5-4-16: Differentiate between weather and climate (a Grade 5 outcome)

Climate Clues Grade 6

Tree rings, old weather records and what your own town's numbers say. Three lessons on how scientists tell climate apart from a cold week.

• Is this winter colder than when your grandparents were kids? 50–60 min

  Students compare January temperatures from the 1960s with the last ten years, using their own town's records. They find out why memories and single years can mislead, and how averages show the real pattern.

• What can a tree ring tell us? 50–60 min

  Students count and measure the rings in a real slice of tree, match ring widths to rainfall, and compare old and new photographs of a glacier. They explain how nature keeps records of past climate long before anyone owned a thermometer.

• What's the difference between weather and climate? 45–60 min

  A cold week versus a cold century. Students sort evidence cards into weather and climate, then roll dice to make a month of 'weather' and see how a small shift in climate still allows cold days. They settle the argument with evidence.

Printable practice for 5-4-16

These pages practise a closely related idea; the match to 5-4-16 is partial.

• Weather Detectives workbook included with the unit

  1 word wall, 1 English-support page, 1 practice page, 1 reading, 1 unit review, 1 unit test, with answer keys.

• Monsoon Science: Rain, Sun and the Nón Lá workbook included with the unit

  2 readings, 1 unit test, with answer keys.

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