Weather Observation in the Classroom

Whenever the weather would get even a tiny bit warmer in the spring, my daughter and I used to start looking for signs of spring like buds on the trees, grass turning green, the first bugs and little wildflowers.

One great way to bring those kinds of observations into the classroom or homeschool while building anticipation for spring is to take some time to observe the weather.

You can get as formal with this as you like. If you have a room with a window or easy access to outside, you can set up a weather station and observe different markers of the weather each day. You can keep a record of the temperature at a certain time of day (like always after lunch, for example) and what the weather is like so kids can compare over days and weeks.

Learn about clouds from What’s This Cloud, which gets really geeky but is good for older kids or teachers who want to brush up on their knowledge. You can also make cloud spotters and go on a cloud hunt to see what kinds of clouds you find.

These printable weather flash cards would be fun to have in a weather station in the classroom, or you can hang the one that represents the day’s weather on the board each day. This set comes from Easy Peasy Learners.

This is an old post with an explanation of how to make a weather chart but not a whole lot of instruction, but if you’re crafty you can figure out something similar to this one from Rowdy in Room 300 that includes the weather and a temperature gauge kids can use to label the day’s weather. Or use that as a jumping off point for making your own design. You could do it on a magnet board instead and use magnets instead of clips if you want, for example.

You can also use the calendar board weather printables from From ABCs to SATs to make your weather board. These include descriptions of the weather (foggy, rainy, sunny, etc.) as well as words about the temperature (hot, cold) and the season so you can show the correct one for the day (I think you need to sign up for emails to download).

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Playing with and Learning about Bugs

Shark Week generally happens in July, but any time is a good time to learn more about sharks.

First, start with some fun whale facts like these from Kids Craft Room. Here I learned about the dwarf lantern shark, which is the smallest shark and only grows to about 6-8 inches (about 15-20 cm) long. It also emits light. How cool is that?

Natural Beach Living has some great printable shark information guides, where kids can learn about different kinds of sharks, match the facts to the pictures, or print out doubles and do a shark memory game.

Living Life an Learning has some great shark activity pages including the parts of a shark, types of sharks, a crossword puzzle and more. Also check out their parts of a shark and word scramble download, and a life cycle worksheet.

Learn about how sharks float with this great activity from JDaniel4’s Mom.

Need more facts about sharks? This fact pact from The WOLFe PACK on Teacher Pay Teachers includes fact sheets, a printable flip book, informational text, vocabulary, comprehension questions and more.

Living Montessori Now has a great collection of shark themed activities with a Montessori inspired twist. You’ll find a shark roll and cover, shark phonics and lots more shark activities Deb has collected from all over the Internet.

Remember the “Sharknado” movie? A Few Shortcuts turned the combination of sharks and tornadoes into a fun science activity. You’ll need a bottle connector for this project but otherwise should have everything you need on hand. Use their template to make your sharks out of aluminum foil. So fun!

You can also do some shark themed coloring with these coloring pages from Encouraging Moms at Home. Or make a cool 3D shark with this template from korkotak. And there are tons of different shark crafts collected in this post from Kids Activities Blog.

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