Weather

This week we studied weather! We started out by studying clouds the first two days. On Monday we read the book Now I Know Clouds by Roy Wandelmaier. After reading it we discussed the three main different types of clouds: stratus, cumulus, and cirrus. I showed the students hand motions to help them remember what each type of cloud looks like. During centers we made the differenty types of clouds with cotton balls.

During another center we had some cloud dough! I mixed corn starch and conditioner together to make a moldable dough that looked like clouds.

This boy was being so silly on the playground!

On Tuesday we read the book Little Cloud by Eric Carle. We then talked about different shapes we had seen clouds make. During centers we made our own shapes out of clouds. I had the students dab some paint on one half of their paper and then fold it in half. When they opened their paper I had them tell me what they thought their cloud looked like. They had some pretty good answers!

We had our cloud dough again as another center.

It started to rain after lunch so we played with some playdough to work fine motor skills. One of the students made a flat piece of playdough and said “Look it’s a stratus cloud!”.

I then took the kids out onto the covered patio to draw with chalk. I made a hop scotch that they all loved! They stood in line and did it over and over again.

The next day we read the book Falling Raindrop by Neil Johnson.  It is a great and simple story that explains the concept of the water cycle. After reading it I drew a simple diagram of the water cycle. After we discussed it, one of the students made the comment that it was like when we talked about butterflies. We had talked about the life cycle of a butterfly the previous week. :) These kids are so smart!

During centers we did a rain experiment! I had a jar with a paper towel tied to the top that we dropped some blue water on. I let the students each drop a few drops on the top of the paper towel until it started to “rain” in the jar.

During another center the students go to participate in a raindrop toss. I cut out raindrops and taped them to the beanbags, which the student had to throw into a bucket that the other student was holding.

That afternoon we did a bible lesson on Jonah. We read the story of Jonah and then made a Jonah and a whale.

Thursday we read the book The Wind Blew by Pat Hutchins. After reading the story, I asked the students if they could see the wind. We discussed how we can’t see it but we can see its effects. I did a little demonstration to help the students understand. I blew some bubbles and we watched them fall straight to the floor. I then turned on a fan and blew bubbles in front of it. We then saw how they blew away. During centers we did some wind painting! I put four dots of paint on the students paper and had them use a straw to blow the paint across the page.

After lunch I let the students go into the backyard and paint the fence! They love doing it and it is great fine motor practice.

Friday for our morning work we did some cutting practice by cutting strips of paper. One of the students cut their paper long ways and then made a square!

Before our lesson I had the students watch a short video showing lightning and thunder. We then listened to the book Thunder Cake by Patricia Polacco. After listening to the book, we discussed how lightning caused thunder. We also talked about how you can tell how far away a storm is by counting between lighting and thunder. We practiced doing this by flipping the light switch for lightning and then counting. They had to stop counting when I made some thunder. They loved this experiment! During centers we made our own little thunder cakes to remind us that we didn’t need to be afraid during storms!

She was super excited! 

After the students had made their cakes and eaten them, they got to try to make a tornado in our tornado bottle!

We also had our raindrop toss again.

Another center we had was a little cloud tub. One student decided she was going to make a storm!

We attempted to have naptime outside on Friday! The kids were surprisingly quiet but could go to sleep because they kept playing with the rocks. So we went inside after about 30 minutes haha

Caught one of them trying to stuff themselves inside of their pillow case haha!

This whole week we did a shared reading lesson during our morning meeting. The book we read was Wilbur the Weather Watcher. The first day we just discussed the different types of weather found in the book. On day two we discussed capital letters and I had the students come up and point to a capital letter. The next day we discussed punctuation. Thursday we reviewed the letter W. I then pointed to letters in the book and had the students make a W with their hands if it was a W and had them give me a thumbs down if it was not a W. Friday we had a vocabulary lesson over the word “shining”.

Next week is Easter week!