Teaching Day-by-Day: Weather

1. Hear the wind. Make wind chimes! Tie metal objects (such as old keys or jar lids) to pieces of string. Attach the string to a stick and hang it outside where it will catch the breeze. Listen to the sounds. How strong is the wind?
2. Something in the air. Air pollution is a serious problem. Here's an easy way to test for pollution: Cover a white plate with petroleum jelly. Leave it outside on a windowsill for a week. Observe what sticks to it. What can you identify?
3. Safe in the sun. Wearing sunscreen and wide-brimmed hats are some ways we can protect ourselves from the sun. Make a list of other ways.
4. Spell of weather. Meteorologist is a big word for a big job. A meteorologist studies the weather. Did you know that more than 200 words can be made from the 13 letters in meteorologist? How many
   words can you think of?
5. Shhhh! In Marie Hall Ets' book Gilberto and the Wind (Viking Juvenile, 1963), a little boy plays with the wind and listens to it as it rustles the leaves of trees and pushes gates shut. Go outside on a windy day. What do you hear?
6. Watch a cloud. On a sunny day with puffy white clouds, go outside and lie back to look at the clouds with a friend. Use your imagination. What do you see? A sailboat? A dragon? What does your friend see?

7. Don't cry!...over spilt milk. Read Charles G. Shaw's book, It Looked Like Spilt Milk (HarperCollins, 1947). Create a cloud image. Use cotton balls to dab white paint onto blue paper to create a cloudy "sky."
8. North and south. Different places have different weather. Research April weather in the northern and southern states. Use the Venn diagram at www.weeklyreader.com/tresources to compare the weather of the two places.
9. Catch the wind. A machine called an anemometer measures the speed of the wind in miles per hour. "Anemos" is Greek for wind, and "meter" means to measure. Write a list of some other words that end with "meter."

10. It's a twister! In L. Frank Baum's book The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (HarperCollins, 100th Anniversary edition, 2000), a tornado carries Dorothy Gale from her Kansas home to the land of Oz. Write your own fantasy story based on a tornado. Where would it take you?
11. Desert detective. Most deserts receive less than 10 inches of rainfall each year. Some deserts are blazing hot during the day, but freezing at night. What would it be like to live in a desert? Write a story about how you would survive. What would you need?

12. Water, water, everywhere. Most of Earth's surface (about three-fourths) is covered by saltwater. Ocean currents affect Earth's weather. Research how that happens and make a storyboard illustrating it.
13. Foggy days. Have you ever gone outside and felt like you were walking into a cloud? Fog is a cloud that forms close to the ground. What does the air feel like when it is foggy? Is it hot or cold? Dry or damp?
14. Record-setting snow. The 24-hour snowfall record is 75.8 inches (more than six feet!), which fell on April 14 in 1921 at Silver Lake, CO. Write a story about what that day might have been like for Silver Lake residents.
15. Whirl with the wind. A tornado's winds can spin up to 250 miles per hour. Like a vacuum, it can pick up objects from the ground. Imagine that you are picked up by a tornado. What might it feel like? Write a shape poem about it.
16. Remember the rainbow. When light passes through water droplets, it breaks into seven colors to form a rainbow. The colors appear in this order: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo and violet. Use this mnemonic to remember: ROY G. BIV.

17. Going south. Have you ever heard someone say that the birds fly south for the winter? Have you ever seen large flocks of birds flying together in late fall? Why do you think birds do this? Research the answer and share your findings.
18. Weather word web. Write the word weather in the center of a word web. What weather-related words can you add to the web? You can download a word web at www.weeklyreader.com/tresources

19. How much rain? Place a bucket outside during a rainfall. Go outside every hour and measure the rain in the bucket with a ruler. Record how much rain falls each hour.
20. Blowing bubbles. On a gusty day, go outside and blow bubbles. Can you tell in which direction the wind is blowing? Do the bubbles always float in the same direction?

21. Penguin power. Some penguins live in a cold climate. Print the penguin reproducible at www.weeklyreader.com/tresources Write a story from the penguin's perspective about what it might be like to live in such a cold place.
22. Name that hurricane! The World Meteorological Organization assigns a male or female name to each hurricane. Write a paragraph explaining the name you would select for the next hurricane and why.
23. Better than an umbrella? The first umbrellas were used 4,000 years ago to provide shade from the sun. Later, the Chinese waterproofed them for rain protection. Sketch your own weather invention on paper and describe how it would be useful.
24. Cloud watching. The three main types of clouds are stratus, cumulus and cirrus. Research their differences. On a cloudy day, gaze up at the sky and try to identify which type of cloud you see. Then draw a picture of the clouds using white chalk on light blue paper.
25. Where does water come from? How does rain form? Study the water cycle, then sketch a large diagram showing the steps.

26. Forecast the future. Write your local paper's five-day weather forecast on a calendar. Each day, grade the forecast by recording how accurate the prediction was. Try it with multiple sources to find the best forecast in town.
27. A dark and stormy night. Think about how authors use weather to set the mood of their stories. Make a chart with three categories, "happy," "sad" and "scared." Brainstorm weather events that fit into each category.

28. Birthday weather. Visit your library and research what the temperature was on your birthday each year for the last 10 years. Record the data as a line graph. What do you notice about the temperature?
29. Safety in a storm. Research safety steps that you and your family should take in case of a severe storm such as a hurricane or tornado. Make a poster or a diorama illustrating and labeling those steps.
30. Flower power. What words might you use to describe a flower? Write a story or a poem about a flower. Print out the reproducible flower page at www.weeklyreader.com/flower

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April, 2007, Vol.37, No.7