Recently, we’ve seen some wild weather in the Sutherland Shire. Many young children have witnessed heavy rain and hail for the first time and they’ve got lots of questions about it!
This week our Busy Kids theme is designed to answer some of those questions, assure them that they’re safe and make any day fun, whatever the weather.
MOVE
- This week is primed for puddle jumping. Put the kids in old clothes, gumboots
and a raincoat and look for any puddle-covered surface where they won’t slip over, or a local oval where even if they slip over, they won’t get hurt. - When the rain dies down, grab a plastic-backed picnic blanket and lie on it together and watch the clouds. Brush up on your types of clouds first (using the book suggestions or videos below) so that you can point them out to your kids and ask them to point them out to you. And, of course, ask them to see what animals and other shapes they can see in the clouds.
- If there’s ample wind, don’t forget to bring a kite. Little kids may even be satisfied by running along with a plastic bag tied to a long piece of string.
- Don’t let the rain cause cabin fever! If you’re absolutely busting to find some dry fun outside the house, check out our best suggestions for where to go in the Sutherland Shire when it’s raining outside.
MAKE
- This easy experiment allows you to make your own unmeltable snowflake overnight.
- Make your own cloud in a jar.
- Create your own rain gauge.
- Toddlers and little kids will love this easy rainbow collage.
- Construct a Weather chart that you can use regularly to discuss the weather with your kids.
- Help kids learn about the power and direction of wind by making a simple windmill or windsock (suitable for school-aged kids).
BAKE
- Use finger food to make rainbow lunches or rainbow fruit skewers.
Whip up a super easy batch of Cloud Meringues.- Decorate some biscuits with rainbows and clouds.
PLAY
- A game of weather bingo.
- Learn about the weather in these online weather games.
- Try out this fun weather sorting game.
READ
Sutherland Shire Council Libraries have a huge selection of weather-based books. Some of our favourites include:
- ‘A Wonderful
World of Weather’ by Kay Barnham - ‘The Everything Kids Weather Book’ by Joe Snedeker
- ‘Come on Rain’ by Karen Hesse
- ‘Maisy’s Wonderful Weather’ by Lucy Cousins
- ‘Kipper’s Book of Weather’ by Mick Inkpen
LISTEN
Spotify Playlists:
Weather songs for kids (Mums of the Shire)
Podcasts:
- How do Meteorologists predict the weather (But Why)
- What’s with the weather (But Why)
- Why does rain only come from grey clouds (ABC: Imagine this)
- Curious about rainbows (Curious Kids)
- Curious about tornadoes (Curious Kids)
WATCH
- Ask the Storybots Episode: Where does rain from (Netflix)
- The snowy day (Amazon Prime)
- Cloudy with a chance of meatballs (1 and 2) (Netflix)
- Magic School Bus Episode 1.2 Pigs in the wind (Netflix)
- Nat Geo kids weather playlist (Youtube) Types of Clouds (the Dr Binocs Show)
- Wonderful weather with Duggee (Youtube)
We’d love to see what you and your Busy Kids get up to so please use the hashtag #BusyKids and tag us on Instagram so that we can share them with our community.
Still looking for things to do with your kids? Check out all our previous Busy Kids guides.
