Learn about how weather affects us – an introductory activity.

Weather: The weather and us

What you will need:

•  coloured pencils
•  scissors
•  glue

What you will do:

1.  Today we are going to think about how the weather affects us.  What sort of weather is it today?  Is it hot, cold, or just right outside today?
2.  Now think about the things that we can only do in certain types of weather, for example we can’t swim when it is snowing!  We can’t dry the washing on the clothes line when it is raining.  Write a list of things that you can’t do in these kinds of weather:

Cold or Snowy

Rainy

Windy

Hot

3.  Now you are going to make some pictures to show how we dress for different types of weather.  Think carefully about what you should wear for each type, then colour in the best clothes for weather, cut them out and glue them onto the person.

What should happen:

When you are finished you should have 3 people dressed for fun in hot, cold and rainy weather!

Teaching Notes:

Key Concepts:

•  The weather affects how we live our lives

Resources:

•  Experiment description Weather W02 – one copy per student.
•  A copy of the 3 resource sheets that accompany this activity for each student
•  coloured pencils, scissors, glue

Lesson Notes:

Begin the lesson by reviewing the tern “weather” and what it means.  As a class have a look at the weather outside.  Discuss what can be seen and felt eg clouds, wind, temperature and how the students and teachers are dressed for the weather.  Discuss what kinds of activities the students may have planned for the afternoon or the weekend and how their plans might change if the weather changes.

As a class read through the proceedure of this experiment and give the students time to fill out the boxes with activities they can’t do in those kinds of weather.  The students can draw their answers if this is more appropriate for their ability.

Now demonstrate how to select, colour, cut and paste the clothes on each of the paper dolls.

At the end of the lesson gather the students together again and show a few selected examples of their dolls dressed for the weather.  These dolls make an excellent classroom display for this unit.

What should happen in this experiment, and why?

Student should be able to identify the appropriate clothing for each activity and while the resource sheets have been designed to give the students some choice they should each have chosen warm clothes for the cold weather, summer or swimming clothes for the hot weather and rain gear for rainy weather.

Follow up questions:

•  When you go on holidays to another part of the world they might be in the opposite season to home – it might be winter there when it is summer here.  Why would it be important to check this before you left home?

•  Do your parents or carers have to remind you sometimes to wear appropriate clothes, especially broad brimmed hats in summer and warm jackets or scarves in winter?  Why do you think they do this?