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I'm designing a kindergarten unit on weather as part of my teaching credential work. I have some resources, but I wanted to know if anyone here has some lessons or activities they have actually done with a primary grade classroom, that they would be willing to share. I'm specifically trying to design a unit that meets the following NGSS standard and performance expectation: K-ESS2-1. Use and share observations of local weather conditions to describe patterns over time. Clarification Statement: Examples of qualitative observations could include descriptions of the weather (such as sunny, cloudy, rainy, and warm); examples of quantitative observations could include numbers of sunny, windy, and rainy days in a month. Examples of patterns could include that it is usually cooler in the morning than in the afternoon and the number of sunny days versus cloudy days in different months.] [Assessment Boundary: Assessment of quantitative observations limited to whole numbers and relative measures such as warmer/cooler.]

Here is a link to a collection of resources found in the Learning Center about weather. http://learningcenter.nsta.org/my_learning_center/my_library.aspx?cid=HqMqduMpcPo_E

Hi Andrew!

What a great idea to put together a unit using the NGSS! As a brand new teacher, you are fortunate to have the NGSS to help guide your teaching. I applaud your idea to use the newest standards are you prepare your pre-service unit!

The weather unit is an excellent opportunity to help young scientist learn about and discover patterns. Betty shared some fantastic NSTA resources with you. While I was teaching kindergarten, I included the weather report as part of our morning meeting. Each week, one student was assigned the job of Weather Person. During the morning meeting, the weather person reports on the temperature, precipitation, and weather conditions. I have Discount School Supply calendar seen here: monthly calendar) that has rigid plastic date number cards and a weather fellow that you can dress for the appropriate weather. I made some weather words (i.e. sunny, windy, rainy, snowy, etc) that fit onto my classroom calendar date cards by putting the weather word at the top of a piece of card stock that is about an inch taller than the date cards. During morning meeting, the weather person attaches the correct weather to the date and correctly dress the weather fellow. They also color in a large thermometer located next to the calendar with the correct temperature. The other students record the weather in their journals using a format similar to the worksheet I attached below. Since the weather is recorded for an entire month on the calendar, my students are able to recognize patterns in the weather.

I have a wireless weather station that we use to determine the outside temperature, but you could also use the internet or a weather app on a cell phone.

Best of luck as you work on your unit! Be sure to let us know how everything goes, and if you need help with anything else, please let us know!!

Maureen

Attachments

weather_record.pdf (0.09 Mb)

Thank you both. This is very helpful. Your thermometer, how is that colored in? Like is it drawn on a whiteboard so that it can easily be erased and recolored for each day? If not, how?