Teacher's guide for Weather Wonders
Margaret Clauder (817) 980-1760
Website: www.mcpshows.com
Margaret Clauder background:
Margaret is an actress, storyteller, magician, puppeteer and ventriloquist. She
portrays a meteorologist in this program. In the Weather Wonders program,
children will learn about the water cycle which includes evaporation, condensation,
transpiration, and different forms of precipitation. Various types of clouds will be
covered as well as types of weather.
About your performer:
Margaret Clauder has been performing as Meteorologist Maggie since summer
2014. Previously this program was called Winter Wonders and was performed
since 2011. She has been performing full time for schools and libraries since 1991,
and has brought to life many characters including Mother Goose, THE Bookworm,
Masai Maggie, and many more. She has performed before thousands of children in
the Texas area and even across the US. Through the use of ventriloquism, comedy,
storytelling, magic, and adorable puppets, Margaret will bring her characters to
life. Children will become engaged as they watch and listen to the way in which
she presents the material in an age appropriate manner. For more information
about Margaret, please visit our website at www.mcpshows.com. We also have
photos and descriptions of other MCP shows available.
2 types of puppets will be seen in the performance:
Hand puppet – a small figure of a person or animal having jointed parts controlled
by the hand.
In the Weather Wonders program the following hand puppet will be used: A
cumulonimbus cloud named “Cloudia”. This is the only type of cloud that can
make rain AND lightning. This puppet can not only squirt water (rain) but it will
also flash light (lightning) and the children will hear thunder. Also a penguin
puppet will be used as well.
Drawing Board puppet: This is an unusual type of hand puppet that looks like a
drawing board. Margaret’s fingers behind the board will be used to manipulate the
mouth and the eyes to bring the “drawing” to life. A brief synopsis of the story of
“Frosty the Snowman” will be performed as this puppet is presented.
Children will see and experience Ventriloquism during the program.
Ventriloquist – A person who can produce vocal sounds without appearing to
move their lips while speaking. They make a puppet or dummy appear to speak
instead.
Pre-Program Activities
Children will hear a synopsis of the story “Frosty the Snowman” during the
performance. It will be good if they are familiar with the story.
Discuss these vocabulary words with your students, on their level, prior to the
performance.
Vocabulary used in the performance:
Meteorologist
Weather
Cloud
Precipitation
Evaporation
Transpiration
Water droplet
Condensation
Cloud
liquid
Solid
Gas - water vapor
steam
Meteorologist:
An individual with specialized education who uses scientific principles to
explain, understand, observe or forecast the earth's atmospheric phenomena
and/or how the atmosphere affects the earth and life on the planet. In short,
they forecast the weather.
Weather:
The day to day climate of a particular place or region. For example, today it
is rainy outside.
Water is the only substance on earth that can naturally change from a liquid
to a gas or a solid. As a liquid it is water. It can fall from the sky in the
form of rain. As a gas it is water vapor or steam. Water vapor makes up the
clouds. As a solid it is ice or snow, which also can fall from the sky in the
form of precipitation.
Clouds
Clouds form when warm humid air meets colder air.
There are a range of different types of clouds, the main types include stratus,
cumulus and cirrus.
Stratus clouds are flat and featureless, appearing as layered sheets.
Cumulus clouds are puffy, like cotton floating in the sky.
Cirrus clouds are thin and wispy, appearing high in the sky.
There are many variations of these 3 main cloud types including
stratocumulus, altostratus, altocumulus, cirrostratus and cirrocumulus.
Fog is stratus type of cloud that appears very close to the ground.
Precipitation:
Precipitation is the release of water from the atmosphere to the earth’s
surface as a solid or liquid. It includes rain, snow, hail, sleet and dew.
Evaporation:
Heat from the sun causes water on Earth (in oceans, lakes etc) to evaporate
(turn from liquid into a gas known as water vapor) and rise into the sky. This
water vapor condenses in the sky in the form of clouds when the warm water
vapor meets the cooler air of the upper atmosphere.
Transpiration:
In a process similar to sweating, plants lose water which is absorbed into the
atmosphere much like evaporation. The combination of evaporation and
transpiration is known as evapotranspiration.
Condensation:
As water vapor in the clouds cools down it becomes water again, this
process is called condensation.
Collection:
Oceans and lakes collect water that has fallen. Water evaporates into the sky
again and the cycle continues.
Sublimation:
It is possible for a solid to transform into a gas directly (without becoming a
liquid). The most common example of sublimation is dry ice (solid carbon
dioxide) which sublimes at normal air temperature. Under certain conditions
snow and ice can also sublime. Margaret uses dry ice in her program to give
the appearance of steam rising from a coffee cup.
Water Cycle:
The sun, which drives the water cycle, heats water in oceans and seas.
Water evaporates as water vapor into the air. Ice, rain and snow can
sublimate directly into water vapor. Evapotranspiration is water transpired
from plants and evaporated from the soil. Rising air currents take the vapor
up into the atmosphere where cooler temperatures cause it to condense
into clouds. Air currents move water vapor around the globe, cloud
particles collide, grow, and fall out of the upper atmospheric layers
as precipitation. Some precipitation falls as snow or hail, sleet, and can
accumulate as ice caps and glaciers, which can store frozen water for
thousands of years. Most water falls back into the oceans or onto land as
rain, where the water flows over the ground as surface runoff. A portion of
runoff enters rivers in valleys in the landscape, with stream flow moving
water towards the oceans. Runoff and water emerging from the ground
(groundwater) may be stored as freshwater in lakes. Not all runoff flows
into rivers, much of it soaks into the ground as infiltration. Some water
infiltrates deep into the ground and replenishes aquifers, which can store
freshwater for long periods of time. Some infiltration stays close to the land
surface and can seep back into surface-water bodies (and the ocean) as
groundwater discharge. Some groundwater finds openings in the land
surface and comes out as freshwater springs. In river valleys and flood-
plains there is often continuous water exchange between surface water
and ground water in the hypothetic zone. Over time, the water returns to
the ocean, to continue the water cycle.
Post Show activities:
Set up a rain gauge at the school and check it daily to see if any rain has
accumulated in it. Keep a record over a month to see what the average
amount of rainfall is for the month. This can be keep daily to find the
average rainfall over several months or throughout the entire school year. If
snow falls it is measured not with a rain gauge, but with a ruler to show
inches.
Lightning:
* Lightning is a powerful burst of electricity that happens very quickly
during a thunderstorm.
* It is caused by an electrical charge in the atmosphere that is unbalanced.
* The movement of rain and ice inside a thundercloud creates an electrical
charge. The negative charge (electrons) forms at the bottom of the clouds
and the positive charge (protons) forms at the top of the cloud.
 Opposites attract, so the negative charge at the bottom of the cloud
seeks out a positive charge to connect with. Sometimes this can be a
tree, a tall building, or if they are unlucky – a person!
 Lightning rods (also called conductors) are metal rods or similar
objects that divert lightning safely to the ground. They can be seen at
the top of tall buildings.
 Lightning contains millions of volts of electricity.
 Thunder is the sound caused by lightning.
 Lightning is usually caused by cumulonimbus clouds which are very
tall and dense. It can also occur during volcanic eruptions, dust
storms, snow storms, forest fires and tornadoes.
Static electricity Experiment:
Find out about positive and negatively charged particles using a few basic
items that you can control.
What you need;
1. 2 large round inflated balloons with strings attached.
2. Long hair.
3. aluminum can
4. woolen fabric.
Instructions:
1. Rub the balloons one by one against the woolen fabric.
2. Next try moving the balloons together. Do they want to move
together or are they unattached to each other?
3. Rub one of the balloons on your hair then slowly pull it away. Ask
someone what they see. If no one is around look into a mirror.
4. Lay the aluminum can on it’s side on the table. After rubbing a
balloon onto your hair, hold the balloon close to the can. Watch as
the can rolls toward the balloon. Slowly move the balloon away from
the can and the can will follow.
What is happening?
Rubbing the balloons against the woolen fabric or your hair creates static
electricity. This involves negatively charged particles (electrons) jumping to
positively charged objects. When you rub the balloons against your hair or
the fabric they become negatively charged, they have taken some of the
electrons from the hair/fabric and left them positively charged.
They say opposites attract and that is certainly the case in these experiments,
your positively charged hair is attracted to the negatively charged balloon
and starts to rise up to meet it. This is similar to the aluminum can which is
drawn to the negatively charged balloon as the area near it becomes
positively charged, once again opposites attract.
In the first experiment both the balloons were negatively charged after
rubbing them against the woolen fabric, because of this they were
unattached to each other.
Post show activity - Condensation: Get a glass of water. Put
several ice cubes into it and let them melt. As the ice melts the
warm air in the room will cause water droplets to form on the
outside of the glass. This is an example of condensation on the
glass.
Some web resources to look at:
 www.weatherwizkids.com
 www.noaa.gov
 www.nasa.gov
Courtesy of Margaret Clauder Presents
www.mcpshows.com
(817) 980-1760