K-ESS2-1 lessons
Use and share observations of local weather conditions to describe patterns over time.
The Next Generation Science Standards code K-ESS2-1 asks students to: “Use and share observations of local weather conditions to describe patterns over time.” These Fieldbook lessons teach it hands-on, with everyday materials, a printable teacher guide and a student sheet.
Weather Watchers: What Will the Sky Do Today? Grades K–2
- What's the weather like today? 30 min to start, 5 min a day for two weeks, 30 min to graph
Children look at the sky at the same time every school day for two weeks and add a weather picture to a big class chart. Then they count the sunny, cloudy, rainy and snowy days, build a bar graph together and use it to say what kind of weather their two weeks had.
- Which way is the wind blowing? 40–45 min, plus 5 min on two or three other days
Children make a paper-plate wind sock with crepe-paper streamers and take it into the schoolyard to see which way the wind blows and how strong it is. They find out that we can't see wind, but we can see what it does, and they sort days into calm, breezy and windy.
- How much rain fell? 40 min, plus 5 min a day for a week
Teams build a rain gauge from a clear, straight-sided bottle with a ruler taped on, set it outside and measure the rain each day for a week. On a dry week they make a watering-can 'storm' instead, and test what happens when rain lands on grass, soil and pavement.
NGSS is used as written in Arkansas, California, Connecticut, Delaware, District of Columbia, Hawaii, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Maine, Maryland, Michigan, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, Washington, so the code K-ESS2-1 matches there. Other states word and number their own versions: see curriculum alignment for your state's codes.
More NGSS standards for Kindergarten
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