Environmental Education topic for October: Watching the Weather
Sneak in some science and math by watching the weather! Take the Club kids outside and make observations. What is the temperature? Cloud type? Wind speed? By tracking weather kids can look for patterns, make sense of data, and think like scientists. Record findings daily and let meteorological events inspire art and game activities.
Activities:
Wind Gauges
Determine the direction of the wind by blowing bubbles, holding up strips of ribbon, or watching the trees move. You can build wind socks from decorated paper stapled into tubes and attached with a string to a pole or a fence. Or, if you want to get technical; build an anemometer to measure wind speed.
How Much Rain?
You can make a simple rain gauge out of materials lying around the Club. Use a can! collect the rain! Put a ruler in it! Read the result! Done! Club kids can submit their rain gauge results to Rainfall Reports. And now they are citizen scientists. You can also build a more complicated rain gauge. Why not build a barometer while you are at it? Or perhaps ask Club kids to report on the weather as they interpret it to the rest of the Club. Making rain graphs and measurements, math can become relevant to direct observations and predictions.
Joke: What should you do if it is raining cats and dogs?
Try not to step in a poodle!
I See Cloudy!
Does that Cumulonimbus cloud look like Dan Ackroyd or is it just me? Go to the USGS website for a cloud type chart. Defining clouds can heighten awareness of atmospheric phenomena and develop attention to detail. Plus it is just plain calming. Check out 'The Cloudspotter's Guide: the Science, History, and Culture of Clouds' from the library and prepare to be amazed. Did you know that a man upon ejecting from a plane fell into a thundercloud and was tossed around in it for half an hour before safely parachuting to the ground? yes!
More
For instructions on activities enticingly named 'Make Lightning', 'Cloud in a Jar', 'Make a Tornado', and more, go to Web Weather for Kids.
Activities:
Wind Gauges
Determine the direction of the wind by blowing bubbles, holding up strips of ribbon, or watching the trees move. You can build wind socks from decorated paper stapled into tubes and attached with a string to a pole or a fence. Or, if you want to get technical; build an anemometer to measure wind speed.
How Much Rain?
You can make a simple rain gauge out of materials lying around the Club. Use a can! collect the rain! Put a ruler in it! Read the result! Done! Club kids can submit their rain gauge results to Rainfall Reports. And now they are citizen scientists. You can also build a more complicated rain gauge. Why not build a barometer while you are at it? Or perhaps ask Club kids to report on the weather as they interpret it to the rest of the Club. Making rain graphs and measurements, math can become relevant to direct observations and predictions.
Joke: What should you do if it is raining cats and dogs?
Try not to step in a poodle!
I See Cloudy!
Does that Cumulonimbus cloud look like Dan Ackroyd or is it just me? Go to the USGS website for a cloud type chart. Defining clouds can heighten awareness of atmospheric phenomena and develop attention to detail. Plus it is just plain calming. Check out 'The Cloudspotter's Guide: the Science, History, and Culture of Clouds' from the library and prepare to be amazed. Did you know that a man upon ejecting from a plane fell into a thundercloud and was tossed around in it for half an hour before safely parachuting to the ground? yes!
More
For instructions on activities enticingly named 'Make Lightning', 'Cloud in a Jar', 'Make a Tornado', and more, go to Web Weather for Kids.
