Weather Unit in Kindergarten
With the huge variety in weather patterns, I believe anytime is the best time to teach your students about weather! I love using the Weather Time Fun Thematic unit by Kindergarten Kiosk because it allows me to hit all of the standards in a variety of ways throughout my classroom.
First, there are a number of weather songs that you can share with your students. I like to use one a week as part of our calendar time. I will project the song onto the whiteboard with my Elmo and the students and I will sing the song as we point to the words. My students love to sing and it helps me incorporate literacy components as well!
Depending on how long I spend teaching weather, I break the rest of it up into separate components to fit the needs of my classroom. For example, I print off “Tomorrow’s Weather” and “Rain, Rain Go Away” (I print them on card stock and laminate them for durability). Then I can hand them to an aide or a parent volunteer to play with students while I teach reading groups and student’s work on their Station Rotations. These are incredibly helpful as it provides students an opportunity to practice literacy skills with support from an adult. I can also differentiate them to meet the needs of my students. Those students who already have mastered their ABC’s can move forward with reading the CVC words!
Even better, I can take other activities and incorporate them into my Station Rotation’s. “Splashing Puddles” is so fun to use as a whole class Write Around the Room activity. My students squeal with delight each time they find a sight word puddle hidden around the classroom. They run back and forth sharing with their friends what they’ve found. Who doesn’t love to see their kids thrilled with learning?
I’m also a huge believer in teaching students to subitize. It’s in my top 3 favorite words ever! I pull students back during math centers to play “Raindrop Recognition” with them. My students are learning through play and developing these amazing cognitive skills at the same time. This is also a great game to have an aide or parent volunteer use as well.
And you can’t have a thematic unit without art and science! I love using the books mentioned to teach comparing and contrasting to my students. We follow up by going outside to look at the clouds and discuss what kind of clouds are in the sky. Students have the opportunity to learn terms like Cumulus and Cirrus and what they mean. We also take the time to make a cloud. This website walks you through it. Cloud Experiment . After we have read Charles Shaw’s famous book ‘It Looked Like Spilt Milk”, we create our own clouds by folding the white paint on a blue sheet of paper. Students need to analyze what they think their cloud resembles and then write about it. Boom, creativity and critical thinking all in one activity!
Finally, no weather unit would be complete without creating our own weather vane. My students get the biggest kick out of this and love to tell me about what they observed with their weather vane once they take it home.
Seriously, I love this unit. There are so many different ways to use it and individualize it to your own classroom. It’s simple to put together for your classroom and so much learning takes place. My students can’t wait to see what we’ll be doing from one day to the next.
Also available at Teachers Pay Teachers!
Product Description
This Weather Thematic Unit written with academic core standards in mind, is divided into areas of literature, music, art, literacy, math, worksheets, science, creative writing, word wall, and guided reading. The activities are clearly written, easy to use, and need limited amounts of preparation.
Literacy Activities
Clouds: Using The Books, Little Cloud by Eric Carle and It Looked Like Spilt Milk by Charles G. Shaw
Rain, Rain Go Away: Sorting Short & Long Aa Vowel Sounds
Oh What Will I Wear: Word Substitution
Scripted Literacy Lessons:
Tomorrow's Weather: Decoding Words
Splashing Puddles: Sight Words
Blizzard: Differentiation of b and d
Raining Cats and Dogs Game: Final Phoneme Substitution
Writing Sight Words
Math Activities
Temperature Takeover: Identifying & Comparing Numbers The Windy Day Mix-up: Building Mental Math Skills Raindrop Recognition: Subitizing The Terrible Blizzard: Practice Relating Numbers One to Another. Weather Toss: Collecting & Interpreting Data
Science
Creating a Weather Science Center
Water Drops: Observing & Exploring Water Properties
Water Flows Down: Observing & Exploring Water Properties
Water Painting: Observing & Exploring Evaporation
Wonderful Water: Observing & Exploring Water Properties
Art Projects
Clouds: Extending Literature
My Weather Book: Creating a Guided Reader
Songs/Fingerplays
Little Drops of Rain
The Weather
Mr. Sun
Rain, Rain Go Away
What Will I Wear Today
Guided Reading Books
Water Changes
Writing
Weather Word Wall
My Favorite Kind of Weather
What I Know About Clouds
Also Available at Teachers Pay Teachers!
Product Description
Who doesn't love Spring and lambs and lions? Bring that excitement into every area of the curriculum with this adorable thematic unit. Developmentally appropriate for young learners and strategically linked to Core Standards!
Songs:
Lamb and Lion
March Wind
Art:
Lamb and Lion Portfolio Page
Literacy:
Lamb and Lion Sight Words
Lamb and Lion Alphabet Fluency
Lamb Days: Reading Simple Sentences
Math:
Flip It: Decomposing Numbers
Baby Lambs: Using Ten-Frames
Lambs and Lions I Can: Matching Equations and Sumbs
Math Calendar Numbers
Guided Reading:
Lamb and Lion Reader
Writing:
Lamb and Lion Word Wall
Writing Prompts
Write the Room: Sight Words
Remember to get your free MP3 http://www.kindergartenkiosk.com/kindergartenkiosk/2/22/in-like-a-lion-or-in-like-a-lamb
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