Temperature – Patties Classroom

We are done with our weather unit. We first learned about cloud types and made a flap book. The 4 types of clouds we learned about were; Nimbus (storm clouds), Cumulus (white puffy clouds), stratus (blanket of fog) and cirrus (thin wispy horse tail clouds).

We wrote facts underneath each type of cloud picture. Then we added the cotton balls.

We did cotton balls and white yarn strips (cirrus) for the types of clouds. Scholastic News is a great resource for teaching clouds.

We made light blue ones and had drawn lines under each flap to write a few facts about each type of cloud. Check out the Scholastic News website for great info and pictures on Clouds. I order the Scholastic News every year. A lot of times I save the science ones to use with my units.

Picture I use for teaching clouds. I also use the Scholastic News website.

The Weekly Reader/Scholastic News have a product called Science Spin. I order that every year for an extra dollar or so per student. I use them because I have no science textbooks. I also order a lot of science reading literature and always keep it at the SCIENCE CENTER. It is the most populated center every day.

This was a leftover one I had from last year. This year’s class did a lot more writing. We used rulewrs to write some light lines so the facts would be neatly written.

Here is the mini flap book we made on light blue construction paper. We used cotton balls for the clouds and used grey and blue chalk to make them look like Nimbus (stormy) clouds. For the cirrus clouds we used pieces of white yarn. For the foggy stratus clouds we cut a square of cotton
Then we wrote a definition of each type of cloud. We looked at internet pictures of the types of clouds and read 2 literature books, and a Weekly Reader.
aThe Cloud Book By dePaola, Tomie (Google Affiliate Ad)
Cloudette By Lichtenheld, Tom (Google Affiliate Ad)

The next day we did some Water Cycle Activities. We Read a Weekly Reader on the Water Cycle that had a cool diagram.

I have about a dozen books on weather. This is just a sampling. I’m always on the lookout for Scholastic books and Amazon used books on the topics I teach in Science. Most of my legislative money goes for books.

A weather crossword I use in my weather unit is HERE at teach-nology.com. Some years I have them also do a weather ACROSTIC POEM or we write a story after reading Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs.
Some free weather stationery is HERE. And .HERE is a printable of all types of weather in a cute blackline from Scholastic that you could use to make your own magnet matching game like mine below.

This was a center game. I had added velcro to the back and they used the carpeted wall to match the word to the weather picture. I left all the weather books at the Science Center along with this game.

I have an auto harp I play and the kids love singing songs to the music. I also have about 2 dozen types of instruments and some drums and xylophones so we never lose interest in singing to science texts.

Water Cycle Song:
Tune: Here We Go Round the Mulberry Bush
Here we go round the water cycle, water cycle, water cycle.
Here we go round the water cycle, each and every day.
The ocean water evaporates, evaporates, evaporates,
The ocean water evaporates and makes tiny drops.
The clouds condense to make a raincloud, make a raincloud, make a raincloud,
The clouds condense to make a raincloud, and some feel really heavy!
The heavy drops precipitate, precipitate, precipitate,
The heavy drops precipitate, to make water accumulate. (puddles, lakes, rivers, and underground wells)
Then it’s time to start again, start again, start again,
Then it’s time to start again, the never ending Water Cycle!

We make a rotating water cycle wheel on a brad, coloring it and cutting it out. On the back we have a Water cycle poem;

We read lots of books on the results of Wicked Weather. And the Hurricane Sandy came right along when we were discussing weather damage.

Tornado Tubes are a fun way to show the motion of hurricanes and tornadoes.

You can get this little connector for as little as $3.00 to make your own classroom tornado tubes.

This is a Tornado Tube. I put 2 empty 2 liter bottles together with one of them filled with water. The kids loved coming up and twirling it around till it made a tornado. You can get the Tornado Tube from Steve Spangler Science..

I had the kids put together a page of puzzles; tornadoes, hurricanes and lightening. This is what it looks like before .

The last thing we did was making a thermometer with paper.Check it out HERE. We talked about hot and cold, cool and freezing weather and what temperature each would be. Then I showed them lots of coats, sweaters, bathing suits etc. and asked what temperature each would be warm. A few more worksheets are at Superteacher Worksheets.. Then we did some temperature worksheets like these Here at www.education.com. We had a great time learning about WEATHER!

We start our lesson on temperature by making a thermometer. A link for a simple thermometer is HERE found at Havefunteaching.com. I make one so kids can color a red strip and tape it together so it is long. Then we cut “slits” in the top and bottom of it and our red strip becomes the rising and falling temperature in our thermometer.

On the thermometer there is Hot, Warm, Cool, and Cold. The kids can easily learn what degrees are “hot” degrees, and which ones are cool and cold. We practice moving our “red strip” up and down as we say, “now it’s HOT! So what’s the temperature today? Now it’s cold, what’s the temperature today?”
Then I show the kids pictures of bathing suits, coats and gloves, tank tops and shorts and sweatshirts and ask what weather and degrees they would wear each piece of clothing in? They have to flash me one of 4 words with degrees shown below on our papers. They color and cut them out and wave them to me as I show the sweatshirts and tank tops.

weather temps and thermometer….

That’s always a fun activity and it helps the kids memorize the different temperatures a bit better. I teach them what we would do and wear in 1) 90 degree HOT weather, and 2) 70 degree WARM weather, 3) 50 degree COOL weather and 4) 30 degree COLD weather.

hats and raincoats…what kind of weather?

Wacky Weather POETRY WRITING:
I’ve used the book title “Oh Say Can You Say…What’s the Weather Like Today?” as a beginning line for rhyming poems. Kids brainstorm the words that will rhyme with today. (play, May, ray, clay, they, pray, tray, way, say, day, they etc). Then they write funny rhymes. It is wacky but fun.

This year we did Weather Words by Gail Gibbons and we made “rain” poems using our 5 senses. When it rains I see, When it rains I hear, When it rains I smell, touch, taste etc. We brainstorm lists under the words hear, see, smell, touch, etc. Then the kids write a sloppy copy. I walk around and edit for spelling. Then they rewrote them on cute stationery with rain clouds above. Pics are below….

Here’s a finished thermometer

They turned out very pretty. Then we did a water cycle wheel and we talked about all the vocabulary like accumulation, precipitation, and evaporation. Our rain poems go right along with the water cycle! We are just about done with weather! Woo Hoo!

<><><><><><><>

5 Senses Poetry

Rain Poems…..

Water Cycle Music (tune: “It’s Raining, it’s pouring)
It’s raining, it’s pouring,
The oceans are storing
Water from the falling rain
While thunderclouds are roaring.
The rain now is stopping,
The rain’s no longer dropping.
Sun comes out and soaks up water
Like a mop that’s mopping.
The water’s still there now,
But hidden in the air now.
In the clouds it makes a home
Until there’s rain to share now.
It’s raining, it’s pouring…
Meish Goldish

Here are the Water Cycle Wheels we made….super great for a visual understanding…

It’s always fun in my class to sing to percussion instruments. I’ve got drums, wood blocks, tambourines, shakers, boomwhackers, xylophones and sticks. So when it’s time to do a rap or sing, we do percussion too.

POETRY: Weather is Hot, Weather is Cold RAP! ,
Weather is hot, (snap your fingers as your recite it together)
Weather is cold,
Weather is changing
As the weeks unfold.
Skies are cloudy,
Skies are fair,
Skies are changing
In the air.
It is raining,
It is snowing,
It is windy
With breezes blowing.
Days are foggy,
Days are clear,
Weather is changing
Throughout the year!
by: Meish Goldish

Well that’s the end of our weather unit for this year. I only wish the actual weather was better by now! It snowed again!

Category: Temperature

Weather and Clouds

Thermometers and Temperature.