Middle School Weather and Climate Activities

Add some weather and climate activities to your science or geography lesson plans.

It isn’t always easy getting kids interested in this subject. Sometimes it has nothing to do with the material, it’s the way it’s being presented. To make it more interesting, when you’re teaching students about the weather and climate, try these hands-on activities.

They’re simple, fun, and sure to keep middle schoolers engaged. Getting kids interested in climate boils down to catching their attention.

Collage of 3 images for weather activities. Kid holding colorful umbrella, boy making structure from sticks and clay, thermometer.

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Weather Activities for Middle School

The study of weather and climate is an important part of your child’s science and geography studies, but often families teach it in elementary school and never revisit it.

As you know, middle schoolers are able to understand material differently now that they’re older, so it’s probably time to take another look at this interesting subject.

With the current issues facing our environment, it’s important that our kids take an active role and that starts with education.

These projects will let tweens have fun while diving deeper into the subject material. And you’ll love how easy they are to add to your homeschool lesson plans.

DIY Weather Instruments

To help your kids learn about the different tools used to provide predictions, have them build their own weather tools.

With few supplies, teens can easily make their own

barometer
anemometer
psychrometer
wind vane
rain gauge

One of the great learning opportunities with this project is letting kids figure out which tool they’ll need to use based on what they want to measure.

It’s a simple activity that can help kids better understand the differences between the tools used in meteorology.

Printable Weather Activities

Experiments are a great way to let kids interact with the material they’re studying. With these printables, you can teach your children about weather and climate while keeping them engaged.

Our favorite project was definitely making our own weather station. We chose 4 different tools to measure various parts of our local climate, including a barometer, thermometer, wind vane, and rain gauge.

Making these objects was the first part of the activity. Then, we used them to measure particular variables over the course of two weeks to get a feel for our local conditions.

We tracked it all on a printable weather data sheet.

Hands-on Meteorology Projects

Here are two fun activities that are sure to get your tweens excited about this subject. They’re both easy to do at home and make excellent additions to your lesson plans.

Teach your kids how clouds form by having them make their own clouds in a jar. All you need is a glass jar, warm water, hair spray, and some ice to create this cool reaction.
Build your own volcano to teach how the weather can cause them to erupt. They can create custom chambers before combining ingredients, including baking soda, dish soap, and food coloring.

These are only two of the many projects that are suitable for tweens.

Building Earthquake Resistant Structures

A fun STEM project that will definitely encourage your tweens to use some creativity is building an earthquake-proof structure.

First, spend some time going over the science behind earthquakes and have your kids learn about what makes these the top earthquake resistant structures.

For this project, you can use all kinds of tools and methods. Some of our favorites was this one out of playing cards, building towers from spaghetti and marshmallows, and the classic using straws and paperclips.

Have your older kids construct something they believe can withstand the pressure from an earthquake, then test it out.

It’s a fun way for kids to put everything they’ve been learning into practical use.

DIY weather vane with plastic water bottles

As you can see, there are lots of cool hands-on activities you can use in your homeschool to teach your kids about weather and climate.

Weather Related Resources

Make it incredibly simple to study weather science with your tweens with this kit.
This book from National Geographic has all kinds of cool weather facts and information included.

What’s your favorite middle school weather activity?

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Megan Zechman

I love homeschooling! Learning is a way of life for our family. Most days you will find us exploring our Central Florida community, having fun while learning. I am constantly looking for new and interactive ways to engage my older children.