instruments in our BN Shop ($CAD) or TpT Store ($USD)
- Weather forecasting in our BN Shop ($CAD) or TpT Store ($USD)
- Fabric and clothing testing in our BN Shop ($CAD) or TpT Store ($USD)
And support materials are included:
- Reading passages about weather in our BN Shop ($CAD) or TpT Store ($USD)
- Interactive review game in our BN Shop ($CAD) or TpT Store ($USD)
You can find the Weather Unit Bundle in our BN Shop ($CAD) and TpT Store ($USD).
And we have Weekly Reading Comprehension Lessons about weather.
Weather Wonders in our BN Shop ($CAD) or TpT Store ($USD)
Weather Forecasting in our BN Shop ($CAD) or TpT Store ($USD)
Tornados in our BN Shop ($CAD) or TpT Store ($USD)
Permafrost (you can try this one for free) in our BN Shop or TpT Store
Fabrics & Fibres in our BN Shop ($CAD) or TpT Store ($USD)
Climate Migration in our BN Shop ($CAD) or TpT Store ($USD)
Use this free scientific method lesson! Sign up for our email list and we’ll send it to you. If you’re already on the list, you can find the lesson in the Resource Library.
Weather Lessons FAQ
What are some easy weather experiments for upper elementary students?
Start with the ones that need very few supplies: measuring temperature around your school, making condensation on a frozen water bottle, and building a water cycle in a zippered bag. Students can also build an anemometer or a weather vane, which gets them designing, testing, and problem solving in groups. Each experiment in this post comes with the weather concept behind it, so you know what to say when students ask why.
How do students build an anemometer?
Students glue small paper cups to the ends of straws, cross the straws, and pin them through the centre into the eraser of a pencil so the cups can spin. We like to challenge students to figure out a design on their own first, because not every build will work and that is the point. Finish by showing a working model and using a fan to show how the cups spin faster when the wind picks up.
How can I show students the water cycle?
Draw the four parts on a zippered plastic bag with a permanent marker: collection, condensation, evaporation, and precipitation. Add a little water, zip it shut, and tape it to a sunny window for a few days. You should see water droplets form on the inside of the bag and fall back to the bottom. This is a very basic model, so mention that water also travels in other ways, like transpiration.
What is the difference between a weather vane and a windsock?
Both show which way the wind is blowing. A weather vane typically uses a hard surface that moves, while a windsock uses a soft material that flows in the wind. Windsocks are commonly seen at airports.
What extreme weather events can students research in Canada?
Good starting points are Hurricane Hazel (1954), the Quebec Ice Storm (1998), and the Edmonton Tornado, also called the Black Friday Tornado (1987). Ask students what the weather was like, what caused it, and when and where it happened. Then each student can create a slide for a larger class slide show.
What weather resources do you have for Canadian classrooms?
We wrote a weather unit for Grades 3-6 with lessons on clouds, precipitation, weather patterns and climate, wind, weather instruments, forecasting, and fabric testing. You can find the Weather Unit Bundle in our BN Shop ($CAD) or TpT Store ($USD). We also have extreme weather lessons, a collaborative poster, and weekly reading comprehension sets about weather.
Do You Teach Science?
If you teach science, you might also be interested in some of these posts:
- How to Shock Your Students With Engaging Electricity Lessons
- How to Learn About Wetlands Without a Pond
- How to Grow a Healthy Classroom with Plants
- 15 Simple Machines Activities that Will Hook Your Students
- How to Escalate Your Chemistry Experiments
Does having all the resources in one quality bundle suit you better or do you prefer to hunt and find the different activities you need when designing your own lessons? Let us know your preferences in the comments below.
