Forums

I completely agree that a possible way to teach your students about the weather would be to incorporate the transition between summer and winter because that is a drastic change. Students love learning about animals and their environments so I definitely think that is a good way to go about it! Good luck

That is a good question. When I worked with preschool students, we read lots of books about weather, and they got to look out the window and decide what the weather was like when we did calendar in the mornings. The students seemed to enjoy going outside to decide what the weather was like, and we constantly used lots of descriptions when talking about weather.

I had kindergartners last year, and I would ask them about the weather every day. I would reinforce the idea about weather, and incorporate the words "rainy, foggy, sunny, warm, wet,dry, humid, cloudy" in the discussion. Also, I would show them the weather forecast online to show how technology helps us determine the weather in the future. At the same time, if they popped out answers like "summer, winter, fall, or spring", I would use that moment to teach them that we stay at the same season for a few months, and we only stay in one season at a time. But weather is different every day. For example, in the season fall, we started the new year of school, but the weather can be rainy or sunny or windy, etc.

In my classroom, we touch on the weather every day. Each student has a folder with calendars in them and altogether we fill in the date of the day as well as describe what the weather looks like (sunny, cloudy, rainy, etc.) and we connect that to the season we are currently in. This helps them already have some of that vocabulary daily versus cramming it all in one lesson.

Thank you for posting this! Very interesting!!

Going over some vocabulary words might help out distinguish between seasons and weather. Also, talking about each season and the types of weather that are in each season could benefit them as well. There are many videos on youtube that talk about weather. Wordsearches that have the vocabulary words can be fun. Having them draw a picture of their favorite season and then discuss what types of weather they see.

This is also an issue with my second graders they do not completely understand this context. I have found a variety of different non-fictions books which students could comprehend.

We just ended our weather change lesson for this week, having songs, powerpoint, and visuals help students see the grasp of the different types of weather. They also learned about temperature and how that changes the weather from warm, hot, cold, or cool. We did a chart of the week where they needed to draw out the type of weather they observed in class or even a day that you can take them outside during the lesson could help too. This was for first but challenging kindergarten would'nt be so bad.

We just ended our weather change lesson for this week, having songs, powerpoint, and visuals help students see the grasp of the different types of weather. They also learned about temperature and how that changes the weather from warm, hot, cold, or cool. We did a chart of the week where they needed to draw out the type of weather they observed in class or even a day that you can take them outside during the lesson could help too. This was for first but challenging kindergarten would'nt be so bad.

A great way to get them to start differentiating between the different seasons would be reading Sylvester and the Magic Pebble. I used this as an effective focus before a lesson and was surprised by how the students picked up on the changing scenery and their ability to decipher what each element meant and how it related to different seasons.

Arille, I actually found that even 1st graders are sometimes confused by the differences in seasons. I work at a Preschool right now, and something they do that is helpful is talking about what type of clothing you would wear in each season, and then talk about what attributes of the season cause us to make these decisions about what to wear or not to wear. Bringing in actually clothes and having the class sort them for each season could be a tangible way for them to understand the importance of weather and how it affects our choices daily and seasonally.

This website has different ways of teaching the elements of weather and climate to students. It shows which lessons would be appropriate for certain grades so you can filter out what you are looking for. http://beyondpenguins.ehe.osu.edu/issue/weather-and-climate-from-home-to-the-poles/hands-on-science-and-literacy-lessons-about-weather-and-climate

Here is a song that may be able to help teaching the different types of weather. It is very simple and has great animation to match the type of weather. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rD6FRDd9Hew

I would read a book about the 4 season for Kindergarten class. Then, the students will have this long manila paper to fold into 4 square/rectangle. Then in each separate square, they will write down 4 seasons, Summer, Fall, Winter, Spring. Those, I will write down on the board. Then I will show them what the picture of each seasons looked like, then they will draw and color the picture.

As I mention to you about drawing on the manila paper... you have another option. Instead of coloring the picture, they could get a construction paper of the color red, orange, yellow, green, white, and blue and have the students tear them in a tiny pieces and scrunch them. Then have the students to just draw a tree, grass or something that represents every season. Have students to glue those tiny picture on the tree, grass, snow, and so forth.

You could play a brain pop jr. that talks about different types of weather.

At my school, the students learn by using their senses and making observations of the weather change. For example, students are taken out of their classrooms, outside of the school during a science weather lesson in order for them to observe how the environment looks and feels.

Showing them a video about the different seasons would be useful. You can stop a different points of the video and ask questions.

I really enjoyed reading all of the replies to this question. I agree with many others about taking the students outside for them to witness the daily weather themselves. I think if you talk about weather every day in your classroom then relate that to the four seasons it will help the students. Thanks for all of the advice!

I think a great way to help younger students better understand weather would be to incorporate a weather person in the morning meetings. Have a student go look out the window and tell the class what it looks like outside. Is it cloudy? Is the sun shining? Are there leaves on the ground? Have that student choose an appropriate weather symbol and place on the weather calendar for that week. This would get the students excited about weather, and good at looking outside and knowing what type of weather is going on.

This is great comment. I think a great way to teach can also be to observe the weather in each season and talk about it. 

Hi, I am currently placed in a Kindergarten class for my student teaching program and I have seen the teacher conduct activities where they go based on their clothing. What would you wear in summer, winter, fall, and spring. As other people have mentioned they start with the most drastic changes but I have seen this work. Hope it helps.

I think this is such a great question. I personally love books. I also think that you could set up different stations in which the students can see what each season is like. For example in winter station you could have pictures of snow, a bucket of ice since winter is cold. In the fall station you can have some crunchy leaves. I also really liked the idea of showing students the drastic change between winter and summer.

We have been teaching our Kindergarten classes the meaning and differences between all four seasons! Our students understand the "main" definition of the seasons. For example, Fall- leaves change colors, thanksgiving, weather feels cool. Winter- comes after fall, christmas time, cold, and snows.

I have done some great activities with air pressure like cloud in a bottle and the index card under a cup of water. Students really loved seeing this. We also talked about vortexes with the "tornado" in a bottle.

In my class, on our calendar we have at the bottom: What's the weather like today? it has many options to choose from such as sunny, windy, rainy, cloudy and snowy. We have a song that goes to the tune of 'London Bridges Falling Down' that goes:

'Whats the weather like today?
Like today? Like today?
What's the weather like today?
Today is....'

All the kids pause while the student of the day moves the magnet to the appropriate weather. The class takes a vote on weather or not they agree with what the students had to say.

To contrast that, we also have a season song that goes to the tune of 'This old Man'. It goes:

'Winter, Spring, Summer, Fall
There are seasons four in all
Look outside and you will see
Just what season it could be'

There are also journal entries that students can make where they track the weather and draw what the weather looks like outside, and as a class it is talked about. Hope this helps!

Great question!

Arielle Conger, I can appreciate how difficult it can be to teach science concepts that seem simple to us but difficult for children because they do not have the background experience to tie in with new learning. Forgive me if someone already suggested the experiment I am sharing but there were too many responses to read through. No matter what time of year, or if we have already covered a concept, it is a good idea to revisit the topic to assess if students remember what was taught. The Bulbber Experiment is taught through animal adaptations. I think that if children are asked about clothing they would wear in each season they could see a connection even in kindergarten. However, if we discuss animals and ask would they live in certain ecosystems it might make a bigger impact. Would a Polar Bear live in the desert? Could an alligator live in Alaska? Then discuss why they would or wouldn't. Also check the weather online with the Weather Channel and observe live webcams around the world that show for example; penguins, Koala Bears, Pandas, and so on. Why do bears have so much fur? Would turtles be able to stay warm in the snow? Here is the experiment: http://www.hometrainingtools.com/a/whale-blubber-project I use buckets full of ice and have the kids put on a pair of blubber gloves, one without the blubber of course. I make a set for each group and use duck tape to seal the "cuff" of each glove. With kindergarteners you may structure it differently. I use thermometers in each glove so students can compare the temperature in the glove with blubber and the glove without the blubber.

I think that students learn best when they are exposed to visuals because they are able to have a better understanding of the lesson. In this case, you can read them various books about weather, so that they can start to understand what it really means. I know it can be confusing because they are learning various things that can interfere with their learning, but exposing them to the unit more can really help them observe. The use of songs can also be helpful in this case, so that they can differentiate weather and seasons.

I think going over the weather everyday in the morning during calendar can help with that. Just like you would go over the month of the year you are on, also have the season you are on as well. Have students look outside and tell you what the weather is like for the day. Incorporate vocabulary words such as rainy, windy, cloudy, sunny, snowy, cold, hot, warm etc. Explain that a season last a few months at a time but weather can change constantly throughout that month. Do explain though that there are certain patterns that we see in spring, summer, fall and winter. Hope this helps!

I think having a weatherman as a class job would be a fun idea to teach the students about weather patterns. Every day when doing calendar, the students will be able to see the different kinds of weather there is.

The daily calendar would be great to help you. Talk about the date and weather with students every day.

Hi Arielle, I am student teaching in a Kindergarten classroom and for our daily morning routine, I always ask them to look out the window and tell me what the weather is like outside. Once they answer, I ask them to explain why they think that, or why is is not........ We also have a weather graph, so that incorporates math into it. Something else that we do with weather is dress our little "student". By doing this every morning, my students are able to make predictions, graph, and explain things about the weather that day.

One way to incorporate weather into kindergarten is to use a daily weather graph in the math area. Where I student teach, the teacher graphs how the weather is everyday after the math calendar. She asks a student everyday how the weather is and then graphs it on a pocket graph. She starts it over every month. There is also a section on the math calendar to predict the weather for the next day.

Hi Arielle, As a Floridian, I can totally sympathize with you, as it can be difficult to teach young children this concept when they are really only experiencing hot, sunny weather year-round. After I observed a kindergarten classroom for my field placement this semester, I have understood the importance of incorporating weather-speak every day. This means creating fun ways to talk about the weather and instilling the meaning of it through songs and repetition. I think oftentimes kindergarten classrooms discuss the weather separately from the seasons, but it could be beneficial to add the season you are in with your class while also talking about the days of the week, the month, the letter of the week, the colors, etc. For example, you can say "we are in the month of April! April takes place in the Spring" and do this every day so that children understand what months fall under which season, and then eventually attach the weather with this. My students also created weather wheels similar to this: https://www.pinterest.com/pin/456904324680779002/ that they were able to follow along with and it helps them understand the various types of weather in a more concrete way. Good luck! - Samantha

Great post! Maybe reading picture books about weather and showing pictures online through your projector different pictures of different weather patterns. Also, take them outside and specifically talk about the weather, all throughout the school year. Continually ask them about what weather is happening currently, and require them to have discourse about the weather. Ask them how they feel today about the weather. Have them draw pictures of the weather. Maybe some of these suggestions can help the littles understand weather. Although, if they are in Texas, it will be confusing for them (as it is for me) almost everyday! :) Hehe!

My students are pre-kindergarteners and when our class has a discussion and activity about weather and seasons - I usually start with the broad topic that seasons have different weather since some do not have prior knowledge of weather patterns.  I then go into more detail about each season separately.  I usually touch on seasons at the beginning of the school year so I start with fall.  When I introduce a season, I like to start with an anchor chart we fill out together and a bag full of manipulatives related to fall (leaves, acorn, pumpkins, seeds) that I can pull out to touch on more.  For instance when a child says leaves, I can bring out different color of leaves to show them and go into more discussion about the changing colors.  I have noticed that students like to think of non-weather related seasons but when that happens I just give a little push in the right directions and ask what changes do you feel when walking to school from when they were not in school- since it is fresh in their minds.  I hope this helps.  Good luck on weather patterns.

That's a difficult thing to teach students, especially kindergarteners, to know the difference between seasons and weather. Like many others have said, I think talking about the weather every single day as part of your "circle/carpet time" would be a great place to start. Having students or 1 student look out the window or whatever and tell what the weather is like each day helps involve the students and make them apart of it. You can also keep track of the temperature each day. While doing this each day, every day throughout the school year, you could also include a science unit or chapter over seasons, just teaching and explaining what seasons are and what kinds of weather you have in those seasons, which states have what seasons and what time of the year (which months) your state has what season. Weather can be such a fun and interesting thing for students. Good luck and I hope this helps!

I believe the best start to help Kindergarten students learn about the difference is by using an anchor chart. In my classroom, we had an open discussion about different types of weathers, but some of my students did name seasons as types of weather.


Two different ideas I came up with to teach the difference between weather and seasons are:

• Expand the anchor chart by adding types of weathers that occur under certain seasons. This way students can see the difference visually and start to categorize them. For example, snowy weather falls under winter, and windy weather falls under fall, etc. 


• Season and weather sensory bottles, I saw these on Pinterest and wanted to make them with my students. This would be helpful for students to learn the parts of each weather and seasons like snowy weather has snowflakes, and windy weather has leaves blowing. The student can also keep them as reminders, refer back to them, and the little display could be tied into their writing! 

Hey Arielle! I think kindergarten is a great time to introduce weather concepts to children because it also incorporates using their senses to make observations and learn about what science truly is. I agree with others that introducing the names of the seasons and touching on them everyday using a weather chart is probably a good idea. When you discuss the weather with them in the morning, it might help them differentiate if you clearly say the season and then ask them what the weather is like. Once they observe that some days are sunny, others are rainy, etc. while the seasons remain the same, they might have a firmer grasp of these weather concepts. It could also help to discuss the four seasons through rhymes and picture storybooks and talk about key characteristics like leaves falling in autumn and snow in winter. Having them create an art piece where they write something given a sentence stem like "My favorite season is _______" or draw a tree in the four seasons can also aid their understanding. Going on nature walks occasionally and then having students describe the weather during the walk can help them understand it is more short-term. Hope this helps!

Hi Arielle, While I was doing some observations for my pre-teaching semester, I observed a teacher in kindergarten. While I was there, the teacher was working with two different anchor charts. One anchor chart was divided into the four seasons and with the students help, the teacher would draw pictures of activities that could be done in a specific season. The second chart was set up as a calendar. For each day, the teacher would assign a student to be the Weatherperson. Their job was to describe the what they thought the weather looked and felt like. While the student presented the "weather report", the teacher would place pre-cutout pictures of what the students described. For this specific day, there was a sun, cloud, and wind cutout. Throughout the previous days of the calendar, there were also raindrops and jacket pictures with umbrellas and raincoats. These are just some ideas that I observed.

I am a student teacher and last year when I was in a kindergarten classroom my mentor teacher selected a different student each day to be in charge of telling the class about the weather. The student who was in charge of talking about the weather had to use specific vocabulary that was taught, such as rainy, foggy, sunny, hot, and cold. It is also good idea to use a weather chart with picture for those that are visual learners.

In my kinder class, my mentor teacher has the students describe the weather and because they are bilingual students, they have to say both English and Spanish words. The teacher then has them practice writing the words themselves on the whiteboards. Afterwards, they have the chance to explore their favorite weather by creating a drawing and writing a sentence on what weather the like.

My kinders also confuse weather AS a season rather than a pattern of the season. It doesn't help that the seasonal patterns where we live are not very delineated. The kinders also confuse sunshine with summer and hot temperatures. The teachers found it helpful to track the weather patterns over a period of time on a chart, either as a class, or individually and discuss any patterns they see. The little ones seem to understand seasons by events rather than weather. It is important to remember that we are building a foundational understanding of weather patterns and there will be misconceptions.

Wow, this is a very nice collection. I had been looking for such resources, thank you. This will help a lot later on.

I like your collections. I would definitely look at them all.

I never even thought about typing animals into the weather. I could see it as a way to teach seasons. But as just the basics of teaching weather, I think that it would be more conducive to teach just the types of weather first, especially because they are kindergarten. And perhaps after they are masters at the characteristics, types of weather, and reasons behind weather (reasons for patterns) to then introduce seasons, using animals and how they relate to the weather.

Magaly, That is a really great idea! I didn't even think about animals, but they are such an interest for young children! It could also lead to discussions about other science topics, like why are polar bears so what and furry? How are other animals, like seals and penguins, able to live in areas that are really cold?

As many other people have mentioned I also never thought of tying in animals to weather! It seems like it would be common sense, but unfortunately I treat these two contents almost separately. Thanks for sharing!

This is an awesome suggestion. I love that book. I think it would be interesting to teach this concept to students as well. Thanks for sharing it!

Do you think it would be too confusing for children who don't know about many animals yet? I wonder if they don't know about bears hibernating, or other climate specific animals that it would be more confusing.

That looks like an interesting book. I will definitely take a look at it and read it.

Thanks for sharing. I love using 5E with my students...even if it is required in my district!

Creating a cloud with shaving cream is a good idea. Another way to create the cloud is to use the cottons.

I think learning about the animals is good idea to teach for all grade levels.

I like the idea of making a chart of 4 weathers. I used to work as a Kindergarten aide and we have done something similar to what you were saying. We used manila paper to fold into 4. Then each students gets a green, red, orange and white to teach each into tiny pieces and scrunch them before decorating on the tree, Before they start that, they have to draw a tree in each season (Fall, winter, spring, summer) then glue those tiny paper on the tree. For instance, under fall, the students orange and red on the tree. On winter, the student glue white tiny paper on the tree or ground, and so forth.

I used to work as a kindergarten aide and we did something similar to that. Every week, we have different students to be a weather person. So during calendars, the weather person take a step outside to see if it's sunny, rainy, cold, or windy. Then the teacher place the arrow on one of the weather during the daily basis.

I think using the popsicle stick is a good idea other than drawing pictures on the construction paper. I like the idea of showing students a youtube video of different weather.

Thanks for posting this! Very interesting and helpful! :)

I think the link is very useful. Thank you!

Mayleen-- You make a great point. I think for kids with no real life experience that it's really important to simulate real life as much as possible via multi-sensory means. Watching videos, making "snow" etc. would really benefit them. Naomi Beverly

I definitely agree with the fact that summer is easy teach. Beside, I heard that Florida is known as sunshine state.

Kevin- How is the administration at your school when it comes to scheduling? We were not able to ensure protected Science time until the admin made it a requirement to dedicate a segment of time daily to Science instruction. Before, we fit it in when we could...with pretty predictable results. All the best, Naomi Beverly

Thanks for posting this! Very interesting and helpful! :)

That is a good idea!!

The links are very helpful. Thank you for posting.

Thanks for posting this! Very interesting and helpful! :)

Great idea! Thanks for sharing!

I agree with using a Pinterest. They have so many good ideas that we can use and teach students in class.

The mini weather book sounds interesting... I think it is good for Kindergarten cause they can draw in it and color them

That is the most important part is to model what the student needs to learn. I have learned that I, as a teacher, have to introduce the lesson and activities.

It sounded like the four corner game. I think that having each season in 4 corner is a great idea.

Stephanie, I have been thinking about the Kindergarten standards for weather and patterns and I just thought of a potential engineering challenge connected to the content where students are engaged in science and engineering practices. Challenge young children to build a "rain collector" where they can collect data about precipitation. If you keep track over time,students could see and discuss patterns they see. Children will need guidance to design their rain collector. They will also need your guidance. Pose the problem to the children and put out the materials, let them design a collector. The actually test out the collector. Maybe it will need to be revised...great...help them keep working at it all the while developing "stickwithitness" better know as perseverance or grit. Just a few random thoughts on a NGSS Monday :-) Kathy

I never heard of that book, but I'm definitely going to check it out.

Hi Brooke, This sounds great. What do the children do with the data they collect? I have a picture of weather data that was collected by a grade 1 class all year long. Kathy

Attachments

weather_data.jpg (0.07 Mb)

That is a great idea. You can keep track of the weather on certain days and see which weather has the most for 1 month. And you can do the same for another month. Or you can make this little weather icon and place it on the calendar for each days.

That is a great idea. You can also create this little icon for the calendar to keep track of whether it was cold or hot, snowy, rainy, and so forth.

This is kind of similar to what my CT does daily. She has a meteorologist job, and they determine what the weather was when they got to school, and they mark it on the class recording sheet flipchart slide. All the students see it and can make observations, easily integrating math as they compare how many x days there have been compared to y days.

Also, great for using a recording sheet! A lot better than a plain old worksheet. Maybe have the students draw the weather AND describe it with words! Could hit some more objectives with this, and help them practice skills.

I've done something like that in my student teaching, where we create our favorite cloud with cotton ball and stick it in our chart to see which one has the most.

I think the word wall is a good idea. It can help them understand and memorized. You can set up the category Summer, Fall , Winter, and Spring, and place the word that describes the weather.

I think the real life example is the good idea. It keeps students more engage to the lesson about the weather.

I think that is a great idea. When I observed students in a fifth grade class they were learning about weather and they all had chants and short songs to remember the different kinds of weather they could see. It makes the material more engaging and easier for the students to remember.

Incorporating the songs and movement is a great idea. It is also good for Kindergarten students to learn since they like to move around a lot.

I agree with the part where Kindergarten loves to draw. They also like to color as well. They can also chose their favorite weather and draw a picture of it. Afterward, they can share it to their classmate.

I really liked what your shared, thanks!

I really liked what you shared, thanks!

I enjoy reading you post and thanks for sharing.

Writing a journal is a great idea of keeping track of the weather on daily basis. I think it can be good for 2nd graders,

I love this idea! This activity is such a great way to connect what the students are learning in class to their lives. I bet your students love to share their answers for each of these categories. I'd love to do something like this someday!

I think that's a brilliant idea. You can do foldable where you can assign groups. Each group can write down the characteristics of each weather. For instance, one group can write about summer. What we can do during the summer like "going to the beach, go on vacation to Florida, go swimming", for winter, we can "go ice skating" and so forth.

I have seen first graders watches the video about different types of weather from the school, where I used to work at. Kindergarten is more interested in watching the video and they enjoy listening to the song about different types of weather.

I love the idea of weather songs! My kindergarten students seem to learn songs quickly, and they enjoy them. It's also a great brain break because they can get up and do movements with the song. I'm sure you could find plenty on YouTube, and hopefully one that you like. A concern to keep in mind though is whether they have only learned and memorized the song, or if they have pulled the information out.

Sesame Street reminds of my childhood days. It was one of my favorite show back then. The show never gets old and it's still good for kids to watch. You could also have students to watch other educational shows like Magic School Bus.

My kiddos had the chance to make their own cumulus cloud with cotton balls, which they then described in writing. I think a foldable idea is good - maybe even have a book. A cloud a day! It would give them a way to compare the clouds, and seeing how they make their cloud (does it look accurate) could serve as an assessment.

You can also make a graph to compare and contrast as well.

I like Linda's idea. I will definitely use what Linda suggested.  I was thinking of a Venn Diagram. 

In the first grade class that I do my student teaching in, I have seen students watch brain pop jr about the weather.

From what I have been taught - make sure a brain pop video isn't serving as your engagement because of all the content it contains. Often videos are thought to be a hook, but it's untrue!

Great thought! Students always love Brainpop videos. They are a great resource!

There are so many videos that you can look into about the weather.

I just looked at the link and I think it is a cool way to teach students by using the object to make clouds

I love that idea, and agree that it could be adapted for kindergarten. I think it could actually be adapted for any grade level. It's interactive, and it makes the students responsible for part of the learning. Awesome way to also engage the students and see what they know in terms of vocabulary and identification.