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The weather is something we sometimes take for granted, yet affects us every day of our lives. A good understanding of the weather is necessary for many cultures and careers. This unit study uses an across-the-curriculum approach to help make the study and understanding of weather fun and enjoyable.

• General Resources


• Web Resources


• Prepared Lesson Plans


• Activities


• Videos


• Fiction/Non-Fiction

• Twister! (Discovery Kids) by Bill Haduch


• Tell Me Why Rain Is Wet (Whiz Kids) by Shirley Willis


• God's World of Weather : Simple Science For Kids by Hen, Jr Head, Rusty Fletcher (Illustrator), Heno Head Jr

• The Weather Classroom: http://www.weather.com/education/


• Changing Climates: http://tectonic.nationalgeographic.com/2000/physical/climate/main.html


• El Nino & La Nina: http://www.nationalgeographic.com/elnino/


• Wind Energy: http://sln.fi.edu/tfi/units/energy/windguide.html


• How the Weather Works: http://www.weatherworks.com/monthly/q_and_a/question.html


• Kids' Lightning & Safety Info: http://www.azstarnet.com/anubis/zaphome.htm


• The Weather Dude: http://www.wxdude.com/


• USGS Learning Web: http://info.er.usgs.gov/education/index.html


• Weather: http://www.learner.org/exhibits/weather/


• Weather Underground: http://groundhog.sprl.umich.edu/


• Twisters.com: http://twisters.com/


• Ice and Snow: http://miavx1.muohio.edu/~Dragonfly/snow/index.htmlx


• Weather from about.com: http://weather.about.com/science/weather/index.htm


• World Climate: http://www.worldclimate.com/

• This is a great site for teachers: http://faldo.atmos.uiuc.edu/WEATHER/weather.html


• http://www.atmos.albany.edu/das/k12.html


• http://www.weatherworks.com/monthly/activities/sky_window.html


• http://www.weatherworks.com/monthly/activities/activity_index.html


• http://www.sasked.gov.sk.ca/docs/ela/g2_l2.html


• http://www.libsci.sc.edu/miller/Seasons.htm


• At this site there is a large number of prepared lesson plans for you to link to that cover K-12: http://www.connectingstudents.com/themes/weather.htm

1. Make homemade clouds: http://www.teachers.net/lessons/posts/14.html


2. Find out what kind of equipment is used by a meteorologist. Then, find out how they interpret the data and how accurate the predictions usually are.


3. For one week, keep a record of a television or newspaper's daily weather forecast (you may also use a weather service over the internet). Make a chart that compares the weather forecast to actual weather conditions.


4. Math: After doing activity #3, figure the percentage of accuracy.


5. Thinking Skills: Make a weather safety checklist for your geographic area. Would this list be the same for everyone? Or, would different areas have different weather safety concerns?


6. Find out ways in which scientists and others have tried to change the weather. What are some of the reasons why we would want to change it?


7. Keep a chart for one month that shows how weather affects your daily activities. How often did you change your plans because of the weather?


8. Creativity: Make a game about weather. You can make a card or board game, a word game, or an active game. Share your game with others.


9. Become a cloud watcher. Each day for a week, record the types of clouds you see. Find out what type of weather is common with each type of cloud. Make notes about the weather and try to predict how the weather may change based on the clouds you see.


10. Planning Skills: Find out about weather-related emergencies that your community might face, such as hurricanes, tornadoes, or flash floods. Learn what types of safety measures you should be prepared to take. Develop a family plan.


11. Make your own weather station. Measure wind speed and direction, rainfall or snowfall, barometric pressure, humidity, and temperature. You can find directions for building simple weather tools in books on weather at your local library.


12. Take pictures of clouds. (Make your own camera: http://www.easyfunschool.com/article1093.html)


13. Math and Scientific Method: Use any of your charts that you created when you watched the weather (activities #3, 7, or 9) and convert it to a bar or line graph.


14. Geography: Follow a storm or weather front on a map. Try and use the same symbols that weather forecasters use.


15. Social Studies & Geography: How does the weather affect different areas of the country? Of the world?


16. What is a drought? How is a desert created? Was a desert always a desert or did it support green vegetation at one time? What goes in to creating a desert? Is the weather the only thing that affects whether a desert is created?


17. Vocabulary: Define and use the following words in sentences -- drought, el nino, la nina, cyclone, hurricane, weather, barometer, weather vane, weather front, thermometer, rain gauge, anemometer, humidity.


18. Arts and Crafts: Create a snowscape by making artificial snow -- http://www.easyfunschool.com/article1060.html


19. Arts & Crafts: Create a diorama that shows the before and after of a natural disaster (i.e., flood, hurricane, tornado, etc.).


20. Here is a great simulation. You've just been elected mayor of a small town in Florida...but a hurricane is brewing: http://weathereye.kgan.com/expert/hurricane/index.html


21. Take a virtual field trip of a tornado http://www.field-guides.com/tornado/tour.htm or a hurricane http://www.field-guides.com/hurricane/hurr.htm


22. Study the relationship between weather and pollution: http://trackstar.hprtec.org/main/display.php3?trackid=327

• Before the Storm by Jane Yolen


• The Big Storm by Bruce Hiscock


• The Cloud Book by Tomie De Paola


• Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs by Judith Barrett


• Flash, Crash, Rumble, and Roll (Let's Read and Find Out)


• Funpax: Weather Station by Deni Bown


• The Magic School Bus Inside a Hurricane... by Joanna Cole


• Mediopollito Half- Chicken : A Folktale in Spanish and English by Alma Flor Ada


• Puddle Jumpers : Fun Weather Projects For Kids
by Jennifer Storey Gillis

• The Science Book of Weather by Neil Ardley


• Storms (Reading Rainbow Book) by Seymour Simon


• Tornado Alert by Giulio Maestro


• Wacky Weather (How It Works) by John Malam


• Can It Really Rain Frogs : The World's Strangest Weather Events by Spencer Christian


• Eye of the Storm : Chasing Storms With Warren Faidley by Stephen Kramer


• Eyewitness Explorers: Weather by John Farndon


• Hurricanes : Earth's Mightiest Storms by Patricia Lauber


• Hurricanes (The Weather Channel) by Susan Hood


• Lightning! : And Thunderstorms (The Weather Channel) by Mike Graf
  
• National Audubon Society First Field Weather by Jonathan D. Kahl


• Simple Weather Experiments With Everyday Materials by Muriel Mandell


• Hurricanes (Facts on File Dangerous Weather Series) by Michael Allaby

Copyright 2001 Kathryn Martinez. All rights reserved. Used with permission.

About Kathryn Martinez: I'm a SAHM, home schooling mother of 4 children, 1 husband, and a neurotic cat. This is our sixth year of home schooling. I worked for over 10 years at USF in an education and training department. I hope that by sharing my experience with other home schoolers, both the new and the not-so-new and those just considering home schooling, I will pass along all the help that was given to me when I first started out.