Free templateChild Development & Programming

Water, Weather & Wonder Activity Pack

Nine pages of water and weather activities built on Explore, Create and Build: a Weather Investigation Station, a Water & Weather Art Studio and a Water Works Challenge. Each activity has a learning goal and a separate page for 12–18 months, 19–36 months and 3–4 years with materials and numbered steps.

Format: Printable PDF · A4
Pages: 9
Best for: Educators · room leads
Updated: Oct 2026

Download free template See what’s inside

No sign-up required. Print it and share it with your team — it’s free for any child care program to use.

Preview of the Water, Weather & Wonder Activity Pack

What’s inside

Three activities, each written for three age groups

EXPLORE — Weather Investigation StationChildren investigate water, weather and seasonal changes through observation, prediction, experimentation and conversation. Materials run from a shallow water bin, sponges and ice cubes for 12–18 months to a weather chart, rain gauge and clipboards for 3–4 years. Each page ends with a Development list.
CREATE — Water & Weather Art StudioOpen-ended process art using water, colour and natural materials: painting with water and coloured ice cubes outdoors, spray bottles and frozen paint cubes, and watercolour with salt and natural materials. Each page has five steps and an Ask list.
BUILD — Water Works ChallengeEngineering through water movement: pouring with cups and funnels at 12–18 months, building a pathway from gutters and tubes at 19–36 months, and planning, testing and redesigning with PVC pipe and connectors at 3–4 years.
Questions to askThe Create and Build pages each list two or three questions for that age group, such as “Where did the colour go?”, “Can we make it go farther?” and “Why didn’t it work?”

How to use it

Four steps to put it to work this week

1
Find your age-group pagesEach age group has three pages, one per activity. Print those three rather than all nine if you work in one room.
2
Collect the materialsEach page starts with a Materials list. Most items are standard — water table, cups, funnels, spray bottles, large paper. The 3–4 years Build page calls for PVC pipe, gutters and connectors.
3
Follow the steps in orderThe steps move from free exploration to predicting, testing and comparing. For the youngest group the Explore page says to add only one or two materials to begin.
4
Repeat and recordSeveral pages end with repeating or testing again. For 3–4 years the Explore steps include recording observations and discoveries, so have clipboards ready.

Tips from operators

What centers that use this well do differently

Learned the hard way across 3,000 child care spaces — and from the directors and educators who join our Lunch & Learns and Learning Labs.

Plan supervision and clean-up first

The pack has no safety notes. Decide who stays at the water, keep towels within reach (they are on the 12–18 months materials list) and empty bins when you finish.

Freeze ahead

Ice cubes, coloured ice cubes and frozen paint cubes appear in several activities. Make them the day before.

Keep the questions visible

Copy the Ask questions onto a card near the station so every educator in the room uses the same language.

Do it digitally in ChildFriendly Pro

Plan the week in the app — tagged to your framework automatically

Build the same plan in ChildFriendly Pro and every observation you log is tagged to FLIGHT, ELECT, ELF or your own outcomes, added to each child’s portfolio and shared with families in their daily journal.