Rain Jar & Wind Ribbon — The Doorstep Weather Station

The child builds two simple weather instruments, checks them at the same time each day for a week, and records the weather with picture symbols.

  1. Make a rain jar: stand a straight-sided clear jar or tumbler outside in the open, away from walls and trees. Tape a strip of paper marked with finger-width lines up the side, or simply stand a ruler in it when you check.
  2. Make a wind ribbon: tie a 30–50 cm strip of ribbon or light fabric to a stick, a railing, or a balcony rail where the child can see it from indoors.
  3. Draw a week-long chart with a box for each day and agree on symbols — sun, cloud, rain, wind, snow, fog.
  4. At the same time each day, the child plays weather scientist: look at the sky, feel the air, check the ribbon (hanging still, fluttering, or flying straight out?), and look at the rain jar (empty, a little, a lot?). They draw the symbols in today’s box, then empty the jar.
  5. At the end of the week, count together: “How many rainy days? How many sunny days? Which day was the windiest?”

Variation: add a temperature word each day — the child steps outside for ten seconds and chooses from freezing, cold, cool, warm, hot.

Requirements

  • Space: A spot outdoors open to the sky (garden, balcony, windowsill ledge, or doorstep) plus wall space for the chart
  • Surface: A flat, stable place for the jar where it will not be knocked over
  • Materials: Straight-sided clear jar or plastic tumbler, ruler or marked paper strip, ribbon and a stick, paper and crayons for the chart
  • Participants: 1 adult + 1 child
  • Supervision: Light — adult helps with setup and the daily two-minute check

Rationale & Objective

Observing and describing daily weather is one of the most widely shared goals in early science — NGSS K-ESS2-1 asks kindergartners to use and share observations of local weather to describe patterns over time, and the EYFS, Hirsch, and Head Start frameworks all include it. Choosing a symbol for the day’s weather is also this subdomain’s own benchmark. Simple instruments move the child from a vague impression (“it’s bad out”) to specific, comparable observations — how much rain, how strong the wind — and a week of records lets them see a pattern that no single day shows. Research on young children’s ideas about rain (Saçkes, Flevares & Trundle, 2010) finds that many 4–6-year-olds hold intuitive but mistaken explanations, with the older children closer to the scientific view; regular observation and talk about clouds and rain is a natural starting point for more accurate ones. The chart doubles as early data handling.

Progress Indicators

  • Early: describes weather with one word (“nice”, “yucky”); needs help choosing a symbol; forgets the instruments are there
  • Developing: picks the right symbol most days; notices whether the ribbon is moving and whether there is water in the jar; uses words like cloudy, windy, rainy
  • Proficient: checks both instruments without reminding; combines symbols for mixed weather (sun and cloud); compares days (“more rain than yesterday”); counts the week’s totals
  • Advanced: makes a simple forecast from the sky (“dark clouds — I think it will rain”); links weather to the season; suggests a new thing to measure or a better place for the jar

Safety Notes

  • Use a plastic container rather than glass if the child will carry or empty it themselves
  • Never go out to check instruments during a thunderstorm, and come indoors at the first sound of thunder
  • Teach the child never to look directly at the Sun when checking the sky
  • Empty the jar every day so standing water does not attract mosquitoes
  • If the jar sits on a balcony or high windowsill, the adult does the fetching — no leaning over railings

Hints

  • Playfulness: let the child deliver a TV-style forecast to the family at breakfast, with a wooden spoon microphone — “Today on our street: cloudy, with a very wiggly ribbon!”
  • Sustain interest: run it for one week in each season and compare the charts side by side. Add a new instrument each time — a pinwheel, a pine cone that opens when dry and closes when damp, an outdoor thermometer
  • Common mistake: letting the daily check drift to random times, or abandoning it after a missed day. Tie it to a fixed routine such as breakfast, and just leave a blank box if you miss one
  • Limited space: no outdoor space at all? Use the window only — sky symbol, plus watch a flag, treetop, or washing line across the street for wind
  • Cross-domain: counting and comparing days on the chart (data handling); measuring rain depth with a ruler (measurement); drawing symbols (pre-writing); choosing clothes from the forecast (self-care)
  • Progression: one symbol a day → add wind (still, breezy, strong) → add rain amount → add a temperature word → compare two weeks → predict tomorrow and check

Sources

  • NGSS K-ESS2-1 — use and share observations of local weather conditions to describe patterns over time
  • Saçkes, M., Flevares, L.M. & Trundle, K.C. (2010), “Four- to six-year-old children’s conceptions of the mechanism of rainfall,” Early Childhood Research Quarterly
  • E.D. Hirsch — What Your Kindergartner Needs to Know (Science — seasons and weather)
  • UK EYFS — Understanding the World, The Natural World ELG
  • Head Start ELOF — Scientific Reasoning (P-SCI 1, 5, 6)
  • Teaching Strategies GOLD Objective 27 (Earth’s environment) and Objective 24 (scientific inquiry)
  • Met Office (UK) education resources — making a rain gauge and observing weather