How To Teach Weather In Spanish | Easy & Engaging Weather Station
In this post: Teaching weather in Spanish can be so much fun! Learn how to make your own DIY weather wooden peg dolls and an interactive weather chart. Post contains affiliate links for your convenience.
I absolutely love teaching about the weather in Spanish to preschoolers and kindergarteners! While my children and I are still settling into our Spanish morning routine, I wanted to create an interactive weather chart to practice our weather words in Spanish. This is perfect for interactive Spanish lessons with your preschoolers and kindergarteners.
Beautiful wooden weather charts are so lovely but wanted to make something a little more playful for us. I got this idea to create an interactive weather station for preschoolers by making a weather station with engraved wooden peg dolls.
There are wooden peg dolls with weather symbols painted on them, but have never been particularly handy with a paint brush. I have never had too much luck painting intricate peg dolls, they end up looking like blobs. Instead, I wanted to try using one of my new favorite craft tools: a dremel! A dremel is a small hand engraver that can be used on almost any surface. These peg dolls are hand painted, and then engraved with weather symbols to become part of our daily Spanish lesson.
You will need
- Wooden peg dolls (you can buy pre-painted ones, or buy plain ones and paint yourself)
- Acrylic paint (if you are painting your own peg dolls)
- Dremel
1×4 board (cedar, pine, or any other wood you may have on hand)
- Miter saw or circular saw for cutting to size
- Drill and forstner drill bit set (forstner drill bits help cut a circular seat for your wooden peg dolls)
- Stain of your choice
- Non-toxic wood sealer
How To Make The Weather Peg Dolls:
To get started, you will want to paint your wooden peg dolls. I always begin by painting the head first, choosing lovely shades of browns, blacks and creams to create a lovely peg doll family. Once the paint dries, choose colors for the body of your wooden peg dolls. You can use painters tape to cover around the head of the peg dolls to create a clean line, or just go slowly!
Next, when your painted peg dolls are fully dry, next it is time to engrave them. I am absolutely in love with this hand-held dremel tool. It is an awesome power tool for beginners and is really easy to work with. This will slowly engrave into the paint of your dolls and reveal the wood underneath. You can sketch out your weather symbols or free hand them. Now you have the chance to think of what Spanish weather words you want to teach! This is a great way to teach weather words like sol, lluvia, nublado, nieve, or any other Spanish weather word you want your children to learn!
Finally, when your peg dolls are painted and engraved, you can finish them with a light coat of your non-toxic wood sealer.
Time to make the base of your DIY weather chart!
Begin by cutting your boards to length. I cut two boards 14” long using my miter saw but you can also use a circular saw (even a hand saw!) for this step.
Next you will want to sand the boards completely smooth before you stain them. Once the stain fully dries, you want to cut the seats on one of your boards for your little DIY weather peg dolls to sit in. I used the 1” forstner bit, but make sure you find the size that fits your peg dolls by testing on scrap wood.
When you are ready to cut the seat, press down evenly as you drill into your marked spots. If you don’t press down evenly, you will have a wonky, crooked hole for the peg dolls (which is fine if that happens – just do your best!)
Once your boards are stained and dry and your seats are cut, you can use your dremel to engrave “¿Qué tiempo hace?” on the other board to help teach weather words in Spanish even more!
Now, to finish your DIY weather chart base, use screws to attach the two boards together from the back and seal with your non-toxic wood sealer.
Hang your engaging DIY weather chart on the wall and use it every morning to teach weather in Spanish to your little ones!
Spanish tips to help teach weather words in Spanish to your preschoolers and kindergarteners:
- ¿Qué tiempo hace? – What’s the weather like?
- Hace sol… – It’s sunny
- Está lloviendo – It’s raining
- Está nublado – It’s cloudy
- Está nevando – It’s snowing
- Está parcialmente nublado – It’s partially cloudy
Want even more hands-on lessons to teach weather in Spanish?
In Series 3 of my Spanish course, Con mi Familia, we dedicate an entire lesson to learning all about the weather in Spanish with hands-on activities, songs, crafts, and stories.
Want even more hands-on Spanish lessons for preschoolers and Kindergarteners?
