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Good Evening,
I just completed the Sci-Pack called: Ocean's Effect on Weather and Climate. Any of you who haven't completed a Sci-Pack will find that they are loaded with information, and one of many great resources I have seen so far. If anyone has any ideas for activities I can use in a weather lesson plan for third graders, please let me know. Thanks.
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I have created a collection of websites with resources for creating weather related lesson plans
Enjoy
Weather Resources 6-12 Collection
(5 items)
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weather journals work great! especially if you are doing it during the spring or fall, although this crazy weather would probably work this winter! :) you can decide what characteristics of the weather you want them to be responsible for recording, depending on the level your students are at.
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I completely agree with you William. The Scipaks are so informative and helpful in planning lessons. I continually look for ideas that I can incorporate into my lessons.
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Hello,
Not sure if you know about the Monterey Navy Research Lab site. I use their satellite imagery a lot. I have not really looked up any other weather information though. Here is the link:
www.nrlmry.navy.mil/sat_products.html
Aloha,
Nate
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Hi all,
I would like to share a weather lesson plan I have recently implemented in 8th grade earth science class. This lessons is provided by one of the SciGuide on weather and modified to meet my conveniences, involves technology and internet research and analyses with high relevancy to the students everyday lives.
Students learn the differences between weather and climate and research different types of climate in the world. They collect and analyze the data, find out the major feathers of the climates and conclude their preferences of relation in various places for two years with their rationale.
I would like to hear from you who will have implemented in your class.
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Hi there,
To just help you brainstorm attention grabbers for weather (to help students begin to wonder about small, everyday happenings that they may take for granted), I have a couple of ideas... I have taken my students out and we cloud watched, looking at the size, shape, texture of clouds and wondered how they were formed, what they really are, etc. Another is, to wonder what a rainbow is (St. Patrick's Day is also coming up, you could integrate that in as well- we will also complete a Cinquain poem. Maybe you could have them produce a Cinquain of a rainbow from your activity?). Take a cup of water out into the sun and have the sunlight shine on it, breaking up the light into it's separate colors. These are just small activities to help students begin to wonder about weather by taking notice of small "weather-like" things in nature that have been going on around them. :D
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I agree, Clouds in a Jar is a great resource. When we made it rain in a jar as a beginning activity to studying weather, one of my students commented, "We have the water cycle in a jar!" We also read The Big Storm, a great story following a storm from the east to the west coast with all the resulting weather. We drew a map of the US, invented symbols for each type of weather then located them on our maps. The kids really enjoyed that. We also went outside each day and journaled about the weather. It helped that we were doing the unit right during a weird weather pattern in MN. We had rain, snow, sleet all in the same week as well as sunny days.
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Hello Weather Watchers,
This is the perfect time in our school year to generate a discussion on Weather!
Tomoroni, thank you for uploading your lessons! They are certainly adaptable for my 6-12th graders - I appreciate you weaving several content areas into your plans. The use of political maps is definitely a key motivator with my transient students.
You should consider submitting your work for publication in a NSTA journal or another arena of classroom lessons. Also, I like how you have incorporated real-life weather related news articles, computer research, and a simple rubric in your support materials.
Thank you for sharing!
Alyce
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I would like to strengthen relevancy of lessons as you mention in the post above. I wonder what the political map is and how it is useful for the lesson.
Teaching Space Science- Solar system
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Hi Tomoroni,
Thank you for reminding me through your question that NSTA has worldwide membership - memberships that include our brother and sister science educators from Japan, China, Taiwan, Germany, and South America - to name a few! When I referred to 'Political Maps' in the above response - I was discussing the great idea you shared where students would choose a city from anywhere in the world and research/graph the weather and climate changes in the last ten or twenty years. Students would use 'Political Maps' in their research - skills growth would support their 'World History' knowledge growth. 'Political Maps' are designed to show governmental boundaries of countries, states, the location of major cities and significant bodies of water. The are usually bright colored.
Enjoy your week! Alyce
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Tomonori,
I would like to add, that having the students use maps while they locate weather helps them to make the weather more connected and personal. It also helps them develop their spatial skills as well as understanding why certain weathers occur in specific places. When I have my students draw the map of the US with state boundaries as well as major geographic features it not only helps them understand the weather and some of the reasons for it's changing as it crosses the country but it helps them get better at organizing their ideas.
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I did a weather unit with a group of 4th-8th graders last summer, and you might consider building your own weather instruments. I think that the activities could be easily adapted to 3rd grade. We built rain gauges, anemomter, barometer, and hygrometer, and then kept a weather journal. We also studied clouds, and did weather predictions every day. One good source of ideas is the Franklin Institute at http://www.fi.edu/weather/todo/todo.html. Most of the equipment can be built from readily available materials, including pencils, straws, balloons,coffee cans, rulers, and other very inexpensive or free materials. NASA / NOAA also has some nice resources on clouds at http://science-edu.larc.nasa.gov/cloud_chart/.
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Have you browsed through the SciGuides? They often complement the SciPacks in terms of using practical activities to help your students learn. To me the SciPacks are just refreshers and review in many cases, but the SciGuides help with actual lesson planning. Even if you don't use the exact worksheets from the SciGuide, I often find that tweaking them to meet the needs of your students works well.
Here's the link to a weather lesson plan (see download link)
http://learningcenter.nsta.org/my_learning_center/sciguides/lesson_plan_detail.aspx?lesson_plan_ID=S13w4lBmcMg_E
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Building weather instruments sounds like fun. I know the kids love observing and recording weather each day. Thanks for the idea.
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Hi William and thread participants,
What a great wealth of resources and ideas in this thread! William, I'm so glad you discovered the SciPacks! I've completed several SciPacks and I've been very impressed with the quality and the quantity of the information presented. I also really like the format of these self-paced PD resources.
I've attached my personal collection NSTA weather resources (for the elementary level). In addition to the trade books that Carolyn mentioned, I also like to use the book Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs by Judi Barrett.
Maureen
Weather Elementary Collection
(23 items)
Weather Elementary Collection
(23 items)
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Hi William and thread participants,
What a great wealth of resources and ideas in this thread! William, I'm so glad you discovered the SciPacks! I've completed several SciPacks and I've been very impressed with the quality and the quantity of the information presented. I also really like the format of these self-paced PD resources.
I've attached my personal collection NSTA weather resources (for the elementary level). In addition to the trade books that Carolyn mentioned, I also like to use the book Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs by Judi Barrett.
Maureen
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A fun weather activity to help elementary students get clouds is to take cotton balls on contruction paper to make the different types of clouds then label them. Obviously cumulous are easier with cotton balls but when you stretch them out they can be made to resemble stratus and even cirrus clouds. After observing the different types of clouds in the sky over a period of weeks the kids start to get the idea.
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For my high school students I am having them do a cloud journal for 5 days (they have to ID clouds) and observe the weather and make correlations. I am also having them test weather folklore sayings ("red skies at night...") using inquiry.
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Weather and climate make interesting science lessons for all age groups. They can all relate to it as they experience it in their daily lives. As a high school mathematics teacher I find that students are interested in applying their math skills to science topics that they find interesting and challenging. Some students have requested that I do a lesson that involves extreme weather like hurricanes. When looking for resources I found that NOAA has a great website for teachers. Most of the lesson plans they have are for high school age students, but they do have some activities for elementary school age students. Of course all the information could be adapted for the age group that is being taught. Below is link to NOAA’s education website.
NOAA Ocean Service Education
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Another thing that might be interesting is to keep a class journal, and observe temperature, precipitation, and clouds. See if they observe any patterns. Then, based on the observations they have made, begin to "hypothesize" what the weather will be. Weather could be a great introduction to the scientific process.
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