We’ve been studying the weather the last few weeks in Science and it’s been FUN to say the least! I love hearing the kids talk about the clouds when we’re outside… “Look Mrs. Carroll! That’s a stratus cloud!!” They’ve become such awesome little weather watchers, SO very interested in anything and everything weather!! Here are a few little things we did for this fun little unit! We watched a really neat video about the different types of weather and read some pretty cool non-fiction books, too! We made a little word web to show what we learned… We added weather poems to our poetry journals {no pics, but you can download them below.} We also learned about the water cycle and how it affects our weather. We made water cycle bracelets using little beads and yarn. Each bead stood for a different phase of the water cycle: dark blue-condensation, light blue-precipitation, yellow-evaporation. I also had the kids label a diagram of the water cycle to keep in their science journals. We also updated our science journals with weather graphs to help us observe and record the daily weather. We read this book about clouds… and then we brainstormed adjectives to describe the different types. We read this book… And made our own little class book adapted from this story. They made their own tear paper cloud shaped like an object and used the sentence prompt, “My little cloud changed into a …”
We graphed our favorite types of clouds… and interpreted the data…
Speaking of observations, we also observed changes over an extended period of time…changes that occur due to weather…and we used trees to illustrate this concept. I had the kids choose between several different mediums to show the seasons of a tree. I LOVE how different they all turned out!!
We also talked about the wind. We brought in hair dryers to show how wind moves and the kids got to be little wind makers using a straw and cotton balls. They also got to make wind socks to take home and observe wind direction and movement. For a little bit of fun, we read this book… and pretended, “what if?!” We used the sentence prompt, “I wish it would rain…” to add another entry to our Reader’s Response journals. For more weather activities, be sure to check out what teachers are saying about using these resources in their classrooms!
Simplify Your Teaching
Join our community for tips, tricks, and resources to help you simplify your teaching!
Bryan and Ashlan says
YOU ARE AN AWESOME TEACHER!! I love how everything is so organized, and looks super cute too! Your students sure are lucky.
I graduated with my teaching degree May 2009 and have been looking for a job in the Houston area. I've bookmarked your site, because of all your great ideas. I can't wait to have my own classroom someday.
Thank you SO much for sharing!! 🙂
Gladys says
I love all your fabulous ideas…I am a 1st grade teacher too…and I have been making some of the math activities you have so kindly shared with us on your blog. I have to say I look forward to your blog posts every day! Thank you for sharing your creativity with us!
http://teachinginhighheels.blogspot.com/
Sass Class says
What video did you watch? I love these ideas.
zdance01 says
I just saw some of your ideas and I was wondering what the video was that you watched?
Suzan says
I'm a kindergarten teacher, but I believe I can take these great ideas and adjust them for my 5's.
I love the phonetic spelling – that's such a great indicator of future success!
Stephanie says
Love, love, love all of your cute ideas and how generous you are to share the downloads!
What font did you use for the cloud activities…i have to download that one!
Stephanie
Mrs. Mangham says
Cara! You're awesome…and so generous. I am going to use some of your ideas for our upcoming weather unit…if that's okay?! The local weather man is coming to talk to us at the end of the unit and the kids are sooo excited…I want to make sure they are fully literate in all things weather. Thanks for sharing so much…finding all these blogs and how yall simply share your ideas is so amazing to me!
have a great week!
Kimberly says
Thanks for sharing all of your great weather ideas! We are about to start a big weather unit.
Kimberly
funkyfirstgradefun.blogspot.com
Mama and Tia Syl says
You are so awesome!! I so love your ideas!
First Grade Best says
Thank you for the cute post! I am so excited to have found a few new, fresh ideas for my weather unit this coming week!
Michelle FirstGradeBest
Rachel says
I came across your blog and used some of your resources for my weather unit last week. They saved my life during our state testing week where grades 2-5 tested and we were confined to our classrooms. Thank you for sharing, it was great! Check out what we did at http://asartiparty.blogspot.com/2011/04/aims-week.html
Thanks again!
Kayla says
Hi! We wanted to let you know that we featured your fantastic water cycle poster at our blog, Bulletin Board Ideas. We made sure to give photo credit as well as a link back to your website, but we'd love for you to check it out and, if there are any problems, we'll be sure to take the feature down immediately!
Thanks so much!
Kayla Johnson
kjohnson@mpmmgmt.com
Miss J says
What a cute poster/lesson!!
Becky @ purposefulhomemaking.com says
Appreciated the link for the water cycle! Thanks!
Ms. O says
Oh, just had to snag some of these for next week. Thank you!
Unknown says
Playing with Pixie Dust had this post as a link to her weather post. I love your blog, but I'm glad she linked to you because this is from before I started follow you. Wow! All of it is awesome! I just started our weather unit today and I can't wait to try out some of your ideas. Thanks for sharing! ~Heidi V.
Luna says
Thank you! Wonderful ideas and contagious enthusiasm.
Henry & Emmeline says
You are a gift!! As others have said, your creativity is inspiring and contagious!! Thank you!!
Amber says
Wanted to add my thanks…lovely post…2 years later we are enjoying your hard work…and we appreciate it!
Sheri Rice says
I love that most of your posts have ideas on how to integrate that particular subject with other subjects. You always have the students moving around and being engaged in what is going on! I will definitely use this in my classroom!
Melissa says
Love this unit! Thanks so much for sharing such great ideas!
Aerix Aeri says
Wonderful illustrated information. I thank you about that. No doubt it will be very useful for my future projects. Would like to see some other posts on the same subject!
emergency
Sree says
Just fell in love with your blog… thank you so much.