Free Weather Printables and Montessori-Inspired Weather Activities

A weather unit is great at any time of year. But I still can’t help but focus on weather in March and April when many places have everything from warm, summery weather to spring snowstorms. Whenever you want to study weather, though, you’ll find printables and activities you can use with the free printables I’m featuring today. And you’ll see the new Montessori-inspired weather pack for our newsletter subscribers’ resource library!

Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links (at no cost to you).

Montessori Shelves with Weather-Themed Activities

You’ll find Montessori-inspired weather numbers, letters, and and more (part of my subscriber freebie pack, so just sign up for my email to get the link and password … or check the bottom of your latest newsletter if you’re already a subscriber)

You could mix your weather-themed activities among your shelves according to curriculum area. Or you could have a special weather-themed area something like the one pictured. My shelves at the beginning of our unit have a mixture of skill levels. Many of the activities can be adapted for a variety of levels. Many of these are designed for early elementary as well as preschoolers. If you’re a homeschooler, just choose the activities that work for your child’s interests and ability levels. If you don’t have room for all the activities you’d like to do, simply rotate them.

Even though I have books on shelves, I keep many books for our current theme in a book basket by the themed shelf. You’ll find a few of the books I’ve used here. For toddlers and preschoolers, at least ¾ of the books I use are Montessori friendly (focusing on reality without smiling or talking animals or smiling or talking vehicles). 

Notice the framed art print Murnau with rainbow (1909) by Wassily Kandinsky. It’s a free download from Wikiart. This is one of Kandinsky’s earlier works. It’s interesting to see how his style changes through the years here.

The Noisy Paint Box is a fascinating book about Kandinsky as a boy.

For our monthly featured art print, I purchased a Li’l DAVINCI art frame that opens in the front for easily changing a free art masterpiece printable or vintage illustration to fit with the month’s theme. The frame can be switched from horizontal to vertical without changing the hanger, which is perfect!

If you’re wondering about the rugs and rug box I use, both the rugs and wooden rug holder are from Montessori Services. I love the Montessori Services rugs and rug holder! I used to use an umbrella stand something like these. I loved that for 1-3 rugs, but I needed something different when I had more grandchildren and some projects that needed more than one rug.

Favorite Shelves, Trays, Baskets, and More for Montessori Homeschoolers

I often get asked about the trays, baskets, etc., that I use, so I published a post with many of the items. You can find lots of helpful resources here. They’re not all essential, so don’t feel you need to have everything. Just choose what’s best for your budget and your unique family’s needs.

Weather Words and What They Mean Book with Weather Symbols 3-Part Cards and Wonderful Weather Write the Room Printables

I often include books by Gail Gibbons in my unit studies because they provide so much information in an easily understood way. Weather Words and What They Mean is another great book, which was updated in 2019.

Free Printable: Weather Symbol 3-Part Cards from Montessori Mom. There are both simple weather symbol cards and more advanced ones available for free!

Free Printable: Wonderful Weather Write the Room by Imagine Inspire Innovate at Teachers Pay Teachers. This is such a simple activity that makes reading and writing more fun. My 7-year-old granddaughter, Zoey, loves scavenger hunts. Putting up the word cards around the room and having her find them and write the words on her list is a fun way to support both reading and spelling skills.

Little Kids First Big Book of Weather, Ultimate Weatherpedia, and Cloud-Making Activity

 

The books on this shelf are from two amazing series. I have the National Geographic Kids Little Kids First Big Books after my grandson fell in love with the series and asked me to get all the books on the back of one of their books! I love the books for their gorgeous photographs and easy-to-understand information. I use books from the series for almost every unit. The Little Kids First Big Book of Weather is perfect for this unit.

Ultimate Weatherpedia is from another amazing National Geographic Kids series. Although the information is more advanced, even my 3-year-old grandkids love the books for their beautiful photographs. I can read the books to them by simplifying and shortening the content.

Free Printable: Printable for Types of Clouds (part of Weather Unit) from 123 Homeschool 4 Me

For the cloud-making activity, I simply added some cotton balls to the tray with the printable. The child can learn about the types of clouds and create clouds using cotton balls. 

Salt Writing Tray for a Weather Unit

Free Printable: weather letter “w” for salt writing tray (part of my subscriber freebie pack, so just sign up for my email to get the link and password … or check the bottom of your latest newsletter if you’re already a subscriber).

You’ll see a variety of simple letter writing trays in my previous unit study posts. I often used the wooden tray from the Melissa & Doug Lace and Trace Shapes. You can use whatever tray or container work best for you, though.

The sandpaper letters I use are available in print or cursive.

I typically now use this lovely spelling/alphabet tray from FamilyTreeWW on Etsy. I like it for writing more than one letter or spelling words. (Note: That sand tray is currently unavailable, but you’ll find lots of other options for Montessori sand trays on Etsy.) Update: I found some colored sand in 12 colors on Amazon that I started to use instead of salt or colored salt. I love it because it’s so soft and feels great! 

If you would like help with introducing phonetic sounds, introducing objects with sounds, or beginning phonics in general, check out my DIY Beginning Montessori Phonics with Preschoolers.

I’m often asked where I got our cursive wooden alphabet letters. In this post, you’ll find the link to those along with links to other movable alphabets you can purchase, printable movable alphabet letters, and a variety of DIY options.

Weather Language Printables – Cumulus Cloud Alphabet Cards, y in Windy, and Alternative Pronunciations of Y

Free Printable: Cumulus cloud alphabet cards in manuscript and cursive (part of my subscriber freebie pack, so just sign up for my email to get the link and password … or check the bottom of your latest newsletter if you’re already a subscriber)

Free Printable: windy phonogram y cards (part of my subscriber freebie pack, so just sign up for my email to get the link and password … or check the bottom of your latest newsletter if you’re already a subscriber).

Free Printable: Alternative Pronunciation of ‘y’ Word Building from MontessoriSoul

These materials can be used in a variety of ways. You’ll see many options for using the alphabet cards in manuscript and cursive if you look at some of my previous posts with our new unit on the 15th of the month.

Typically, I have a phonogram card that has the specific pronunciation of the word I’m featuring. This unit has the word “windy,” but it also has the booklet I made from the MontessoriSoul printable that features a few different ways to pronounce and spell the letter “y.” It’s perfect for kids who are ready for more advanced reading and spelling rules.

Rainy Day Playdough Counting Tray

Free Printable: Rainy day math cards 1-10 (part of my subscriber freebie pack, so just sign up for my email to get the link and password … or check the bottom of your latest newsletter if you’re already a subscriber). 

Free Printable: Free DIY Cards and Counters Playdough Printable (instant download from my Montessori-inspired playdough math activities for spring)

For St. Patrick’s Day and spring, I had added green food coloring to the white playdough we used for making animal tracks in the “snow.” The playdough recipe I use is super simple to prepare and can last up to 6 months! You can see the recipe here.

I got a package of 144 little  paper umbrellas to use for this activity and others. I had always used them for alphabet box activities with /u/ for umbrella. Because they tend to break easily, I like having extra ones available. Still, I show my grandkids how to use them carefully. For this activity, I put 20 umbrellas on the tray in case two children want to do the activity together or they’re used for addition.

Note: The rainy day math cards have numbers through 30 and symbols for addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, greater than, and less than. They can be used for a wide variety of activities!

My 3-year-old granddaughter, Sophia, had so much fun with this activity! I told her she could use the umbrellas and number cards to make an outdoor restaurant. First, she chose a playdough number card and made the number of playdough balls on the laminated card. Then she took each ball off the card and added an umbrella to it. Her own idea was to add miniature animals (some of our Safari Ltd. animals). She gave each animal a “table” with umbrella.

Soon, Zoey joined her and showed her more ways to include animals in her restaurant. Then Zoey decided to make a “real” restaurant. She made a sign, prepared a “Peanut Butter Special,” and served everyone. It was truly a fun afternoon, and all the activities are ready to be used again!

Matching City Temperatures Around the World to Continents

Free Printable: Printable for Temperatures Around the World (part of Weather Unit) from 123 Homeschool 4 Me

My 3-year-old grandson, Caleb, often chooses to do geography activities and is very comfortable identifying and  talking about continents. This activity would normally be for an older child and can even be adapted for an elementary-age child using the temperature cards for cities around the world and a globe identifying countries and cities. I laid out the continent pieces from our Montessori continents map and then read where each city was from. If Caleb was  unsure  of a continent, he could look on the back of the card where I had placed a colored dot to match the continent.

Note: I have the Montessori Small World Puzzle from Amazing Child Montessori on Amazon. It’s not available right now, but I hope they have them again soon. I love it because it’s 14½”x 11½”, which a perfect size for my shelves. 

We talked about temperatures around the world on March 13 (the day I looked them up using the site listed on the cards). When we were finished with that, Caleb put the continent puzzle pieces back in the world puzzle. He was very engaged with the whole activity!

More Activities for our Weather Unit (Activities That Don’t Use Free Printables)

I had been wanting to get the wooden perpetual calendar “From Jennifer” for a few years. (Note: This isn’t essential. You can use an inexpensive calendar like I did!) The wooden perpetual calendar was my Christmas present for our home learning environment this past Christmas. I love it as much as I thought I would! We use it for our little circle time and start by discussing the date, day of the week, month of year, season, and weather. The DK book Weather and the Seasons goes well with the calendar.

I wanted to get some sort of weather station or science kit for the unit. I researched a number of kits and decided on the Magic School Bus Weather Lab. It doesn’t have high-quality materials, but it’s a kit that my grandkids will all love. We used the Magic School Bus volcano kit for our volcano unit last year, and all my grandkids loved. it. Zoey wanted to do so many of the activities from it! So I chose this weather kit because of the high interest for kids who love the Magic School Bus series. While it isn’t a Montessori-style kit, it’s so much fun!

Free Montessori-Inspired Weather Pack

 

Montessori-Inspired Weather Pack for DIY Cards and Counters, Number or Letter Matching, Number or Letter Basket, Bead Bar Work, Hands-on Math Operations, Number or Letter Salt/Sand Writing Tray, Letter Tracing, DIY Movable Alphabet, and Creative Writing (subscriber freebie, so just sign up for my email to get the link and password – or check your inbox if you’re already a subscriber).

More Weather Resources

Weather Books for Kids

• Montessori-Inspired Cloud Unit
• Montessori-Inspired Weather Unit {Hundreds of Resources}
• Montessori-Inspired April Showers Activities with Free Printables
• Free Water Cycle Printables and Montessori-Inspired Water Cycle Activities
• Montessori-Inspired Weather Activities with Spielgaben {Free Printables}
• Montessori Winter Activities Printables for Preschool Through Elementary from Every Star Is Different (Includes some Spring Weather Activities, Too)
• Free Umbrella Do-a-Dot Phonics Printable (Montessori-Inspired Instant Download)
• Free Sun Do-a-Dot Phonics Printable (Montessori-Inspired Instant Download)
• Free Weather Cutting Strips (Montessori-Inspired Instant Download)
• Hands-on Fun and Learning with the Magic School Bus Weather Lab
• Montessori-Inspired Weather Unit {Hundreds of Resources}
• Weather Unit Study Pinterest Board

If you’d like ideas for calendar-based themes throughout March and April, see my March Themed Activities for Kids and April Themed Activities for Kids.

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