Introductory Activity :

Ask "Do you know what the weather is like in other parts of the country? What are some different types of weather? Do you have family or friends that live far away? Where do they live, and what kind of weather do they have?"

Body :

The teacher draws a map of the your country on the bulletin board. (Tip: Use an opaque projector to enlarge a map to bulletin board size. Project on the bulletin board and trace.)

The teacher should label at least as many cities on this map as there are students in the class. The cities should be distributed throughout the country as evenly as possible. In addition, the teacher may ask for various student volunteers to mark on the map such features as: oceans, mountains, deserts, etc. Also, a volunteer should mark the location of their school with a star. Assign each student a city and have the students locate their city.

The teacher should hand out an information sheet to each student which lists information about each city such as average rain, snow, winds, temperature, etc. An example for the United States is provided in the Resources Section. Each student should identify his or her city on the sheet, and put a circle around it. The teacher should then give each student small squares (1.5in x 1.5in) of yellow, green, red, white, and orange construction paper. The students should then be instructed to: write the number representing rain and the word "rain" from the information sheet on the blue square, write the number representing snow and "snow" on the white square, write the number representing temperature and "temperature" on the yellow square, write the number representing wind and "wind" on the red square, and the number representing clouds and "clouds" on the orange square.

Instruct the students to save their colored data squares. The weather phenomena related to each data square will be discussed one day at a time. After each discussion, have the students attach the appropriate data square to their city.

Conclusion Activity :

Discuss: If you wanted to go snow sledding, what cities might be good to visit? Where would be a good place to hang clothes to dry? If you liked using your umbrella a lot, where should you live? If you liked sunny and warm days, where would be a good place to go? Where would be a good place to fly a kite? If you loved to swim in the ocean, where would be a good place to live?

Internet Resources Referenced in this Lesson :

The Weather Unit