Grade Level: 5 Subject: Science Prepared By: Kaylee Forsyth

Overview & Purpose Education Standards Addressed

Students will learn the difference between weather and climate. 5.8A Differentiate between weather and climate

Lesson Details

Objectives The students will be able to differentiate between weather Materials Needed
(Specify skills/information that will be and climate Graph Paper
learned.)
Pencil
Information Hook: Crash Course Kids video over Weather vs. Climate Colored pencils
(Give and/or demonstrate necessary Guided: Introduce M&Ms and determine what weather M&Ms
information)
each color represents. Have students name different types
of weather and match them to a color.

Verification Exit Ticket: Students will answer a STAAR based question Other Resources
(Steps to check for student over the specific TEK. (e.g. Web, books, etc.)
understanding)
Crash Course Kids video

Activity With the use of M&Ms, students will determine the

(Describe the independent activity to
reinforce this lesson)
difference between weather and climate. To start, each
student will get a cup of M&Ms and the class will work
together to determine a weather type for each color. Once
the colors are recorded, each student will pick an M&M
without looking and will record witch weather type they
pulled. (Ex. A blue M&M would represent rain). As a group
they will record each members answer so they can see
that weather is unpredictable and can be different each
day. Next, the groups will pour all of their M&Ms in a plate
and they will count out each color to find out what color
shows the most. They will use this information to see what
weather happens most often in order to determine climate.
Reinforce that climate is found by looking at what types of
weather occur most often over a long period of time.
Students will then compute a percentage table for their
groups (Number of M&Ms divided by 100) to have a visual
of climate.
Summary By the end of class students will be differentiate between Additional Notes
weather and climate. They will understand that weather is
short-term and changed day-to-day. Where as climate iris
the average weather conditions over a long period of a
time.