When I was little my mom made us a Weather Willy. He was fantastic and made for a great project. I made one for Bear last winter but he is just now starting to understand the concept and how to use this great learning tool. I have a few adjustments to make to ours before it's the way I'd like but I want to share with you the general idea as well as the
templates and how to.
Weather Willy is a daily activity for you and your child, it's short, sweet and simple and the name pretty much explains it. Will is a kid, every morning he looks out his window and then decides what to wear based on the weather outside. On a sunny day, he'll be rockin' his shorts and t-shirt and on cold rainy days he'll grab his umbrella and raincoat.
What is fantastic about this is you can tailor it to your area very easily - have fun with it. If you live in an area with tornadoes, heck, make a tornado! If you have ice storms, make some nice icey shapes. In a warmer climate? Make lots of sunshine and different types of clouds!
I got all of my supplies at AC Moore but any large craft
store will do (Michaels, Walmart, Jo-Ann Fabrics, etc).
You will need:
Picture Frame – ($10-20) I chose an 11 x 17” frame with a
nice thick wood frame.
Felt – ($0.25 each) You will need to plan out your
colors. The attached templates work well
for the Northeast so below is the list of colors I chose and how many. I bought
8.5 x 11 sheets so I’m going by that.
Background/Grass – 2 Light Blue, 1 Light Green
Willie – Peach, Light Brown
Willie’s Clothes – Orange,
Red, Yellow, Camo, Black, Lime, Dark Brown, White
Weather – White, Light Gray, Yellow, Light Blue
Tree – Dark Green, Dark Brown
Tacky Glue
Fabric Markers or Sharpies
Scissors (sharp ones preferred)
Pen
Note: Weather Willie can easily be made Weather Winnie –
just make some dresses and longer hair!
For the Board:
Remove the cardboard from inside the frame – this is going
to be your base. Remove the glass (we don’t
have another use for the glass in this project). Glue down the two light blue felt sheets,
lining the top edge of the felt to the top edge of the cardboard.
For the grass, cut one 11 x 5" strip and then attack with the scissors (make it look
like grass) be careful not to cut the blades too small or gluing it down will
be a pain. Glue down your grass
layer.
Place
the cardboard back into your frame to the felt faces out like a picture and
that’s that.
Willie or Winnie – Use the template to cut out your
character. My template is for Willy, Hair as well as the “undies” pattern.
For Willie, I used light brown for his hair and made his undies white
but get creative. Glue the hair and
undies right to him so he doesn’t get cold.
Use markers to add features (eyes, nose, mouth, “pee hole” on the undies,
etc).
Now for the clothes!
I used the Willie template as my outline for all the outfits so they fit
him. Make sure all the clothes are a
tiny tiny bit larger than Willie so he is covered. Here is a list of clothes &
accessories I made…
Overall Shorts, Tee Shirt, Sneakers, Ball & Sunglasses
Raincoat, Rain Hat, Frog Boots & Umbrella
Camo Pants, Long Sleeve Shirt & Baseball Cap
Winter Jacket, Snow Pants, Boots & Beanie
Here are the different types of weather I made some pieces
work with multiple forecasts..
Snow – Gray Clouds, Snowballs, Snow Lumps, Snowflakes,
Snowman
Sunny – A Big Sunshine, Some Flowers
Cloudy – Gray Clouds (if you want to throw in some earth
science make different types)
Rainy – Rain Drops, Puddles, Gray Clouds
Stormy – All Rainy Parts + Lightning Bolts
I also made some critters and scenery…
Robin & Blue Bird
Fox (included in template)
Bunny
Evergreen Tree
Some other fun things you can do…
Make the backside of your board night time with
constellations and planets
Make seasons using what you already have as well as some
leaves
Bear and I plan to start a weekend home schooling starting
at the end of August. The school where
he goes to daycare isn’t going to offer their 3 preschool until November and I’d
really love to spend some learning time with him. I am going to revamp our Weather Willy and
include this in our “classes”.
Love,
PlusPeace
