Weather Unit
Book List
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When Rain Falls By: M. Stewart
The Big Storm By: Nancy Tafuri – Might be too easy.
Bringing the Rain to Kapiti Plain By: V. Aardema
Under the Snow By: M. Stewart
The Secret Life of a Snowflake By: K.Libbrecht
Water Dance By: Thomas Locker
Around the World in the Blink of an Eye By: Lou Hood
One Well The Story of Water on Earth By: Rochelle Strauss  p. 8-9
The Boy who doesn’t believe in Spring?
Thunder Cake By: Patricia Pallaco
What will the Weather Be? By: Linda Dewitt
Flash, Crash, Rumble, and Roll By: Franklyn Barnley
Down Comes The Rain By: Franklyn Branley
Feel the Wind By: Arthur Dorros
The Cloud Book By: Tomie de Paola
Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs
Standards
Science
Math
ELA
Social Studies
Over View of the Unit
The Weather Unit will take approximately three weeks in March.
Review the months of the year. Talk about which months have which seasons, and then
we will have the students talk and discover that there are certain weather patterns
during specific seasons of the year.
We will begin by reviewing winter and snow and focus on where snow falls in the world
and what does the temperature have to be in order to produce snow.
Then we will transition into Spring’s weather patterns. This will follow into the weather
patterns of Summer and Fall.
In addition to the weather patterns of the seasons we will also…
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Measure rain fall in the courtyard
Graph the daily weather during the unit
Weather Journal - They will record the weather and relate it to how it makes
them feel
Cloud Foldable – label and compare and contrast the clouds
Make Clouds Artwork
Write Weather Riddles
Adjectives for Weather
Storm Life Cycle
Water Cycle
Rainbows
Map out where certain weather patterns are. Where do hurricanes hit. Where
book settings are…
Weather Vocabulary Word
United Streaming for Videos
Effects of Weather on people and animals
Listen to CDs with the sound of weather
Water cycle on pinterest on the window
Weather Kit from Dr. B
Rain gages and thermometers
Give students a list of temps for Jan and have the students try to find where in
the world it would be.
Houses and how they protect them from the weather. Science/SS connection in
the anthology.
Connection animal adaptions.
Water Cycle Dance
Weather Bear – AIMS activity
Look for fine art that has to do with weather
Art to represent the storm/weather
Gene Kelly – Singing in the Rain
Precipitation
Shaving Cream & Elmer’s Glue to make clouds
Look into AIMS wind activities
Bottle Tornadoes
Weather Reports – Have them write and then read their reports.
Lesson Plans
Week One
Day One
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Read Under the Snow
Review the months and seasons and why animals hibernate.
Have the students think-pair-share about weather in each season.
Weather of the Seasons Web – This will be a graphic organizer for students to
keep track of weather vocabulary.
Day Two
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Display weather.com and talk about how we can find out the weather.
Why does recording the weather help us? Think-Pair-Share to why this question is
important.
How can we as a class document weather? Have the students decide to graph
the weather. Big graph and personal graph.
Day Three
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Talk about the transition from winter to spring
Have the students think-pair-share about what weather they know happens in
the spring and add to the vocabulary web.
Read When Rain Falls
Discuss what happens when rain falls. Cause and Effect. When it rains
animals/people ________.
Why do animals and people seek shelter during rain?
Why would some animals like rain?
Discuss how rain is measured. Have the students put a container in the courtyard
to measure rain. Students will predict how much rain we will get at the school in
the next few weeks, and
Day Four
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Read Water Dance and focus on adjectives.
Students will write weather riddles.
Talk about the water cycle.
Create a water cycle poster with a group.
Groups will present their posters.
Day Five
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Reread Water Dance and have the students physically interpret the different
aspects and types of water.
Students will learn about the rain storm cycle.
They will make their own rain storm with clear cups, water, shaving cream, and
blue food coloring.
Students will predict what will happen when each of the items are added to the
cup. They will record the outcomes.
Then they will talk about how this rain storm model is like and unlike a real rain
storm.
Week Two
Day One
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Rainbow Book
Students will be able to answer the question: “What conditions are necessary for
a rainbow to appear?”
Look at a variety of rainbow pictures and have the students decide the order of
the colors of the rainbow, and have the students to be able to answer the
question, “Why are colors always in the same order?”
Create their own rainbow.
Day Two
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Read Bringing the Rain to Kapiti Plain
Discuss the setting and what kind of weather they saw in the story.
What are the effects of weather on the people, animals, and environment.
Students will decide that the story was not in the U.S. and based off of the
characters and animals they will place it in Africa.
Locate Africa on the map and students will label Kapiti Plain on their personal
world maps.
Have students locate areas on the map where they think it is hot and where it is
cold.
Day Three
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Read Around the World in the Blink of an Eye
Briefly discuss why its daytime in one area of the world and nighttime in another
place.
Use a world map to find each city/country and use weather.com to research the
daily temperature and weather.
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Once all the cities are labeled, students will discuss why it’s colder in one area of
the world and warmer in another.
Day Four
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Continue with the previous day.
Use a world map to find each city/country and use weather.com to research the
daily temperature and weather.
Once all the cities are labeled, students will discuss why it’s colder in one area of
the world and warmer in another.
Day Five
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Catch up day!
Week Three
Day One
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Read Flash, Crash, Rumble and Roll to introduce severe weather.
Add words to Weather Vocabulary Web.
Day Two
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Hurricanes & Tornadoes – Compare and Contrast
Day Three
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Blizzards
Day Four
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The Cloud Book
Clouds – Different kinds of clouds
Make a foldable and label the diagrams
Day Five
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Clouds
Create their own cloud to create.