As a toddler mom, I love having simple routines that encourage learning and this weather wheel is exactly that. It requires very little effort or preparation and it fits seamlessly into our morning routine.

Believe it or not this simple activity encourages many important skills that can easily be built on. Every day we put on our “weather detective caps” and investigate! Part of being a weather detective is observing the weather each day to determine how to dress and what we are going to do that day.

Later I will share some tips on how to use your weather wheel for more learning opportunities.

Weather Wheel Observations

I let my weather detective determine the weather through scientific observation and then I ask questions to encourage critical thinking. “How did you know it was windy? Did you see the leaves on the trees moving?” “How do you know its raining, but not storming? Did you hear thunder? Is there only a little bit of rain or a lot?” “It’s raining so what do we need to be prepared?” (Rain boots, rain coat, umbrella.) “What do you think we should do today since its snowing? Could we go to the beach?” (This one usually gets a giggle.)

More ways to utilize your Weather Wheel

After your little ones put their detective skills to use you can take it a step further and log your observations. This can be a simple chart in a journal or an elaborate project like a temperature blanket made by quilting or crocheting. You can use your weather log to practice math and charting and then determining the percentage of days that were sunny or rainy etc.

For older kids you can even track the rain fall by using a bucket and a ruler. This simple printable has endless possibilities for where you can take it. As a bonus, using your log to make something like a temperature quilt or crochet scarf teaches even more life skills. There are tons of opportunities for teaching math in quilting too!

Below are some examples.

Bullet journal trackers like this one can be simplified for younger children.

Adults or older kids can make more complicated trackers like these:

Use this tutorial to make a temperature quilt to track the temperature for the year.

Here is a compilation of 10 more temperature quilt patterns.

This post shows how to make a temperature blanket using crochet.

How to Assemble Your Weather Wheel

Assembly of this weather tracker is so simple! After downloading your weather wheel you will need to print it out and cut out the wheel and the arrow.

Then you can either assemble as it is or laminate it. I recommend laminating it, because it will be used daily and will last longer with the protective layer. (I have this laminator.)

Then you will poke a hole through the bottom of the arrow and the center of the wheel and fasten the arrow to the wheel using a paper fastener like this one.

Next you will decide how you want to use it. I taped ours to our sliding glass door so that it stays in one place where we will be able to use it the most often. Our back door is the easiest place to watch the weather so it makes the most sense for us.

If you don’t want to tape yours to a window or door then you can add it to your homeschool space or where ever you will use it.

A few days ago we had our first rainbow! We were so excited to change our weather wheel to rainbow.

Weather Book Recommendations

Another great way to expand on your weather lesson is by reading books! We are huge fans of books in our household. We practically have our own library that we’ve accumulated over the years through various fill a bag books sales and happy mail deliveries from my favorite second hand books site Thriftbooks and of course we also LOVE our Usborne books.

Check out some of these weather books we love!

Some Book Recommendations for Parents

Usborne Book Recommendations

Some of my favorite books for educational purposes and just for fun come from Usborne Books. I was purchasing them long before I decided to sign up to earn commissions. I’ve recommended their books to friends, family and even strangers for so many years. Below I listed a few of my favorite weather related books. There are so many more options available though! Click here to shop my Usborne Book site. The links to the books recommended below are in captions or you can simply click the image..

Click here to shop my Usborne Book site. Individual links in captions.

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