Grade Level: 1st Grade

Topic: Measuring the difference in temperature in different places

Objectives:
1. Students will be able to discuss the changes in temperature throughout the day
2. Students will be able to learn to read a thermometer
3. Students will be able to record information on temperature

NYS Standards:
Unit 3: Weather and Seasons: Temperature in different places

PS 1.1a: Weather changing from day to day and through the seasons.

PS 2.1b: Weather can be described and measured by: temperature

Lesson Length: 1-2 45 minute class periods

Materials:
Smart Board
Access to Brain Pop Jr.
1 large thermometer
Bar graph handout
Pictograph handout
Red crayon
Glasses of water
Thermometers for each student
Thermometer sheets

Motivation:
Students will be taken outside the school to briefly observe the weather. Students will return to
the classroom and discuss the observations they made (e.g. how the air felt). They will fill out a
chart describing what they felt. They will then discuss if they think the air will feel the same later
on in the day, and if it felt the same in the classroom as it did outside.
Development of the lesson:
1. Students will be taken outside the school to briefly observe the weather. Students will
return to the classroom and discuss the observations they made (e.g. how the air felt).
They will fill out a chart describing what they felt. They will then discuss if they think the
air will feel the same later on in the day, and if it felt the same in the classroom as it did
outside.
2. Using a KWL chart, the teacher will ask students prompting questions to help complete
the chart, such as:
a. What is temperature?
 b. What do you already know about it?
c. What would you like to learn about temperature?
3. Students will then be shown a Brain Pop Jr video on temperature. The teacher will
introduce vocabulary relating to temperature - temperature, thermometer, degree.
4. The teacher will follow the review of vocabulary with a review of counting by tens in
order to read the temperature on the thermometer.
5. The teacher will then demonstrate the proper use of a thermometer by showing students
different temperature readings with the use of three cups of water, all with different
temperatures.
6. The teacher will then call students in small groups to read the temperature of the three
cups of water.
7. Students will be broken up into groups of 3 or 4. Each group will receive a thermometer
and sheets where they will record their data. Students will record the temperature in three
cups of water placed in different temperatures, one outside in the shade, one outside in
the sun and one inside the classroom.
8. Each group will present their findings to the class.
9. Students will be brought back to the KWL chart, they will fill out the L section with what
they have learned about temperature and measuring temperature.
Differentiation: Students will be in groups of 3 or 4 in order to promote peer collaboration as
well as scaffolding. Students who need additional support will receive a hand out with different
pictures of different scenarios of outside temperatures and different temperature readings on
thermometers. They will then match the temperature on the thermometer to the temperature of
the scenario it best fits.

Summary and Assessment: Students understanding of the content will be assessed during the
activity and their discussions. Students will be given a handout with thermometers with different
readings. They will have to correctly identify the temperature on each thermometer and record
the temperature.

Homework: Students will be given a recording sheet with thermometers on it to take home.
They will record the temperature outside, and in two different rooms in their house. After
reading the three different temperatures they will record them by coloring in the thermometers on
their recording sheets and briefly describing what they felt in each place, such as how the air felt.

Lesson Plan was adapted from:

https://jr.brainpop.com/math/measurement/temperature/preview.weml
http://www.msnucleus.org/membership/html/k-6/wc/pdf/wc1we.pdf
Homework