Investigating Weather

For the first part of our Air and Weather Unit, we skipped ahead to the FOSS investigation on weather.  I wanted to get the kids started on their weather calendars.  Each day around 1:30 p.m. we record the temperature and the weather we see outside.  Once we have this underway, we will go back and conduct the first investigation on air.

Here is what our weather calendars look like so far:

  

This calendar isn’t anything fancy, but it works for us.  If you want to snag a FREE copy, click on the image above.  The kids also have one for May in their science notebooks.  I figure we’ll be done with our unit by the end of May.

Next up…weather vocabulary.  We made a vocabulary flipbook for some important terminology:

After that, the students recorded information they knew about thermometers.  We also used a blackline master included with the FOSS kits to color in the temperature ranges on a Fahrenheit and Celsius thermometer.

The last thing I wanted to share with you was our cloud study.  First, I read this book to the class to build some background knowledge.

Then, we created this science notebook entry to record our findings about three types of clouds: cirrus, cumulus, and stratus.

 Finally, we started two cloud art projects.  The first is an entry for our science notebooks:

The second was more for fun.  After being inspired by the artwork in these two books, we created some clouds of our own.

(a chick)

(a flower)

(a tree)

 (a snake)

Next week I hope to share part of our air investigation.  The students will conduct experiments with air inside a container of water and create small parachutes.  Have I mentioned how much I love teaching this unit?