Create a Weather Mobile!

Sun, rain, clouds, and snow! If you have a mini meteorologist in the family, treat your child to this special art activity inspired by the weather outside. Learn about seasons and the environment with this funky 3-D art form! Combine natural materials, household items, and basic art materials to create a hanging masterpiece. Cut out shapes to represent each season and hang them from sticks to create a weather mobile. She'll practice science as she learns about the seasons, and gets a chance to practice her small motor skills. The end result is a funky piece of art that you can hang anywhere in the house!

What You Need:

• 2 sturdy sticks
• Yarn
• Cardboard
• Paper
• Cotton balls
• Glue
• Scissors
• Water color paint and brushes
• Crayons
• Hole punch

What to Do:

1. Take a trip outdoors with your child and help her to collect two sticks that are about the same length.
2. Search your house for reusable paper or cardboard materials. These can include (but are not limited to) cereal boxes, cracker boxes, shoe boxes, or blank sides of flyers or leaflets.
3. Ask your child to name the four seasons. Once she has named all four, discuss what types of weather you might see and feel during each season.
4. Invite your child to create a summer sun drawing. Encourage her to decide what shape the sun is, and then draw it using crayons.
5. Cut out the sun shape, and draw the same sunny picture on the back. Then punch a hole near the top of the summer sun.
6. Next, ask your child to create a cloudy day creation for the mobile by drawing a cloud shape on the cardboard. Help her cut the shape out.
7. Glue cotton balls to one side of the shape and set it aside to dry.
8. Once it's dry, turn it over and over the other side with cotton balls. When the second side is dry, punch a hole near the top of the cloud. You should end up with a soft, fluffy cloud.
9. To make the snow part of the mobile, hand your child a piece of white paper. Fold the paper in half, and then in half again. Use the scissors to cut small slits and shapes in the paper. Unfold to reveal a snowflake! Then punch a hole near the top.
10. Ask your child to draw a rain drop shape and cut it out. Using the water colors (after all, raindrops are water!) have her paint the raindrop blue. Once dry, punch a hole near the top.
11. Help your child thread a piece of yarn through each weather pattern hole, tying a knot to secure it.
12. Cross the sticks or twigs to make a plus sign, and wrap the yarn around the spot where both sticks cross. Tie securely, and add another piece of yarn tied to the middle to hang the mobile from.
13. Tie the sun, clouds, snow, and rain to one end of each stick.
14. Hang the weather mobile up in a special place, and keep the project going by asking your child to point to the side that matches the day's weather!