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To make a weather chart, you'll need:
- A large (A3 or bigger) piece of paper or card for each month,
and a wall to put it on.
- Ruler (a metre stick would be helpful) or a long straight edge.
- Our weather symbols - either printed off on to labels, or cut
out.
- Felt pens.
To make a frame for the chart you'll need:
- Optionally, two pieces of heavy card about five centimetres
longer and wider than the paper. This is to make a frame for
the chart.
- Either a heavy duty staple gun, or some wide sticky tape.
Since this will be visible, you might consider using a metallic
or other decorative type.
- Felt pens, glitter, sticky paper etc, for decoration.
- About 45-60cm of 1cm wide ribbon.
- A straight edge (preferably metal) and a sharp craft knife
(for an adult, not a child, to use).
- Hole punch
- Tacky back plastic (optional).
What to do:
- Draw a line about 3cm in from the left edge of the paper, and
another about 3cm up, to form a big 'L' shape. This will give
you room to label the rows and columns.
- Divide the chart into five columns (one for each week of the
month, plus one for any extra days); then divide the columns
into seven days. (You might want to do this in pencil first,
then go over it in felt pen.)
- Make sure each space on the chart is big enough to take three
or four labels or little drawings.
- Label the rows with the names of the days, and the weeks 'week
1', 'week 2' and so on.
- Decorate round the edges of the chart.
Since you'll have to change the chart each
month, you might want to make a frame to hold it - this will
look nicer, stop the chart getting tatty and reduce the wear
on your wall!
To Make the Frame:
- Lay a piece of the chart paper on to the reverse side of one
of the pieces of card. Draw round it. Now draw a second rectangle
about a half a centimetre inside it.
- Using a sharp knife and the straight edge, cut round the rectangle.
(Remember to protect whatever surface you're working on - craft
knives can be table-ruiningly sharp).
- Keep the part with the hole (otherwise known as the frame).
Put the other part aside to use in some other project.
- Punch two holes in the second piece of card, about 2cm from
the top and 3cm from the sides.
- Turn the frame over, and lay it on top of the second piece
of card. Staple or tape the two pieces together, leaving the
top open.
- Thread ribbon through the holes and knot, to make a hanger.
- Decorate to taste. If you want to protect the frame, cover
it in tacky back plastic, taking care to fold the plastic under
the inner edges of the frame securely, so it doesn't catch the
charts when they are inserted and removed.
-Insert first chart.
What to do with your chart:
If you have a younger child, or you want to keep things simple,
you may want to use the chart on its own.
In this case, choose a good time of day
(teatime, for instance) - one that you can stick to regularly.
It's best to choose a time when it will still be light, if you
can.
Look at the weather with your child. Think
about whether it's hot or cold; whether it's completely overcast,
a bit cloudy, or bright; whether it's windy or still; and whether
it's dry, raining or snowing.
Now choose stickers to match, and put them
on the chart. If you aren't using stickers, your child could
just draw a little picture, but this will take longer. If you
are using stickers, your child might like to colour them in.
Make a Weather Station:
If your child is older, you might want to make a weather station
to use in conjunction with your chart. This is quite a bit easier
than it sounds, but can be very educational if you take care
to explain and discuss what each part is for, and why they are
made the way they are.
A weather station needs to be able to keep
track of the following:
- temperature
- atmospheric pressure
- rainfall
- wind speed and direction
You'll need to find a good place to put
your weather station:
- The thermometer needs to be positioned out of direct sunlight,
but not in deep shadow.
- The rain gauge needs to be in the open (not under the eaves
of the house, or on a covered balcony, for instance).
- The weather vane and windmill need to be away from walls -
there mustn't be anything to stop them reacting to the wind.
Try to get into the habit of checking your
weather station every day. Use it as an opportunity for discussion,
using appropriate language - not just about the weather, but
also about any patterns that occur in the readings, and about
making predictions.
Temperature and Atmospheric Pressure
If you can afford to spend a bit of money, you might want to
invest in an outdoor thermometer and/or a barometer. Make sure
you site these correctly, and that your child understands how
to read them.
There isn't a good substitute that I know
of for a barometer. However, if you don't want to buy a thermometer,
leaving a dish of water out overnight will at least tell you
if the temperature fell below freezing (assuming you check it
first thing in the morning).
Rainfall
Keep track of how much rain there has been by making a rain gauge.
You will need:
- A jar made of transparent plastic (transparent to make it easy
to measure the water level; plastic for safety reasons). The
jar must be wide mouthed and straight sided (so that the level
of water that collects in the bottom is a true representation
of how much fell on to it; if it has a narrow mouth, the level
will be higher than it should be).
- A strip of paper about 6cm by 1cm
- A ruler
- A waterproof felt pen
- Suitable glue
- Tacky back plastic
What to do:
- Make the strip of paper into a ruler by marking out divisions
on it in waterproof ink. (Discuss with your child what the appropriate
divisions might be, and whether they will be accurate. For instance,
would it be more useful to use centimetres or millimetres? If
you use millimetres, will you be able to mark them on your ruler
accurately? Could you use some other measurement?)
- Stick the ruler to the jar, making sure the bottom of the ruler
and the bottom of the jar line up.
- Cover the jar in tacky back plastic.
Wind Speed and Direction
It's best to make two separate instruments to tell wind speed
and direction - a windmill and a weather vane.
To Make A Weather Vane
You Will Need
- Two pieces of stiff card.
- A garden cane.
- A heavy flower pot with a hole in the base - if it's big enough
that you can weight it down with stones, even better.
- A magnetic compass, or some other way of telling directions.
- Waterproof glue.
- A waterproof pen.
- A sharp craft knife (adult only to use).
What to Do:
- Traditionally, weather vanes are made in the shape of roosters
or arrows, but you could choose any simple shape - just make
sure it will be obvious which way it is pointing. Draw out your
shape on the card and cut round it. Repeat using the other piece
of card.
- Place one piece of card face down. Lay the stick on it, then
put the second piece of card on top. Glue the whole 'sandwich'
together. You should end up with a rooster (or other weather
vane) on a stick!
- Turn the pot upside down. Mark North, South, East and West
on it. Use the compass to position it correctly.
-Put the weather vane's stick in the hole in the pot, and make
sure it can turn freely, without falling over.
To Make a Windmill
You Will Need:
- A piece of paper about 30cm square. If you can get plastic
coated paper, so much the better.
- A split-pin type paper fastener.
- A piece of wire - heavy fuse wire, maybe, or a straightened-out
paper clip.
- A garden cane.
- Scissors.
What to Do:
- Fold the square of paper in half diagonally. Unfold and then
refold it the other way.
- Cut along the creases you've just made, but not to the centre
- the piece of paper shouldn't fall apart!
- Take hold of the top corner of one of the triangles you've
just made, and fold it into the centre. Do the same with the
other three. You should now have something that looks like a
windmill.
- Use the paper fastener to secure the vanes of the windmill.
- Thread the wire through the arms of the paper fastener, then
wrap it round the cane. Make sure the windmill can spin freely.
- Make a mark on one vane of the windmill, and colour a band
round the garden cane to make it easy to count how many times
the windmill has spun.
- Plant the windmill firmly.
- To use the windmill to measure windspeed, count how many times
it goes round in thirty seconds. (This won't give you a speed
in miles per hour, but it will give you a relative measure of
wind speed.) |
