Weather
- Introduction
- Concepts
- Motivation activities
- Exploration activities
- Application activities
- Further resources
Introduction
Who cares about the weather?
In exploring their world, students observe changes that take place throughout their day. They relate specific events or activities to particular times. They develop both general and science-specific language (such as temperature, forecast, pattern) to describe phenomena such as the weather, the appearance of the sun, moon, stars, clouds and rainbows, and day and night. They discuss reasons for their answers to questions such as ‘What clothes will I wear today?’, ‘What shall I eat?’ and ‘What shall I do today?’
Students learn how to collect and record data appropriate to the activity. They display and make generalisations from their data.
Concepts
- ‘Weather’ can be described in various ways.
- Patterns in weather occur over time.
- Weather conditions influence what clothes we wear and what we do.
- Clothes are made from different materials that suit their purpose.
- There are observable differences between day and night.
Explore the relationships between ideas about matter in the Science Continuum P-10 Concept Development Maps (Stars and Solar System)
Motivation activities
What’s the weather today?
Discuss today's weather with the students.
Assist students in using words that describe aspects of the weather, such as sunny, windy, hot, cold, rainy or cloudy.
Clarify students’ understanding of science-specific language that will be used during this unit such as temperature, forecast, pattern, etc.
Have students describe the clothes they wear when the weather is hot, cold, windy, or raining.
Working in small groups, students create a symbol or picture that depicts specific weather conditions. They discuss why they designed it that way.
Match different types of weather with the kind of activities that people participate in.
Discuss how students could find out what the weather might be like next week.
Exploration activities
What is the weather like?
Design a wall chart on which to record observations of the weather each day. Use symbols that students designed and the conventional symbols found, for example on weather forecasts or maps.
View video tapes of TV weather reports and ask students to identify weather phenomena using symbols and words such as sun, rain, wind or cloud, or those used by the media.
Students draw and collect pictures to describe how the weather affects their activities and those of others. They sort, group and label images to describe what we might do and wear on a hot, sunny day, a windy, cold day and on a rainy day.
How does the weather affect what I do?
What shall I wear? Students decide on a particular scenario such as dressing for a rainy day, for a cold day, for a hot day, for the beach or the swimming pool. They have a dress-up session and consider what materials the clothes are made of. They suggest why particular materials are chosen for example a waterproof material to wear on a rainy day or a woollen jumper to wear on a cold day.
What shall I do? Students assist in making a big book or wall display to record what they do and wear in different weather conditions. Students write simple sentences explaining why they choose particular activities over others in different weather conditions.
What shall I eat? Students compare the kinds of food they prefer to eat when the weather is hot and when the weather is cold. They make some appropriate foods, such as icy poles and fruit salad (hot weather), or pancakes and porridge (cold weather).
The following Digilearn activity is useful in assisting students to select appropriate clothing for particular weather conditions:
Are there patterns in the weather?
Students study records of the weather over a period of time to identify any patterns such as five sunny days followed by three rainy days.
Prepare a class pictorial bar graph that uses symbols to indicate weather conditions over time. Observe students’ placement of symbols. Identify any patterns that emerge.
Students investigate whether there is a change in temperature throughout the day at school, using informal methods to describe how hot it is.
How can we tell when the seasons are changing?
Students draw on their experience and describe observable changes (evidence) during the year that indicate change in the seasons. These could include length of day, changes in overall temperature, observable changes in stages of growth of flowering plants, change in colour and loss of leaves from trees, changes in activities of their family such as holidays, and sports. They draw up a chart representing the seasons and list the evidence of change.
Students research which events and festivals, such as harvest time, occur during particular seasons.
What are some differences between day and night?
Students observe and draw pictures showing what they can see in the day and night sky or list their observations on a graphic organiser, such as a Venn diagram. They discuss whether some things can be seen during both the day and the night such as clouds and the moon and record these in the middle section of the Venn diagram
Compile a class book to record the students’ pictures.
The following Digilearn activity allows students to view a simulation showing the differences between the day and night sky:
Application activities
On a prepared circle representing one day marked out in 24 hours, students draw what they do at different times.
Students sequence a series of cut-out pictures to show what they might do at different times of the day and night.
Students match symbols or pictures of weather conditions with simple descriptions of the weather or of activities.
Further resources
The following resources contain sections that may be useful when designing learning experiences:
Digilearn*
- Experience the Weather [Includes spoken instructions]
Students explore weather variations in four different environments: desert, mountains, rainforest and polar regions. Students dress a character in clothing suited to the weather conditions: sunny, windy, rainy or snowing.
- Explore the Weather [Includes spoken instructions]
Students choose clothing suited to the weather conditions: sunny, windy, rainy and snowing.
- Weather Wear [Includes spoken instructions]
Students listen to a weather report on a radio. Students dress a character in clothing suited to the weather conditions predicted. Students sail in a yacht race.
- Day sky, night sky [Includes spoken instructions]
Students identify objects in the sky such as clouds, planets and stars. Students look closely at movements in the sky during the day and at night. Students explore facts about celestial objects such as meteors and Moon phases. Students build their own sky scene.
(https://www.eduweb.vic.gov.au/dlr/_layouts/dlr/Details.aspx?ID=4522)
* Note that Digilearn is a secure site; DEECD login required.
Websites
- Bureau of Meteorology – provides access to weather forecasts, severe weather warnings, observations etc.
- JCU – MetSat provides teachers with satellite images of weather.
- Southern Stars Aboriginal Astronomy - information on aboriginal astronomy and star constellations.