Names: Kourtney Sondergaard and Lindsay Farrugia
GLCE: E.ES.01.21 Compare daily changes in the weather related to temperature. (cold,
hot, warm, cool); cloud cover (cloudy, partly cloudy, foggy); precipitation (rain, snow,
hail, freezing rain); wind (breezy, windy, calm).
Grade Level: 1st
Lesson Title: What’s the Weather?
Lesson Overview:
After completing the lesson, students will be able to:

Collect data about daily weather

Complete a book with data collected

Compare daily weather conditions

Discuss the effects of daily changes in weather or no daily changes in weather.
List of Materials:

1 booklet for each child

Weather Pieces baggie

PowerPoint

Outside observation area

Glue

Crayons or other writing utensil

Book “Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs”
Engage:
Read the book Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs to the class. Then ask them questions
about the book like “What did the meatballs represent?”. With this book we are trying to
get the children thinking about weather in a fun way.
Explore:
Student will go outside as a group and take a few moments to look around and see and
feel what the weather is outside. The will be focusing on temperature (hot, warm, cool,
cold), precipitation (rain, snow, sleet, freezing rain), cloud cover (clear, partly cloudy,
cloudy), and wind (calm, breezy, windy). Then they will return inside and each student
will be given a What’s the Weather booklet. They will fill in one page each day for five
days. They will be given a baggie each day with all the possible weather conditions and
they can glue down the appropriate picture. They can also write a brief sentence about
what they saw or felt. At the end of the 5 days the students will come together and
discuss what differences they see between the days weather. This will be a child led
discussion.
Explain:
Now all the students will gather and key terms and ideas will be discussed. A
PowerPoint will be used to assist in the teaching of these terms. First the terms weather,
precipitation, cloud cover, and temperature will be defined. Then the idea of weather
changing everyday will be explained. It is key for children to understand that weather
can change very easily. One day it can be sunny and warm and the next day cold and
snowing.
Elaborate:
Students will be given several questions to think about and discuss as a group. These
questions will take the knowledge the children have and make them think about it in a
new way. They will think about what would happen if weather did not change daily.
What if we only had one type of weather everyday?
Evaluate:
Students will be evaluated based on their completion of their booklet. They will receive
one point for each day’s page completed. They will also be given participation points for
participating in each of the discussion.
References:
Deutsch, Stacia, Rhody Cohon, and Judi Barrett. Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs:
Junior Novelization. New York: Simon Spotlight, 2009. Print.
Williams, Rozanne Lanczak. Weather & Seasons. Torrance, CA: Frank Schaffer
Publications, 1998. Print.