Learning goals:
Using vocabulary related to weather and the natural world
Keywords blow, breeze, centigrade, cold, cool, degrees, dry, forecast, freezing, gale, heavy rain, hot, humid, lightning, light rain, puddle, showers, snowfall, temperature, thunder, thunderstorm, weather, wet
Using vocabulary related to weather and the natural world
sun rain wind fog snow sunny rainy windy foggy misty snowy shine rain drizzle blow n/a snow
warm sun hot sun blazing sun bright sunshine sunrays heavy rain pouring rain cold rain / warm rain light rain, gentle rain shower downpour rainstorm drizzle raindrop strong wind light wind warm wind fresh wind breeze hurricane windstorm sandstorm mist thick fog heavy fog heavy snow light snow
© Young Digital Planet 2015 – Core Curriculum for English – Teacher’s Guide

other hot, warm, fine, dry cold, cool, chilly wet, damp cloud – cloudy hail hurricane wet snow melting snow snowstorm blizzard frost blow /bl əʊ/ breeze / briːz/ centigrade /
ˈsentɪˌɡreɪd/ cold /k əʊld/ cool / kuːl/ degrees /d ɪˈɡriːz/ dry /dra ɪ/ forecast / ˈfɔː(r)kɑːst/ freezing /
ˈfriːzɪŋ/ gale / ɡeɪl/ heavy rain / ˈhevi reɪn/ hot /h ɒt/ humid / ˈhjuːmɪd/ lightning / ˈlaɪtnɪŋ/ light rain /la ɪt reɪn/ puddle / ˈpʌd(ə)l/ showers / ˈʃaʊə(r)z/ snowfall / ˈsnəʊˌfɔːl/ temperature / ˈtemprɪtʃə(r)/ thunder ˈθʌndə(r)/ thunderstorm / ˈθʌndə(r)ˌstɔː(r)m/ weather / ˈweðə(r)/ wet /wet/
What’s the weather like?
What’s it like out(side)?
Beautiful weather, isn’t?
Nice morning, isn’t?
Terrible weather, isn’t?
How’s the weather?
What’s the temperature?
What’s the weather forecast?
© Young Digital Planet 2015 – Core Curriculum for English – Teacher’s Guide

Audio: male adult: The wind was so strong. It was blowing a gale. Quite a lot of trees came down but no-one was hurt. female adult: It was too hot to walk on the beach.
I think it was nearly forty degrees centigrade. The ice in my drink melted in seconds. male adult: Did you hear the thunderstorm last night? I couldn’t sleep so I watched the lightning over the town from my window. female adult: The temperature is warm in the jungle but it’s also really humid. There is so much water in the air that your clothes are always wet. boy: I really like sitting on the beach when there is a cool breeze to stop it becoming too hot.
Key:
Ask students to listen and put the pictures in the order that they hear them.
Then students match the weather forecast symbol with the type of weather. Ask a follow-up question:
What’s your favourite kind of weather?
Extension :
Tell student to look outside the window and describe the weather. Then tell them to imagine they are in a different country e.g. Finland, Spain
– depending on the circumstances. Tell students to talk about the weather in the two different countries.
© Young Digital Planet 2015 – Core Curriculum for English – Teacher’s Guide

Audio:
DJ: So let’s welcome into the studio one of the
UK’s top photographers, Ken Jones. Ken, you’re most famous for your wedding photography and you have photographed celebrity weddings all over Europe. What’s the most interesting wedding you’ve been to?
Ken Jones: Ah. I think the most interesting wedding was in a wooden tree house on top of a tree in Scotland. It was a really beautiful venue with a view over a lake but, unfortunately, it was blowing a terrible gale and the tree was really moving in the wind. I think some of the wedding guests were quite scared.
DJ: I’m not surprised. I don’t even like heights.
Ken Jones: Maybe you would like one of the wedding venues in the south of England. You can get married underground in a mine there. But at least the weather isn’t important because it is always cool and there’s no rain, sun, snow or wind.
DJ: What is the worst weather you’ve had for a wedding?
Ken Jones: Well, I think I have to say snow. In the UK it’s difficult because the transport stops with even a little bit of snowfall and it makes it difficult for people to get to the wedding. It’s a pity when half the guests can’t arrive.
DJ: What about rain? Do you have any wet weather wedding tips?
Ken Jones: Well, rainy weddings can be really colourful. First of all, plan for rain, wind, and puddles of water on the ground – any time of year. Watch the forecast and have lots of umbrellas ready. It’s also difficult in the UK when it’s very hot because we don’t have many buildings with air conditioning and people just get too hot.
It’s very difficult for the women to keep their hair and make-up looking good when they’re melting in the sun
– especially if it’s humid!
Ask students to listen and complete the sentences.
Extension :
Ask students to sum up what the most interesting wedding according to this photographer was.
The most interesting wedding was in a wooden tree house on top of a tree in Scotland. It was a really beautiful venue with a view over a lake but, unfortunately, it was blowing a terrible gale and the tree was really moving in the wind. Some of the wedding guests were quite scared.
© Young Digital Planet 2015 – Core Curriculum for English – Teacher’s Guide

DJ: It seems like you have to be prepared for any kind of weather all year round in the UK. Thanks
Ken, we’ll be back with more questions after the next song…
Key:
1 gale
2 never
3 snow
4 rain
5 hot
© Young Digital Planet 2015 – Core Curriculum for English – Teacher’s Guide

Key:
1 gale
2 cool
3 snowfall
4 wet weather
5 melting
Ask students to read and choose the correct words.
Extension :
Tell students to describe the photography. Pay attention to the weather vocabulary.
© Young Digital Planet 2015 – Core Curriculum for English – Teacher’s Guide

Key:
1 wind
2 temperatures
3 centigrade
4 breeze
5 lightning
Ask students to read and complete the sentences.
Extension :
Ask students if they have even seen a weather station. Maybe they have a small digital one at home. Tell students to say what one can measure: temperature, wind speeds, air measurement
© Young Digital Planet 2015 – Core Curriculum for English – Teacher’s Guide

Key:
Tell students to match the words.
Extension :
Ask students if they know any other words and phrases to describe weather e.g. a fine day hot sun bright sunlight strong wind light wind cold wind / warm wind fresh wind heavy rain pouring rain cold rain / warm rain gentle rain a drop of rain thick fog heavy fog a bolt of thunder heavy snow wet snow melting snow
© Young Digital Planet 2015 – Core Curriculum for English – Teacher’s Guide

Key:
1 blow
2 breeze
3 centigrade
4 degrees
5 forecast
6 gale
7 humid
8 lightning
9 snowfall
10 temperature
11 thunderstorm
12 weather
Play the game.
Give the Ss these instructions for the Hangman game. Hangman is a spelling game. The aim is to find the hidden word by guessing the letters.
The alphabet is set out at the bottom of the screen.
Look at the number of letters in the word.
Guess the first letter, e.g. ‘e’.
Guess the next letter and click it.
Continue until you have guessed the word.
Extension :
Ask students to work in pairs and prepare definitions for each of the words they inserted.
Explain you need definitions as if they were doing a cross word.
© Young Digital Planet 2015 – Core Curriculum for English – Teacher’s Guide

Key:
1 b. It's going to rain heavily tomorrow morning.
2 a. On Thursday it's going to be hot.
3 a. There's going to be a light breeze by the sea.
4 b. It's going to be humid on Saturday.
5 a. There's going to be heavy rain in Wales.
6 blowing
7 puddles
8 degrees
9 thunder
10 humid
Ask students to choose the correct sentences in
1-4. Then students write the missing words in 6-
10.
Extension:
Give out Handouts . Ask students to complete the missing words.
© Young Digital Planet 2015 – Core Curriculum for English – Teacher’s Guide

Key:
1 shine
2 rainy
3 warm
4 shower / drizzle
5 shower / drizzle
6 wind
7 blow
8 windstorm
9 misty
10 thick
11 light
12 frost
© Young Digital Planet 2015 – Core Curriculum for English – Teacher’s Guide

Audio 1:
There’s going to be snow tomorrow.
Audio 2:
Tomorrow, it’s going to rain heavily.
Students’ own answers.
Ask students to work in pairs. This is a ‘free practice’ stage. The aim is personalisation. Give students the following instructions:
Spin the wheel and tell your partner the weather forecast for tomorrow.
© Young Digital Planet 2015 – Core Curriculum for English – Teacher’s Guide

blow ● drizzle ● frost ● light ● misty ● rainy ● shine shower ● thick ● warm ● wind ● windstorm noun sun adjective sunny verb
(1)
_______________ phrases warm sun hot sun rain
(6)
_______________
(2)
_______________ windy rain drizzle
(7)
_______________ heavy rain pouring rain cold rain / (3) _______________rain light rain, gentle rain
(4) _______________ downpour rainstorm
(5) _______________ strong wind light wind breeze hurricane
(8) _______________ sandstorm fog foggy
(9)
_______________ n/a snow snowy snow mist
(10) _______________fog heavy fog heavy snow
(11) _______________ snow wet snow snowstorm
(12) _______________
© Young Digital Planet 2015 – Core Curriculum for English – Teacher’s Guide