The Weather Changes with Each Season

Charlotte Glanville
Kindergarten/ Science

Common Core Standards:

Lesson Summary:
This lesson is designed to create the foundation students will need for understanding the different systems
found on planet Earth. This lesson holds focus onto the different weather conditions and patterns. Students will
be required to take pictures and record the different temperatures and weather conditions throughout the week.
Each day students will have to create a story of why Mother Nature would create the specific weather
conditions. The last class period, students will create small skits of their favorite weather conditions in small
groups.
Estimated Duration:
Five 30 minute lessons.
Commentary:
To kick off this lesson, the teacher will create different scenarios within the classroom to simulate different
types of weather conditions. (Ex. flashing the lights with thunderstorm sounds playing in the background.)
With creating such an interactive environment, students will be engaged and hooked into learning about what
kind of weather conditions can affect them on a daily basis. A challenge that could easily happen would be that
the students do not take responsibility for finding their own weather scenarios that be able to incorporate into
the classroom.

Instructional Procedures:
Day 1:
The first 20 minutes of the lesson would be used to teach the students of all of the different types of weather
conditions. The teacher will create an environment within the classroom to as best as possible to simulate
different types of weather conditions that could include flashing the lights with playing the sounds of a

thunderstorm in the back ground. By creating an environment within the classroom that shows how much fun
it is to be able to identify the different types of weather, the students will continue to have a drive throughout
the week to want to learn about the different weather conditions.
The last 10 minutes of this part of the lesson is dedicated to explaining to them the assignment that they will
need to accomplish throughout the week. Students will be required to take pictures of the weather conditions
outside of their home each night.
Day 2:
The first 10 minutes of class will be dedicated to discussing the different weather conditions that students
captured through their homework assignment. (This is assuming that students would take pictures at different
times of the day and thus would result in obtaining different weather conditions.)
The second 10 minute block will be used to illustrate the weather conditions. The teacher will pick two or
three different weather conditions to use as creating an example within the classroom.
The last 10 minutes will be dedicated to showing how the weather conditions can change within a short period
of time. The impact will be shown through creating a small science experiment of putting large ice cubes into a
boiling pot of water to show that the ice melts in different temperatures.
Day 3:
The first 15 minutes will be used to start compiling all of the pictures already taken by the students into a
timeline of the week. It will be a slideshow using PowerPoint.
The last 15 minutes of class is used for creating stories of how the different aspects of the weather (clouds, the
sun, rain, etc.) will communicate to one another. Each aspect will have their own personality and
characteristics. Clouds could be considered to be sad because they are crying the rain drops, while the sun
can be portrayed as being the happy character within the story.
Day 4:
The first 15 minutes will be a continuation of the students creating stories similar to the day before.
The last 15 minutes will be the teacher showing the students how the weather is different at different locations
throughout the world. Using news stories of natural disasters that have happened due to weather conditions
(flooding and rock slides).
Day 5:
The first 10 minutes will be used to show the students how the weather had progressed in their local area
throughout the week. Showing the different perspectives each student provided to the at home assignment of
taking pictures.
The last 20 minutes will be used to show how the weather impacts each persons life. Using dress up clothes,
students will have to pick different outfits they would wear in different weather conditions.

Pre-Assessment:
Before the first introduction of creating the weather conditions within the classroom, the teacher will ask the
students to name all of the different aspects of weather they already know. It will be a discussion based activity
where students will raise their hands to say their answers. The teacher will draw the different aspects on the
white board (the sun, rain, wind, etc.). It will be able to give a visual representation of what the students know
prior to the lesson on weather.
Scoring Guidelines:
The pre-assessment will be graded solely based off of participation. Even if students give answers that were
already said, the willingness to participate show that they students are willing to be engaged within the lesson.
As each day has its own activity for the students to participate in, they will be given the credit for that part of
the lesson. As the week progresses, students must show that they are gaining an understanding of the different
aspects of the weather changes through their wider range of knowledge of different weather conditions.
As each students brings their own pictures and assessments of the weather conditions from their own
perspective through the at home assignment, students will be given full credit for completing that aspect of the
lesson. If a student does not attempt to fulfill the homework assignment, they will not receive participation
credit because they are not contributing to the in class activities to the fullest extent.
Post-Assessment:
The post-assessment is the in class activity of deciding what kind of clothes they are meant to wear in the
different weather conditions. This activity shows the understanding of how the weather condition can impact
the students on a personal level and they can tell the difference between the different situations. This is a visual
representation to the teacher that the students comprehend the different aspects of the weather conditions that
they can find themselves in during their normal days of life.
Scoring Guidelines:
There will be five different scenarios of different weather conditions that students must be able to pick out the
right clothing or accessory options that would be suit that situation. Students must be able to have the correct
options to be able to receive credit for each of the different scenarios that have been provided. Four out of five
scenarios correct would give the student an 80% for the post-assessment.

Differentiated Instructional Support

Describe how instruction can be differentiated (changed or altered) to meet the needs of gifted or accelerated
students:
The gifted students must create a written log of the weather conditions with their at home picture assignment.
They must not only provide a picture of their perspective of the weather conditions, but also provide the
temperature and descriptions of what the plants look like around their home. These students will be given the
opportunity to give small presentations using PowerPoint to the class of the findings they have acquired.
During the in-class activities, the gifted students will be encouraged to help the struggling students with their
stories.
Discuss additional activities you could do to meet the needs of students who might be struggling with the

material:
The struggling students will be able to receive further explanations from the gifted students. These students
will also be provided with the opportunity to learn the vocabulary words on a more in-depth level by taking
practice flashcards to learn a better understanding of the different aspects of the weather.

Extension
Students can go to http://www.weather.com/ for a more in-depth understanding of the different weather
conditions going on in different locations throughout the country. It can be used to show that the weather is
different in different states within the country. It can also provide the students with the forecast for the week so
they can see how close the real weather condition match up with the predictions the meteorologists give.

Homework Options and Home Connections

The homework that is required for this lesson is for students to take pictures of the weather conditions outside
of their homes each day. It can be at any time of the day but the picture must be taken at the same spot each
day to keep a consistent view point

Interdisciplinary Connections
Day provides the opportunity for students to learn about the history of the natural disasters that have occurred
from the weather. By providing the opportunity to pull in the current events around the world, it also provides

the students with the aspect of having an aspect of life that influences everyone on the planet that connects
people.

Materials and Resources:

For teachers

For students

A computer to be able to play the sounds of different weather conditions that

can be found on the internet.

A projector to be able to show different pictures of the weather, along with the
different presentations that students will be creating.

Dress up clothes for the students to role play with.

Water, ice, and pot for the science experiment.

Some sort of picture taking device.

Internet to be able to email the pictures to the teacher.

Key Vocabulary
Weather
Thunder
Storm
Sun
Rain
Wind
Tornado
Flood
Lightning

Additional Notes
Depending on how the students react to each in-class activity, the timing could be shortened or lengthened to

be able to provide the opportunity for students to receive a more in-depth understanding of the classroom
material that they are learning. Parents would be given a newsleter a few weeks prior to this lesson starting for
them to be able to provide an option for the students to be able to take pictures for the at home assignment
aspect of this project.