Weather

Jet Stream: An Online School for Weather from the National Weather Service is intended for educators and is a great review all kinds of weather topics.

Brush up on your weather knowledge at How Weather Works from the National Center for Atmospheric Research.

Earth’s atmosphere, air pressure, precipitation, wind, and storms are covered in this series of informational texts on weather from How Stuff Works. How Meteorology Works discusses the scientific study of the atmosphere to understand present and future weather.

At Severe Weather 101 from the National Severe Storms Laboratory, learn more about thunderstorms, tornadoes, floods, hail, damaging winds and winter weather.

Bringing the Universe to America’s Classrooms (WGBH) has a terrific collection of weather resources that includes lesson plans, interactives, videos, and media galleries. From identifying weather factors for primary-grade learners, to exploring seasonal patterns for intermediate grade students, to utilizing satellite data for middle-schoolers, these standards-based resources will be a valuable part of your weather unit. Each resource is accompanied by a teacher guide and classroom handouts. Check out these collections for grades K-2, grades 3-5, and grades 6-8.

REACH is an interactive literacy program that utilizes informational science text to teach nonfiction reading skills. Leveled reading selections, vocabulary development, text features, hands-on activities, and data collection are all part of these lessons. Take a look at Wind!, Clouds! and Stormy Weather!

For primary grades, Sid the Science Kid offers a collection of 8 weather-related episodes, with suggested hands-on classroom activities.

What’s The Weather? is a three-part lesson sequence introducing the science of meteorology and data collection in order to describe and predict the weather.

Elementary students learn how to read weather maps and predict weather events in Weather Station Field Trip. Detailed lesson plans and handouts accompany the video.

Weather: Super Science Show with Joe, for grades 4-6, is an enthusiastic overview of weather. Learn more about clouds, storms, measurement tools, and the way that NASA studies the water cycle to help predict future weather patterns.

What is the relationship between weather and climate? Find out in The Climate is Changing But How’s the Weather? In the attached activity, intermediate-grade students graph weather data and compare with climate averages in order to demonstrate that weather is variable day-to-day, but climate is characterized by patterns over time.

NOVA’s Cloud Lab looks at the relationship between clouds and weather. Students learn about cloud formation, types of clouds, and the role of clouds in severe storms.

In this Cloud Lab lesson plan for middle school, students learn to use data to track and predict storm activity.

Students learn about the jobs of meteorologists and weather scientists in these videos:

• Scientist Profile: Meteorologist
• Scientist Profile: Hurricane Researcher
• Scientist Profile: Weather Scientist
• Meteorologists Are Helpers
• Kid Meteorologist
• Data Representation: Weather Forecasting

Baylor University provides complete weather lesson plans for grade 3, grade 4, and grade 5.

You’ll find lots of weather lesson plans from the National Weather Service and NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.)

Elementary School Science offers fully developed lesson plans on everything from rainbows to lightning. Resources include weather journals, study guide, and unit test.

Weather Watch Teaching Guide from Scholastic has interactive activities designed to teach kids about daily weather patterns as well as extreme weather conditions.

TeachEngineering provides a series of six middle-school lesson plans on weather topics, with assessments and extensions.

Science Buddies has investigation-based weather lesson plans for grades K-5.

The National Weather Service, in connection with NOAA, has comprehensive educator resources that you’ll want to check out. Take a look at the outreach materials available to educators. Students will be fascinated by the interactive weather map. The Jetstream Weather School is full of great information for older students to explore, and Scijinks contains fun facts, games, and videos for elementary students. The Clouds Out My Window for younger students also provides a template for kids to make their own books.

The National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) and the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research (UCAR) has some great resources for science educators in the field of weather. Take a look at the amazing Classroom Activities section. Check out the Learning Zone to explore all kinds of weather questions. You’ll also find interactive games and simulations for classroom use. For independent students, see Web Weather for Kids.

Weather and Atmosphere, from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), has six Education Resource Collections that contain maps, data resources, lessons, labs, and videos for classroom use.

Weather Wiz Kids is a great site for your students. Maintained by a meteorologist, the site covers all kinds of weather topics, weather words, weather careers, and weather projects. For each topic, teachers will find lesson plans and experiments listed in the side bar.

Windows To The Universe, from the National Earth Science Teachers Association, is filled with content for teaching about all aspects of weather. This is a good site for both classroom instruction and individual student research.

The National Severe Storms Laboratory and NOAA have a site just for educators that contains activities, worksheets, downloadable booklets, and many other resources. There is also a page for students that has games, simulations, and engaging interactives.

The National Weather Center has resources for K-12 teachers that include weather crafts, demonstrations of weather phenomena, information on meteorology careers, and more.

Primary grade teachers may like to use this classroom Weather Report feature that sets up a daily weather description for any location.

Weather forecasting uses different symbols to describe weather conditions. Help your students learn to read a weather map with this weather symbol guide or this printable chart.

Weather for Kids is a fun site where you’ll find facts, experiments, videos, quizzes, and projects to supplement your weather unit.

The Smithsonian Science Education Lab has an interactive Weather Lab which allows students to visualize how weather is formed and make predictions based on the interactions between air masses and ocean currents.

You may want to check out these weather sites designed for kids. You can use these resources on your smartboard for classroom instruction or direct students who are interested in weather to these sites.

• Explore Weather and Climate (UCAR)
• Study Jams: Weather (Scholastic)
• Hurricanes, Tornadoes and Weather Station (Museum of Natural History)

Find printable worksheets, coloring pages, printouts, and links from classroom teachers.

UCAR provides hands-on weather activities that kids can do themselves or with minimal guidance.

At Weather Wiz Kids, you’ll find an extensive collection of weather experiments for kids to try.

Make clouds, fog, tornadoes, floods, and lightning with these Extreme Weather Activities from STEM Works.

Science Buddies has all kinds of weather projects for beginning to advanced skill levels.

Kids create their own weather with these experiments from National Geographic.

Explore atmospheric pressure (crushing cans), cloud formation, and lightning with these weather experiments from Science Museum Oklahoma.

In these activities from Science World museum, kids explore meteorology by creating their own weather conditions and measurement tools in the classroom.