Young children are fascinated with the weather. Learn about different types of weather and instruments with these weather flashcards.
These free printable weather flashcards are perfect when exploring different weather events with your young children!
Set of 20 cards featuring common weather events and weather tools. Each card includes a vocabulary term along with a large real life photograph.
PDF downloadable set you can print off use right away with your kids.
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Are you looking for some hands-on manipulatives for a weather unit study? These printable flashcards are large enough for young children to hold and move around.
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You can access a pdf version of the weather flashcards set at the bottom of this post.
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Weather Flashcards
Set of 20 cards with weather conditions and weather tools. Eight cards with common weather events along with eight for extreme weather. Then four cards with weather instruments.
Common Weather Events
| Clouds | Sunny |
| Fog | Rain |
| Snow | Rainbow |
| Storm Clouds | Wind |
Extreme Weather
| Blizzard | Drought |
| Hurricane | Tornado |
| Flood | Hail |
| Lightning | Freezing Rain |
Weather Tools
| Anemometer | Barometer |
| Thermometer | Wind Vane |
Depending on your region and climate, your kids may have witnessed many of these weather events.
Common conditions including rain, sunny, clouds can be observed in most locations. While extreme weather events including hurricanes, flooding, and tornado may not be observed where you live.
You can also talk about the different tools that meteorologists use to observe the weather including a thermometer and anemometer.
Age Range
- Toddler
- Preschooler
- Kindergartner
- Elementary
- Upper Elementary
While these cards are designed for young children, you can use these for many years with your kids.
Sorting and classification activities are great for kids in preschool through upper elementary. If learning about weather with older kids, they can even use these cards for sorting activities.
For elementary aged children, they can learn science specific vocabulary terms while using this set of flashcards.
Skills to Practice
- Vocabulary
- Connections to real life events
- Observations
- Classification and Sorting
Flashcards are wonderful visuals for kids in preschool, kindergarten, 1st, 2nd, and 3rd grade. Kids love visuals when learning about topics in science.
While you can witness many of these weather events in real life, having a set of cards allows your kids to see all of the events at one time.
In the image above, three groups were made using the cards. Events that usually occur together were placed in the same group.
- Rain and a Rainbow
- Wind, Storm Cloud, and Lightning
- Sunny with Clouds
As you use the cards you can discuss different weather conditions together. A great introductory activity to to have your kids identify the weather events that they have see first hand.
Sorting activities are great conversation starters. After you sort, you can then talk about climate and weather at different locations! Kids and even then go on to learn about why weather events happen at some locations, but not others.
Even young children can begin to learn and explore the water cycle. As you talk about different form of precipitation together, they naturally will begin to question where it comes from.
Supplies
- Color printer
- Plain printer paper or cardstock
- Laminator (optional)
- Elastic or bag for storage
When printing off flashcards, I highly recommend using heavy weight paper such as cardstock instead of plain printer paper.
Each card is outlined in light gray and has rounded edges. You can use scissors or a paper cutter to cut out the cards.
Not only does heavy weight paper make these cards more durable, they stand up better if displaying them standing up.
Laminating these flashcards is another great option. Personally, I print off flashcards onto cardstock then laminate each card.
Helpful Hint: cut out each card first, then run them through the laminator. This lets the entire card be sealed with plastic.
Plus, protecting the set by laminating the individual cards will allow you to use the same set of years to come.
Additional Activities
Weather Bingo
Games are a fun way for kids to learn about different topics. This free weather bingo game features many of the same weather events and tools.
Bright and colorful images on each bingo card. A great option for young children in preschool through elementary. Each bingo card has nine images for kids to cross off.
Cloud Experiment
Learn how clouds form in this hands-on cloud activity for kids. Very easy to do with either a classroom or your own kids at home. You can get access to a free worksheet to use with your kids while conducting the experiment within the post.
Books about Weather
As a mom and teacher, I am a huge fan of using books to explore topics in science. Children's books about weather are wonderful learning resources for kids.
Weather released in 2020 is a great book for children. Written for ages 8-12, kids of all ages (even young kids) will love this book.
Terms of Use
These printable flashcards were created by Nature Inspired Learning and are for personal use only for your home, classroom, or public library. All of these weather flashcards are for non-commercial use. See full disclosure.
Free Printable Weather Flashcards
- PDF downloadable file means no physical copy will be sent to you
- Large images with a vocabulary word written in bold
Learning about weather and climate? Make sure to check out all of our free Weather Learning Resources!
Megan says
Kids will love this. Plus, the printable looks great! Thank you for sharing 🙂
Julie says
I'm a huge flash card fan. My toddler likes to think these are games and will play with them for hours, especially if I laminate them (which I typically do!)
Thanks so much for these smart cards for my kiddos!
rayees says
Dear Author,
could you plz help me find weather flashcards for which i don't see download link
look forward to get prompt response from you on this.
Julie says
Dear Rayees,
I sincerely apologize, I accidentally linked the parts of a pumpkin printables instead of the sign up for the weather flashcards. I updated the email form and it is now the correct one. Thank you for letting me know there was an issue!