I was slightly skeptical when our latest offering from Koala Crate arrived, a package very specifically about… wind. It turns out this crate was fantastic, so my skepticism was unearned. As always, you can put together the following projects after a visit to your local craft store.

The first project was a Wind Car. Travis seemed slightly skeptical, too, as we put it together. A brief run down of the mechanics: push a dowel through the holes in the craft paper base.

Slide a foam wheel onto each end of the sticks, then place the base into the slightly larger craft paper car “body”; the slots in the body will hold the wheels in place. Tape the body and base together (clear stickers are provided).

Place a piece of sticky foam in the center. This foam has a slit in it to hold the craft stick “masts” and sails.

Decorate the provided sails (the kit came with oil pastels, a nice deviation from crayons), and slide on to the provided craft sticks. Your child can opt which sail to test in their car, or swap them out whenever desired.

Travis wasn’t very interested in the fan that came with the kit to propel the car along (wind power!).

But once we set up an electrical fan, he was smitten!

Many a game followed, playing with the different strength settings on the fan and changing out the shape of the sail to see what made the car race along the furthest and fastest. So much fun that we had to capture a quick video clip!

Next up was the Windsock. This craft was great for building fine motor skills, particularly knotting and lacing, and Travis was an eager participant. First he scribbled on decorations with those oil pastels.

Thread a piece of foam through the slits in the top; this will hold the top of the windsock open.

Next, thread in the provided string from which it will hang, and tie into a knot. Finally, fold ribbons in half, slip through a slot in the wind sock’s bottom edge, and knot. This was great for shoe-tying practice!

The windsock needed to be tested in front of the fan, of course.

We found a place to hang it, and then just needed to add the final project to tie it all together… A Weather Chart!

I’ve been wanting to make Travis a weather wall calendar for some time, so was delighted to find this was the crate’s third project. This one was super simple: a chart with re-useable stickers showing weather and temperature with simple pictures for pre-readers to understand.

Hang it to the wall with the provided suction cup. Travis was delighted! He ran to the window (“We do this in school too!”) to determine which sticker to use, and then asked if he could just play with the stickers. Soon he was making up silly combinations like a sunny day with lightning.

There is also a round sticker to move along the Beaufort scale each day, depending what kids observe on their windsock.

For some additional “windy” fun, we did a variation on painting through straws, using our lungs as the wind power. This time, Travis squirted big blobs of paint onto paper first.

He loved watching the way he could make the colors move and mix.

And got a kick out of the mess I made!

Finally, the booklet provides prompts for questions to get your kids talking even more about wind and weather. What do they see moving in the breeze outside? What kinds of things can the wind do? What’s your favorite kind of weather? Enjoy the exploration!