Week 7: (Part 1) The Weather
For my particular 1st grade class, checking the weather is a daily must for them. Initially, this was started off just for my CT's sake so she could inform the kids on what they should be wearing outside. As we live in Minnesota, you could come into school bundled up in the morning and then by the time recess comes around, you only need your jacket since it has warmed up considerably. Or, it could go the other way.
Bundled up or..?
Bundled up or..?
My CT uses the site, www.weather.com, and pulls it up on her Smart Board so the entire class can look at it. She asks students to help her read it and in turn, a couple students each day will read the weather off for the whole class. This seems such a small thing, but the students are learning a lot! The first time we had the students do this, they had a hard time understanding why the temperature outside could be different from the "Feels Like" temperature. It didn't make sense that the temperature could be 30 degrees but it actually feels like 20! They began learning about wind speeds and understanding how that can affect the temperature outside.
Learning about the weather is valuable thing for the students. Little do they know, us teachers are going to make them wear most of their winter gear regardless if it is 25 degrees or 30 because they are outside for an extended period of time and it can get cold. However, for them, it validates them by allowing them to figure out what they should wear on their own.
Selection Rubric: Online Resources
Title: www.weather.com
Source/Location: Internet
Cost: Free
Subject Area: Science, Math or Reading
Grade Level: Any
Primary Users: Both Teacher and Students
Learning Experiences: Students learn about the weather and how it has an affect on them when they go out and play for recess. They are learning the fine parts of weather and that many factors can affect what it is like outside.
Brief Description: A website that is used to figure out what the weather is for your current location, on that current day or in the future.
Standards/Outcomes/Objectives: Tied into any subject areas, mostly science, math or reading. Children can learn how to read temperature (science and reading) and how it affects them. Students can also learn the temperature differences between the days of the week (math): one day might be colder than the next, but how cold?
Prerequisites: Ability to read numbers and words, whether with the guidance from the teacher or not.
Strengths: Immediately provides all the information about the weather outside. Offers a lot of different ways to integrate into other subject areas.
Limitations: The amount of information can be overwhelming and children could struggle learning when all of it is presented at once. www.weather.com does not allow to filter out different types of information.
Special Features: Provides radar of the weather so students can visibly see winter storms approaching or a cold spell.
Sources:
This is such an awesome lesson! Knowing the weather and everything it entails is a life long skill people will always use. It's quite amazing how much you can do with smart boards. My third grade students also do a weather graph/chart for the month during morning meeting. For part two of your blog post, I love that the students have a chance to share their outside of school lives and that it also works on writing too!
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