Summary
Students will learn about weather by taking walks in various types conditions: sunny, rainy, windy and snowy.
Materials
Sunny Walk
One per class:
- What Makes a Shadow, by Clyde Robert Bulla
- Sidewalk chalk
- Sun Song, by Jean Marzollo
Hot Walk
For the class:
- Thermometer
- Roll of paper towels
- Ziploc bag
- Two glass jars that are
the same size
- Two elastic bands
- Chart paper
- Markers
For each student:
- Paintbrushes
- Bucket of water
- White construction
paper
- Corn syrup
- Yellow food coloring
- Scissors
Wind Walk
One per class:
One per student:
- Crepe paper streamers
- Crayons
- White construction
paper
- Paper strips
- Glue stick
Rain Walk
One per class:
- Rain Talk
- Wet World, by Norma Simon
One per student:
- Foil pie plates
- Blue construction paper
- String
- Paper punch
- Gray butcher paper
- Tape
- Rain gear
Snowy Walk
One per class:
- Two glass jars
- Thermometer
- The Snowy Day, by Ezra Jack Keats
- Yardstick
- 2 Elastic bands
Additional Resources
-
What Makes a Shadow, by Clyde Robert Bulla; ISBN 0060229152
- Sun Song, by Jean Marzollo; ISBN 060611937X
- The Wind Blew, by Pat Hutchins; ISBN 068971744X
- Wet World, by Norma Simon; ISBN 1564021904
- The Snowy Day, by Ezra Jack Keats; ISSBN 0670867330
- Weather, by Ann Flag; ISBN 0-590-13111-7
- Whatever the Weather, by Karen Wallace; ISBN 0-7894-4750-9
- Shadows, by Carolyn B. Otto; ISBN 0-439-20548-4
- Guess Whose Shadow, by Stephen R. Swinburne;
ISBN 0-439-26651-3
Background for Teachers
Weather develops in the air that surrounds Earth. The condition of the
air determines the temperature and whether the day is cloudy or clear,
windy or calm. The combination of these conditions determines whether
we have rain or snow. Temperature is one of these conditions. Heat from
the sun warms Earth’s atmosphere and surface waters. Cloudy days may
be cooler than sunny days because clouds block some of the sun’s
warmth. Wind is moving air. Some winds are gentle; others are very
strong.
There are different tools to help us observe, measure and track
weather. Meteorologists are people who report and forecast the weather.
Intended Learning Outcomes
1. Demonstrate a positive learning attitude.
5. Understand and use basic concepts and skills.
Instructional Procedures
Invitation to Learn
Teach students the weather song that goes to the tune of BINGO. The
words are:
We have weather everyday
Today is sunny weather.
S-U-N-N-Y, S-U-N-N-Y, S-U-N-N-Y
Today it's sunny weather.
Change the words of the song to match the weather--possibilities
include: snowy, windy, rainy, foggy, cloudy.
Tell students that they are going to become weather watchers and
weather walkers! Be flexible and ready to include the following activities
on an appropriate day.
Instructional Procedures
Sunny Walk
- Discuss that it can be sunny weather in the summer and in the
winter. When it is sunny weather we have shadows. The sun's
rays cannot pass through solid objects so shadows are the places
light could not get through.
- Read What Makes a Shadow, by Clyde Robert Bulla.
- Divide up into partners. Go outside and trace each others'
shadows on the sidewalk with chalk.
- You may want to go outside later and see if you can "fit" into the
shadow tracings made earlier in the day. Explain how the sun
appears to have moved in the sky, causing a change in the
shadows.
- Sun Song by Jean Marzollo describes the sun's activities from
sunrise to sunset.
Family Connections
- Have students observe where the sun sets and at what time,
and where the sun rises and at what time.
Hot Walk
- Take a thermometer outside with you and determine where the
hottest area in the playground is. Experiment with the sidewalk,
a shady spot, and the sandbox. Discuss your findings.
- After studying about shapes, draw shapes on the sidewalk with
paintbrushes and water. Discuss why the water disappears.
- Take two paper towels and wet each of them. Ask the class which
one will dry first: the one you leave in the shade, or the one you
leave in the sun. Take a class vote and chart your predictions and
your findings. This is a good time to remind students that
scientists are interested in learning, not in wanting to vote like
their friends. All ideas are important.
- Take two paper towels and wet each of them. Place one towel
spread out inside. Squeeze the other towel into a small ball. Ask
the class which will dry first. Chart predictions and findings.
Relate this experiment to towels students might use when
swimming. Ask, "Which way will your towel dry fastest; hanging
up or in a pile on the floor?" Explain how air dries the towel and
how we can use that knowledge to help us.
- Take two paper towels and wet each of them. Place one in a
sealed Ziploc bag and the other on a counter. Follow the
procedure used in #4.
- Fill two jars that are the same size and shape with the same
amount of water. Place a rubber band around the jars to show the
water level. Put a lid on one jar and leave the other without a lid.
Ask the students what they think will happen. Chart their
predictions. Check the jars each day for a week. Read the
predictions and discuss what happened. The water without the lid
evaporated because it is exposed to air. The water in the other jar
stayed the same because the air stayed the same.
Language Arts and Art Connection
- Have each child draw or trace a large sun on white
construction paper.
- Draw a dark pencil drawing (representative of a shadow) of a
favorite summertime activity inside the sun. Have students
write and complete the sentence, "In summer I like to
____________" underneath their drawing.
- Cut the large sun out.
- Paint over the drawings and words with a transparent paint
made by mixing one cup corn syrup with about 20 drops
yellow food coloring. Let this dry a day or two.
Family Connections
- Have students do one experiment at home and report his/her
findings with the class.
Wind Walk
- Read the poem, Who Has Seen The Wind? (pdf) by Christina
Rossetti.
- Ask what happened when the wind was passing through.
- Ask students how they can tell which direction the wind is
blowing.
- Go outside and have students run into the wind, as well as with
the wind. Discuss which one is easier. Skip, hop, and twirl with
the wind.
- Give students a four foot crepe paper streamer to take outside.
Experiment which way the streamer moves when you move it
up and down or try to spin it.
- Wet a finger and hold it up in the air. Ask students what they
feel? The wind will cool one side as it passes by.
Language Arts and Art Connection
- Read The Wind Blew, by Pat Hutchins
- Make a class book similar to The Wind Blew. Ask each student
to fill in the blank "The wind blew my ______." Write the
completed sentence for each student. Then cut the sentence
into individual words. Have each student glue his/her "word
puzzle" together in order at the bottom of the page, illustrate
his/her page with crayons, and bind the pages together into a
book.
- Let each child read his/her own page to the class.
Family Connections
- Have students make a book at home entitled, What Moves in
the Wind. Share with the class.
Rain Walk
- Explain that the students are going to be detectives. They are
going to discover the answer to some rain questions. The
questions are:
- Where is the biggest puddle on our playground and why is it
so large?
- What do raindrops do when they land on the sidewalk?
- What do raindrops do when they land on the grass?
- What do raindrops do when they land on our coats?
- What do raindrops do when they land on leaves?
- Chart the predictions on a chart using the headings "What We
Think" and "What We Learned" before the class goes outside and
when they come back.
- Have students hold foil pie plates above their heads and listen to
the sound the rain makes as they stand outside. Back in the
classroom, demonstrate how to tap on the back of the foil pan
with a pencil to imitate the sound of the raindrop. Experiment
what a thunderstorm would sound like, as well as a drizzle, a light
rain, and a steady downpour.
- Read Wet World by Norma Simon.
- Experiment with hands to find other ways to make rain sounds
(e.g., snapping, rubbing, clapping, etc.).
Language Arts and Art Connection
- Have students cut large water drops out of blue construction
paper. Write words that describe rain on both sides, such as
wet, splashing, cold, etc.
- Punch a hole at the top of each drop and tie a string of
different lengths to each.
- Cut two large clouds that are exactly the same (you may want
to provide a template to trace around) out of gray butcher
paper. Staple around the two clouds about half way. Stuff the
cloud with scraps of paper and then finish stapling the rest.
- Tape the ends of the strings with the water drops to the bottom
of the cloud so that the water drops can dangle under the puffy
cloud (see illustration).

Snowy Walk
- Read The Snowy Day by Ezra Keats.
- Have students measure how deep the snow is in different
places. Discuss why it is different.
- Take the temperature of the snow and the ground beneath. Is it
different? Discuss why. How would that affect animals?
- Collect snow in one jar and ice in another.
- Place an elastic band around the jars to show where the snow
and ice levels are. Ask the class for predictions about how much
water will remain when the ice and snow melt. Will the water
level be above the elastic or below the elastic? Record the
answers.
- Ask students which jar will melt faster, the ice or the snow.
Record their predictions and later their answers.
- Explain that there is more air in snow so it makes less water. The
air also causes the snow to melt faster. Have students observe how
clean the melted snow is. Discuss the reasons for not eating snow.
Language Arts and Art Connection
- Have students use crayons to draw a winter tree and
themselves wearing winter clothes on blue construction paper.
Under supervision have students dab Q-tips into bleach to
paint snowflakes on their pictures. Underneath have students
finish the sentence: In winter I like to ______________.
Extensions
Family Connections
- Have students watch the weather on television. Have them record
the temperature and the forecast for the next day.
- Have students bring weather maps from the newspaper. Let them
share the information they have learned from the map.
Assessment Plan
Student artwork and participation in each weather walk is a good
assessment of whether they understand the concepts covered. Each
weather walk is designed to help students become more observant and
experience the weather in different ways than they might have before.