Weather School / First Weather · ages 2 to 5

The weather rock leaning into strong wind under a hazy sky.

Windy Days

Can anybody see the wind? Anybody at all?

The weather rock outside under a windy sky, waiting to be looked at.

The mission: guess first, then go look

Guess three things the wind is pushing around outside right now. Say all three out loud.

Now go count. Leaves? A flag? Somebody's hat? Did you find your three? You cannot see the wind, but you just caught it red-handed.

You cannot see the wind. Nobody can. Air is invisible.

But you can see what the wind pushes: leaves, flags, hair, hats.

And you can feel it on your face, even with your eyes closed.

Professor Weather Rock in a graduation cap, pointing upward with a wooden pointer.

Professor Weather Rock says

Wind is air moving from a crowded place to a less crowded place. That is the whole secret.

Rocktivity Time!

Pick a door. Every door is a good one.

Move like the weather

Be the wind. Whoosh across the room and gently push the curtains, a pillow, your grown-up. Now be a leaf instead, and let the wind push you. Which one is more fun? The wind will never tell.

Ask them

“Can you feel the wind? Which way is it pushing you?”

The Rocktivity

Drop a leaf and a pebble at the same time on a windy day. The wind takes the leaf and ignores the pebble. Ask why.

When the wind is up, try this

Take a scarf, a piece of paper, and a spoon outside. Guess which ones the wind can carry, then hold each one up high over the grass and let go. The wind is picky about what it lifts, and the guessing is the science.

Is the rock right?

You looked with your own eyes. The rock is outside looking too. Ask it what it sees, then decide together who read the sky better.

Words we learned

Windnounsay it: WINDAir that is moving. You cannot see it, only what it pushes.

Gustnounsay it: GUSTA quick push of wind that stops again.

For the grown-up

Wind is the first invisible force most children meet. Naming it as moving air, rather than magic, does a lot of quiet work.

Take it off the screen

A colouring sheet with the big word to trace, plus the whole lesson in print. Free for any home or classroom.

Print the colouring sheet and lesson (PDF)

The trail continues

The wind pushed all those things, but did you notice it pushed them all the same way? Next windy day, watch just one flag or one tree, and see which way everything leans.

Which Way Is the Wind Going? finds out where the wind is headed.