Windy Weather

Wind is air moving around in different directions. Using your senses, discuss if you can touch, smell, see, hear or taste the wind. Windy weather blows things around and sometimes it can damage things. When you are outside, think about what the wind blows – trees, leaves, flowers, your hair and clothes. If you would like to read a story about wind I recommend ‘Shark in the Park on a Windy Day’ by Nick Sharratt.

Activities

Wind Experiment

This is an exciting experiment to explore the different strengths of wind from a straw, hairdryer, cards and a fan. Ask your child to predict which one will produce the strongest wind which will make the foil ball go the furthest.

  1. You will need: a straw, a hairdryer, a large piece of card, a fan, foil balls and a tape measure.
  2. Start off by setting up like the photo above.
  1. I would advise to use scrunched up foil balls rather than real balls as they don’t roll as easily. We started with the straw first. My daughter blew in the straw to make the foil ball move. We discussed that it didn’t go very far and that it was hard work as she was blowing. We measured how far the foil had moved using the tape measure.
  1. Use the other sources of wind and discuss what is happening as you go along. Your child may wish to record their results on a table. Was it the hairdryer, straw, card (we moved it forwards and backwards to create wind) or straw that produced the strongest wind? Why?

From the experiment we found out the the fan produced the strongest wind and sent the foil flying and the straw produced the weakest wind.

Finally, we used the hairdryer to blow my daughter’s hair around which was extremely popular!

Duplo Maze

This is so easy to set up and you need lots of puff to lead the marble round the maze.

  1. You will need: a flat surface, Duplo, Lego, blocks etc, a marble, straw and start and finish signs.
  2. Make the maze with your child using the Duplo. Make sure that it is wide enough to make it easier for the marble to travel.
  3. Using the straw, blow, blow and more blowing the marble round the maze. Your child might need help as it’s quite exhausting blowing for that long!
  4. Discuss how the wind is being created.
Windsock

Create a windsock to see the wind blowing and the direction of the wind. Your child will be using observational skills to look and see what the woodsock is doing.

  1. You will need: a toilet roll, paper, string and tape.
  2. Cover the toilet roll in paper.
  3. Cut our strips of paper and stick them to the bottom of the toilet roll.
  4. Pierce two hole at the top and thread through your string.
  5. Go outside and hang it on a tree.
  6. Wait for a gust of wind and watch as your woodsock moves!
Kite Making

Make a kite and take it outside to watch it blow in the wind!

  1. You will need: Some card, sticks or lollipop sticks, tape and string or wool.
  2. Cut out the card, stick on the lollipop sticks to make it strong, punch a hole and pull the string through.
  3. Decorate the kite with pens, pencils, glitter, stickers, whatever you wish.
  4. Take the kite outside and watch it fly!
Fan Art

Watch how the paint will travel across the paper when you use a fan.

  1. You will need: a fan, paint, a box and paper blu tack. Make sure the paper is blu tacked to the box so that it doesn’t blow away when you use the fan.
  2. Place the paint at one end of the paper. Make sure that it is watered down so that it will move!
  3. Switch on the fan and create fan art. Watch as the paint moves and the colours mix. You have created a modern piece of art work!
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