The weather, rain or shine, offers unique opportunities for outdoor learning. Jumping in puddles, tasting raindrops, feeling the strength of the wind, watching shadows dancing in the sunlight - these are all examples of how letting young children loose in the elements can support their natural disposition to learn using all their senses.
There is a wide range of weather-related resources on the market to boost children's outdoor learning, from wind chimes and sundials to grab-and-go weather kits. Indoors, early years practitioners need to think carefully about providing meaningful resources that reflect children's actual exposure to all weathers.
OUT OR IN
Playing outdoors should not be restricted to warm, dry weather. Children need first-hand experience of all weather conditions - rain, snow, sun, fog, frost and snow. Although practitioners must protect children from harsher weather conditions, through suitable clothing and shade, it's rarely unsafe for children to head outdoors. They may sometimes have to be restricted to shorter periods of time, but if the children are mobile, they can be out running around and keeping warm.
Kathryn Solly, headteacher of Chelsea Open Air Nursery in London, says that the more real and interactive the experience, the better. 'You can play chase the raindrop down the window, but actually going and jumping in puddles, in terms of the EYFS, is going to do them a lot more good. And then you can come back in and talk about it. You can take photos, write a few words and use supporting books and videos.'
KEY RESOURCES
Being prepared for sudden changes in the weather is difficult if you don't have the resources at hand. Early years author Jane Drake advocates the use of Weather Boxes, packs of resources at the ready so that practitioners can make the most of windy, rainy or sunny days (see our 'Let's explore...' series).
Ms Solly, who has developed these resources at her nursery, says, 'We put them all in large, see-through boxes and take them out when appropriate. It helps us to respond to the circumstances, whether they are child-initiated or weather-initiated. The wind box, for example, has resources to make kites, wind vanes, ribbon sticks, a simple anemometer, paper planes, spinners, leaves and seeds such as sycamore.'
ON THE DAY
On blustery days, take children outside to experience the effects of wind. This will give them a better understanding of the force of the wind and how it can make things move. Practitioners can encourage children to listen and observe the wind using chimes, feathers, leaves, ribbons and bubbles. Here are some ideas for what to include in your wind collection.
- Provide scarves and streamers for the children to hold and to run with them behind them to catch the wind. Try the brightly coloured nylon Holding Streamers, £15.99, from www.tts-group.co.uk, or the Rainbow Fabric Pack, £16.99, from www.reflectionsonlearning.co.uk, which includes seven coloured 1m lengths of fabric.
- Blow bubbles and watch where the wind blows them, or throw leaves into the air and watch how they float and catch the wind.
- Explore wind force and direction by attaching wind socks to tree branches. Try the Rainbow Turbo Spinsock, £4.99 from www.windcreations.co.uk, or the giant 1m-high Cockerel Wind Spinner, £24.99, from www.reflectionsonlearning.co.uk, which includes a pointer and cardinal points (N,S,E,W).
- For exploring visual effects created by the wind, there's the Unicorn Wind Spinner, £21.95, which plays with the light to give a beautiful and sparkling effect, available at www.windchimecorner.co.uk.
- Offer hand-held and stand-alone windmills like the Rainbow Wind Spinner, £7.99, available at www.reflectionsonlearning.co.uk.
- Use different-shaped kites and watch the movements they make as they fly. Try the Eco Line kite, £7.99, from www.online-kites.co.uk, or the Mini Kite, £9.99 from www.tts-group.co.uk, or make your own (see 'It's a breeze').
- Explore the sound of the wind with a wind chime that can be hung on a tree branch, such as the Woodstock Celtic Wind Chime, £39.95, from www.windchimescorner.co.uk, or the Bamboo Wind Chime Horizontal, £13.20, from www.mindstretchers.co.uk. To make your own, try Mindstretchers' Circular Ring set, £5.40, a set of six plain wooden circles that can be used to make wind socks or wind chimes. Or use a hanger and attach objects such as metal and wooden spoons, bells or lollipop sticks.
- Create more interesting sounds with the Movement Chimes, £36.99, from www.reflectionsonlearning.co.uk - a brass sculpture that creates natural melodic art when children brush past it, when wind blows or when rain fills the cup.
- To record the sounds and sights of a windy day, try the Tuff-Cam 2, £84.95 from www.tts-group.co.uk, a child-friendly digital and movie camera.
- Hang items on the washing line and observe which way the wind blows them. Dry some wet clothes on a washing line on a windy day.
- Older children may be interested in the speed of the wind, so check out the hand-held anemometer, a device that measures the wind speed, from www.weathershop.co.uk (£28).
- For a ready-to-go set of resources, there's the 'Grab & Go' Windy Day Set, £59.95, from www.tts-group.co.uk, which contains a bamboo chime, a windmill, ribbon rolls, ten scarves, a Rainbow Fish windsock, and six large pieces of fabric in a stackable treasure chest.
- For a complete weather kit, try the Standard BBC Weather Watchers Kit, £25.48, from www.skyview.co.uk. This kit contains a wind vane with spike, a plastic rainfall measure with mounting spike, a thermometer, a weather record pad, sticky weather symbols and UK and European Maps.
INDOOR RESOURCES
Weather charts, posters, jigsaws and games are all available for indoor use, but experts agree that these resources are often more suited to older children and should only be used in context with real experiences of the weather. Jigsaws, for example, are not seen as a quality resource to support any theme around the weather.
Chelsea Open Air Nursery has an old-fashioned wooden weather chart with ruler-like strips and basic picture symbols. The winter one has a snowman at one end and an icicle on the other.
Kathryn Solly explains, 'We often use this with groups of older children, aged four plus, whose literacy skills are beginning to evolve and who are beginning to understand weather charts. If they are outside and they spot different weather conditions, it can then lead to recording it, but it always starts from their interests.
'When we do the weather forecasting on the map we make our own symbols and snowflakes that they stick down with Blu Tack.
'The last time we did it, we had a particularly interested and able bunch of children who were fascinated. They would come bouncing in saying, "It's windy today but it's a bit rainy." We ended up making extra strips on the chart so that they could add in the morning's weather. They watched the forecast on TV and we used online weather resources.
'We also filmed children being weather forecasters with the Flip camera. If it was sunny, they wore a swimming ring and goggles and if it was cold, they wore a bobble hat and a scarf. Activities like this need to be contextualised, otherwise they can become meaningless.'
If you are looking to buy supporting materials, here are some suggestions:
- For a durable outdoor weather board, try the Weather Monitoring Board, £255, from www.outdoorclassrooms.co.uk. This wooden wall or fence-mountable interactive board can be used to record the weather daily by sliding the appropriate doors open or closed. It also has a rain gauge and thermometer.
- Indoors, children can observe the weather and select the appropriate symbols to go behind the PVC windows of the Weather Window Wallhanging, £44.99, from www.earlyyearsresources.co.uk. It comes with eight printed weather symbols, ten weather words and seven days-of-the-week labels.
- All Kinds of Weather Jigsaws, £15.99, from www.earlyyearsresources.co.uk, is a set of eight wooden jigsaws, each one showing different weather conditions.
MORE INFORMATION
'It's a breeze' by Jane Drake is at www.nurseryworld.co.uk/news/715755
Useful websites
- The BBC Learning Zone has a series of audio clips, including recordings of different types of weather, at www.bbc.co.uk/learningzone
- Videos to support learning about weather can be found on Education Scotland's Weather and Climate Change at www.ltscotland.org.uk
Book corner
- Elmer and the Wind by David Mckee (Andersen Press)
- The Wind Blew by Pat Hutchins (Turtleback Books)
- Warren and the Very Windy Day by Liane Payne, (Templar)
- Weather: Eye Know by Dorling Kindersley, a picture reference book aimed at four to seven-year-olds
Collections, Weather, Part 2 will look at resourcing for sun, rain and fog (Nursery World, 19 March)
