Summary Model different kinds of weather to understand how they are formed: rainbows, blue skies, red sunsets, frost and dew, lightning, clouds, tornados. Science content Earth/Space: Weather, Seasons, Climate Change (K, 1, 4, 7) Activities in this lesson Frost and dew Rainbow with water and flashlight Rainbows from light with a CD/prism/cut glass/scratched plastic Blue sky red sunset colours Static electricity sparks and lightning model Clouds, tornado and vortices with dry ice Procedure Intermediates set up frost cans to revisit later. Push to the end of the table, where they will not be touched. Introduction: What kinds of weather can you think of? Today we will make some mini versions of weather phenomena in the classroom, to see how they come about. Rainbow. Kindergarten instead made rainbows with CDs etc. Discuss how the sun shining through water droplets makes rainbows in the same way. With your back to the sun they appear in front of you. Blue sky and red sunsets activity. (Kindergarten skipped) Frost can revisit with intermediates: What do you see? How did it get there? Dew. Frost. If these had formed up in the air, what would they be? Rain/snow/hail. Dew in the desert is critical for some plants and animals, that collect it on their leaves and bodies. Lightning (with intermediates) Clouds and tornados. Added bottle vortices if time. Summary: Weather phenomena are caused by water in the air, temperature differences that make air move around, and pressure differences that move air and make water condense. By mixing and matching these three things in different amounts, we get all kinds of weather phenomena. Notes This is the second of a series of Weather lessons: 1. Weather - What causes it? 2. Weather phenomena 3. Measuring weather Grades taught Gr K Gr 1 Gr 2 Gr 3 Gr 4 Gr 5 Gr 6 Gr 7
