How to Set up a Weather Station Dramatic Play Area

Your kids will have fun learning about the weather when you set up a weather station dramatic play area. Encourage pretend play, math, science, and literacy learning with these ideas and printables.

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I have been receiving a great deal of positive feedback regarding my science-based dramatic play center sets.  I’m excited to show you my latest creation….a weather-themed set.

Here are some ideas to help you create a weather station dramatic play area or to your science center so you can study weather in a fun way with your kids. Kids love all the different weather activities in the set-up.

The printables featured in this post can be found in my store. I also added several links at the bottom of this post. Use the links and ideas to help you shop for props to add to your center. There will be no additional cost to you when you make a purchase from a link, but a small portion of your purchase will be used towards maintaining this website.

Clothing & Prop Ideas

It’s pretty easy to find clothing for this setup.  Think about when you watch meteorologists on TV.  They wear all kinds of clothing.  Professional clothing like dresses, blazers, and ties are great.

In addition to dress clothing, you can add all kinds of weather-related clothing.  Think sun hats, raincoats, winter coats, vests, scarves, mittens, umbrellas, etc.

You can also add some of the following props:

• microphones
• keyboards
• maps
• pointers
• thermometers
• rain gauges
• prisms
• headphones
• old video cameras
• fan
• windsocks, whirligigs, weathervane

Weather Forecast Station

Meteorologists frequently work on computers, so be sure to add one to your weather forecast station.  I added printables to a 3-ring binder, folded the binder backwards, and propped one of the covers up with a box…..tada…a DIY laptop.  If you don’t have printables, add a keyboard for a pretend computer.

Kids can forecast the weather for today and tomorrow with a forecast chart.   This simple weather forecast chart is perfect for young kids…who all have a difficult time understanding the concept of time and days of the week.

Measure Precipitation

You can use rain gauges in your weather station, or you can make DIY rain gauges with the printable measuring strips.  I used duct tape to attach laminated strips to clear plastic containers.  Use them in a water table or in a tub filled with water.

Kids can use watering cans, buckets, or pitchers to pour water into the rain gauges.  They can measure as they fill.

The blue item on top of my rain gauge is a can strainer that I recently found at Wal-mart.  It’s the cutest little colander.  When we poured water through it, the water separated to look like rain showers.  Things like this will give kids lots of opportunities to experiment with water.

You can also use the measuring strips or a ruler to measure snow.  If you happen to have some real snow outside, bring a bucket in and use it before it melts.  If you don’t have real snow, wet baking soda works well.

Broadcast Studio

We are most familiar with meteorologists from television.  Your little meteorologists can also share a forecast with the world from their pretend studio.

Use an old camcorder, or create a video camera with a box.  Wrap the box in black paper and add a plastic cup at one end for an eyepiece.  Add a clear plastic lid on the other for a lens.

Add charts or weather maps to the wall so that kids can use them during the broadcast.

Weather Research

You can add a weather research area to your dramatic play center or in your science center.

Here is a simple way to research wind.  Tape a variety of materials like yarn, cord, ribbon, and streamers to the end of a dowel.  Kids can hold the items up in front of a small fan to see how the materials react to the wind.

Here are some additional ideas for weather research:

• Add weather themed sensory bottles or a tornado in a bottle to the area.
• Use eyedroppers to add drops of rainwater to different materials (soil, foil, sponge, rocks, plastic, etc.).  Observe how the materials absorb or repel rainwater.
• Provide containers of water with different temperatures (ice water, warm water, room temp water). Let kids check the temperature with a safe thermometer.
• Set up a thermostat on a classroom window.
• Set up a large pinwheel, whirlygig, windsock, or weather vane outside a classroom window.

A Print-Rich Dramatic Play Center

A weather observations sheet and weather-related word cards are great ways to add print to the set-up.

Here are some additional ways that you make a print-rich weather station.

• Add weather books to the area.
• Cut out weather forecasts from a newspaper
• Cut out weather-related photos from magazines and newspaper
• Add a variety of maps

Provide opportunities for kids to record information about the weather.  Add scrap paper, note sheets/books, or blank books throughout the area.

Purchase the Weather Dramatic Play Printables Today

I know your kids will have so much fun as they pretend to be meteorologists.  To get the Weather Station Dramatic Play Printables, click on the image below

The Weather Station set is also part of the Science Theme Dramatic Play Bundle.

Do you prefer to shop at Teachers Pay Teachers? You can also purchase the Weather Station Dramatic Play Printables or the Science Theme Dramatic Play Bundle in my TPT Store.

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Here are some items that might help you with a weather station dramatic play setup.  If you decide to purchase any of the items below, Amazon will pay me a small commission for it. This doesn’t cost you anything additional, but the commission helps me fund this website.