How’s the weather today? How many classes have you started asking this question? Lots and lots I imagine. This is a fun weather EFL ESL lesson plan for children. It is suitable for preschool and primary aged children and will last about 1 hour. We’ll learn to ask about the weather and talk about different kinds of weather and we’ll play lots of fun games. You’ll find everything you need here including free printable weather flashcards. If you need anything else, you can find it in my Weather teaching resources collection. So get your umbrellas ready and don’t forget the sun cream, it’s time to learn all about the weather.
For this Weather EFL ESL lesson plan, you will need:
- Weather flashcards – either make your own or download these for free and print out
- Some weather realia – e.g an umbrella, a sun hat, gloves, etc
- paper and coloring markers
Weather songs and videos
- How’s the Weather song by Maple Leaf Learning
- How’s the Weather? by Super Simple Songs
- How’s the Weather simple skits by Maple Leaf learning
Introduction – How’s the weather?
Begin your weather efl esl lesson with your usual hello routine or use one of my favorite Hello songs. Then get the kids to look out of the window if you have one and ask them “how’s the weather?”. Pull out your realia or if you don’t have any, use your flashcards. Ask them if it is sunny and put on the sun hat. Then ask if it is cold and put on your gloves. Be silly and use lots of TPR to demonstrate the different kinds of weather. Then sing the Maple Leaf learning How’s the Weather song together using the actions as you sing.
Play a funny weather game
Put your weather objects or your flashcards in different areas of the classroom where the children can see them. Then ask one of them to say to you, “How’s the weather?”. Answer them with one of your weather choices, e.g. it’s sunny. Everyone has to run to the object or flashcard for sunny weather. The first one to get there can be the next to answer the question and choose the weather. If you’re doing this with a very big class, you could choose one child to answer the question and run while the others point her or him in the right direction. For an online class, you could ask the kids to point to the correct flashcard or alternatively to show you something in their home which relates to that kind of weather. You might need to organize this with parents first so they have everything prepared.
Let’s play another How’s the Weather game
Give out your weather flashcards to the kids and put them in pairs. Drill the question one more time and then let them ask each other and answer using the weather on their cards. Change pairs and cards around a few times so everyone has a chance to practice using different weather. Once they’ve done this and are happy, make it a bit more complicated. Show them a card with the sun on and ask, “How’s the weather? Is it rainy?”. They have to answer yes or no and give you the correct weather. Then let them try this in their pairs. Then you can sing the Super Simple Songs How’s the Weather song together.
Weather Noughts and Crosses / Tic Tac Toe
Finish playing with a fun game of tic tac toe. Draw a grid on the board and put different weather symbols in the grid. Divide the class into two teams and make one team noughts and one team crosses. Each team can take turns asking the other the weather and winning noughts or crosses and the first to get three in a row wins. If you don’t know how to play, you can watch a video here.
Watch a funny weather video
To finish off, watch Maple Leaf Learning’s How the Weather video skit. Little kids find this really funny and they can practice asking Andy the Ant about the weather. If you’ve got time left to do a drawing, they can draw him on all the different weather. Alternatively, read one of the weather story books in my collection of weather teaching resources.
Conclusion
Tidy up your classroom. Then finish your lesson with your usual goodbye routine or use one of my favorite goodbye songs. Don’t forget to practice what you’ve learned today at the beginning of your next lesson together; it can become part of your routine.
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