Wild Weather

Content Objectives

Children will:

• Learn about the concept of weather.
• Access prior knowledge and build background about extreme weather.
• Explore and apply the concept of what extreme weather is like to how people can stay safe in extreme weather.

Language Objectives

Children will:

• Demonstrate an understanding of words for extreme weather.
• Orally use words that describe different weather conditions.
• Extend oral vocabulary by speaking about how we can stay safe in extreme weather.
• Use key concept words [wind, rain, hail, lightning, blizzard, hurricane].

Other

Explain

• Use the slideshow to review the key concept words.
• Explain that children are going to learn about:
• What weather is.
• What a tornado is like and ways to stay safe.
• What a hurricane is like and ways to stay safe.
• What a blizzard is like and ways to stay safe.

Model

• After the host introduces the slide show, point to the photo on screen. Ask children: What are the children doing in this picture? (testing the weather, telling if it is raining or not). How can you tell it might rain outside? (dark, gray clouds).
• Proceed to the next slide. Ask children: How is a tornado different from windy weather? (stronger wind, shaped like a spiral, sky becomes dark).
• Say: We have drills at school when we practice staying safe during extreme weather. Why is it important to follow rules during extreme weather? (answers will vary).

Guided Practice

• Guide children through the next two slides, showing the different kinds of extreme weather and how we can stay safe. Always have the children tell the difference between regular weather and wild weather.

Apply

• Have children play the games that follow. Have them discuss with their partner the different topics that appear during the Talk About It feature.
• After the first game, ask children to talk about what they would put in their emergency preparation kit. After the second game, have them discuss ways that special clothes can keep you comfortable in different kinds of weather.

Close

• Ask children: What do you think is the wildest kind of weather? Explain.
• Summarize for children that weather is what the air is like outside. Sometimes the weather can be dangerous. It is important to stay safe in bad weather. Encourage children to think about a shelter they could create that would protect them from all kinds of extreme weather.