Teacher sheet · Ages 6–7 · about 45–50 minutes
What is the weather like today?
Lesson page: echoesof.science/school/weather/ages-6-7/ · Pupil worksheet: echoesof.science/school/weather/ages-6-7/print/
Learning aims
- Describe the weather with words like sunny, cloudy, rainy, windy and snowy.
- Know that rain and snow fall from clouds made of tiny water drops.
- Know that wind is moving air.
- Name simple weather tools and measure rain with a home-made gauge.
Lesson plan
| Time | Activity |
|---|---|
| 5 min | Look out of the window: what is the weather like? Make a class weather word wall. |
| 10 min | Read the text together; show a thermometer and a picture of a weather vane. |
| 15 min | Make the rain gauges and put them outside. |
| 5 min | Play Which weather tool? |
| 5 min | Quiz together. Then read the gauges every day for a week. |
Materials for the experiment
- A clear plastic bottle (the teacher cuts off the top)
- Pebbles or sand for the bottom
- Sticky tape and a ruler
- A permanent marker
- A weather diary sheet
Safety: Only the teacher cuts the bottle; cover the cut edge with tape. Stay with an adult outside. Do not drink the water in the gauge.
Common misconceptions
| Pupils may think… | Actually… |
|---|---|
| Clouds are made of smoke or cotton. | Clouds are made of tiny drops of water (or ice). |
| Wind comes from trees moving. | Wind is moving air; the trees move because of the wind. |
| The weather is the same every day. | The weather changes from day to day. |
Worksheet answers
- Any weather picture that matches the day.
- Clouds.
- Depends on the class results: the day with the highest water level.
Quiz answers
- What is a cloud made of? Lots of tiny drops of water. Clouds are made of tiny drops of water.[5]
- Which tool tells you how warm it is? A thermometer. A thermometer measures temperature.[3]
- What is wind? Moving air. Wind is air that is moving.[7]
- What does a rain gauge do? It catches the rain so we can measure it. A rain gauge collects the rain.[4]
- What do forecasters use to work out tomorrow's weather? Satellites and big computers. They use satellites and supercomputers.[11]
Going further
Keep the weather diary for a whole month. Count the sunny, cloudy and rainy days and make a picture graph.
Sources used in this lesson
- [1] What is the difference between weather and climate? (European Space Agency (ESA)): reliability High
- [2] What is climate? (Met Office (UK national weather service)): reliability High
- [3] How do we measure the weather? (Met Office (UK national weather service)): reliability High
- [4] How we measure rainfall (Met Office (UK national weather service)): reliability High
- [5] Precipitation and the Water Cycle (U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), Water Science School): reliability High
- [7] Why Does the Wind Blow? (NOAA / NASA SciJinks): reliability High
- [11] How weather forecasts are created (Met Office (UK national weather service)): reliability High
Full list with links and a note on each source's reliability: echoesof.science/school/weather/sources/
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