Preview · the opening missionRead this to the class:
Every morning, Amara's grandpa asks her the same question: "What's the weather like today?" Today Amara looked out and said, "It's the same as yesterday." Grandpa smiled. "Is it? How do you know? Did you write it down?" Amara hadn't. Now she wonders: is the weather the same every day, or does it change? Your job: be the class weather team. Look at the sky every day, keep a weather chart and find out what our weather does.
Each day, one team of three looks at the sky. The jobs rotate: the Sky Looker looks out and says what they see, the Symbol Maker draws the weather picture on a square, and the Reporter tells the class.
Look inside the PDF
Sample pages, stamped “preview”. The download is the clean, full lesson.
In the full lesson PDF
- Predict (5 min)
- Hunt (5 min a day for two weeks)
- Reveal (15 min, after two weeks)
- Act (10 min)
- Background for the teacher
- Assessment
- Student sheet
On the student sheet
- My prediction
- My weather chart
- Our bar graph
- What I found
US Letter, prints cleanly in black and white. The student sheet is on its own page, ready to photocopy.
Free with an account (any 3 lessons), or US$19 / C$25 for all 3 lessons in this unit.
What students show by the end
- Observes the weather
- Reads the graph
- Claim with evidence
From the lesson’s rubric, which scores each one as not yet, getting there or got it.
Questions teachers ask
How long does “What's the weather like today?” take?
30 min to start, 5 min a day for two weeks, 30 min to graph. Group size: teams of 3 (three jobs that rotate each day).
How much prep does it need?
15 minutes: draw a big chart on chart paper with 10 boxes, one for each school day. Cut about 20 paper squares, 8 cm (3 in) across, in each of four colours: yellow for sunny, grey for cloudy, blue for rainy and white for snowy. Pick a window or a spot by the door where children can see the sky, and pick one time to look every day.
What materials do I need?
Chart paper; paper squares or sticky notes, 8 cm (3 in), in yellow, grey, blue and white; crayons or markers; masking tape or a glue stick; a clipboard. Cost: about $10 for a class of 30.
Which curriculum standards does it cover?
NGSS (US): K-ESS2-1. It also matches BC Science, Kindergarten.
What’s in the lesson PDF?
A teacher guide that walks you through predict, hunt, reveal, act, background for the teacher and assessment, then a student sheet (“My prediction”, “My weather chart”, “Our bar graph” and “What I found”) on its own page, ready to photocopy. It’s US Letter and prints cleanly in black and white.
Can I try it for free?
Yes. A free account includes any 3 full lessons of your choice, and this can be one of them. After that, this unit is US$19 (C$25) for all 3 lessons, yours to keep, or every lesson is US$79 (C$109) a year.