Wild About Weather

This was an exciting week in our 1st grade classroom.  As I mentioned earlier in the week, we have been learning about weather.  The kids really seemed to enjoy all of the activities we did.  They already knew a lot about weather and were eager to share their own weather facts and stories.  I have to admit this is the first year I have ever heard the kids talk about a “tsunami”.  I guess they’ve been paying attention to world events.

On Tuesday we learned more about wind.  Being from Kansas we already knew a LOT about wind.  We read Gilberto and the Wind by Marie Hall and then wrote about {good} wind and {bad} wind.    

On Wednesday we did a little experiment  to see how rain is made.  With the help of a hot plate we used our imagination and pretended it was the sun heating up.  Then we put a pan full of water on it and pretended it was a lake. We watched closely as the water heated up and began to evaporate.  Just like it does in a lake on a hot day.Then we filled a plate with ice and pretended it was a cold cloud.  We put the cold plate on the pan filled with hot water.  The cold plate caused the moisture in the warm air to condense and form water droplets. This is the same thing that happens in the atmosphere. Warm, moist air rises and meets colder air high in the clouds. Last we carefully lifted the cold plate of ice.  The water vapor condensed on the bottom of the plate and formed precipitation.  We made it rain in our classroom.  We also learned a little more about clouds on Wednesday, too!!  We read a few fun books about clouds and did some creative writing about what a cloud might look like.

We used our imagination and a few cotton balls to make a shape in the sky.  Then we used the following writing prompt . . . to write about what we made.

{Once I looked up in the sky.  I thought I saw a  _______ but it was just a cloud.}

On Thursday we read Thunder Cake by Patricia Pallocco.  Before we read the story we made some predictions about what we thought a Thunder Cake was.  We found out that it was a cake that Patricia made with grandma when she was a little girl.  Like many of us, she was afraid of thunderstorms.  So, her grandma helper her overcome her fear by gathering all of the ingredients and making a cake before a thunderstorm hit.

After we read the story we also got to enjoy some Thunder Cake topped with strawberries thanks to this little cutie {and her mom}.

We couldn’t even taste the secret ingredient . . . tomatoes!!!

     

We wrapped up our week of learning about weather with some rainbow themed activities.  First we met a rainbow expert.  His name is ROY G. BIV and he taught us about the colors of the rainbow.

Then we read some books about what makes a rainbow.

We also made a torn paper rainbow art project . . .

  AND wrote about what each color of the rainbow reminded us of.

  Our favorite part of the day was when we enjoyed some rainbow Jello cups thanks to these two little cuties and their moms.  They had every color of the rainbow!!! 

We also had fun at our weather themed centers this week reviewing many of the math and language art skills we have been covering in class.