Writing Activity
Ask students to write a short (1 to 2 paragraph) story about weather using 5-10 vocabulary words.
Possible prompts:
- Write a story about your favorite kind of weather.
- Write a story about one time it rained at your house.
- Write a story about one time you played in the snow.
Activity 1
This activity can be downloaded here
(It is suggested that the students create a “lab notebook” – a notebook designated for their exploration of weather. The students will write down measurements from the weather station in this notebook in future activities.)
Rain Writing Prompt:
- Have the students write a description of what it is like outside when it rains.
Activity 2
This activity can be downloaded here
Have students do the thermometer worksheet here
Activity 3 (Weather Station Activity)
This activity can be downloaded here
- Ask students to predict what the temperature will be inside their classroom in the morning, at noon, and in the afternoon.
- Ask students to predict what the temperature will be outside at the same times.
- Use the weather station to measure the temperature at those times in the classroom and outside.
- The weather station will record data at multiple time intervals on the memory card. Put the memory card into a computer, and show the data to the students. Help the students collect the temperature data from the 3 different times they made predictions for.
- Have the students enter the data into their lab notebooks.
Writing Activity
Ask your students to write a paragraph explaining why the temperature was different at different times of the day and whether or not their predictions were correct.
Activity 4
This activity can be downloaded here
Wait for a rainy or snowy day. Ask students to predict what the temperature will be outside. Take measurements with weather stations. Show measurements to students (If done on a snowy day this would make a great opportunity to discuss the phases of matter. ie. liquid, gas, solid or rain, water vapor, and snow and how these phases of matter relate to temperature).
Spelling/Vocabulary Activity
Download the Word List here