The Friday in Which We Reported the Weather
Hey, it's Friday!
Since we didn't have school last Friday, I felt like we needed an extra day to wrap up our Weather unit. So today was all about Sunny and Cloudy Weather.
For Morning Work, I asked students to finish the sentence stem, "When it is sunny, I like to ..." and draw a picture. I got a kick out of Wyatt's sentence. He said he likes to "sun bathe." He drew a tiny picture of himself and didn't color it. I asked him to add some more detail so I could tell where he was sunbathing. At first, he replied that he was at church. Hmmm... then he changed his mind to be at the beach. Whew! Several kids said they liked to play in the pool. Noah said that he likes to "play in it." Then he showed me that he had written the same sentence for the windy and the rainy days! In other words, no weather keeps Noah from playing outside! That's good to hear.
When students finished this assignment, I asked them to find the landscape they had drawn and colored last time. I gave them cotton balls to make the four different kinds of clouds we had learned about. On the board, I had a sample and some real-life pictures of the types of clouds.
We gathered for Morning Meeting. I told them that Ms. Masters had invited our class to join hers later in the morning to meet a missionary family who serve in Turkey. They are friends of hers and she has done short-term missions with them. I showed them where Tennessee is and where Turkey is on our globe. We brainstormed a list of very good questions we'd like to ask the Missionaries.
We read the Parable of the Good Samaritan. They told me how much they liked that one. It is one of the easier ones to understand; plus, it's familiar. We did the Pledge, prayed, practiced our April Bible Verse, and added to our Days in School chart.
After a quick Water Break, we got out our Wind Flags and took them outside to get our Wind Data. Gusty to steady wind was the verdict. We came back inside to chart our Data.
Ms. Masters said they were ready for us to come over for the Missionary Friend visit. We joined her class on the carpet. Miss Samantha, her daughter Cora (2nd grade) and son Beziah (Kindergarten) told us about Istanbul, Turkey, where they live. The kids asked questions about what their house looks like, what their school is like, what their language is like, what kind of clothes and toys they have, and much more! It was fun to watch and listen as our students made connections about things that were similar and different. Samantha told us about the Turkish people, who are overwhelmingly Muslim. She showed us some clothing, pottery, and a tea glass and saucer. She talked about the Muslim god, Allah, and how the people stop and pray five times every day. And how the loud music echoes from the minarets of the mosque. Our kids wanted to know why they didn't just try to use an arrow or a rock to stop the music. ...Interesting, the minds of kids, right?
When we came back to our classroom, we ate Snack. As kids were finishing up, I began to teach about how to read a thermometer. Since we had been learning to count by 2's, a thermometer was the perfect practical application! I looked at my weather app and found that it was 42 degrees outside (but felt like 39!). I used a large laminated thermometer on the board to show them how to record 42 degrees. Students then took the laminated thermometers that were on their desks and recorded the same. I helped them count by 2's to find where 42 was, then to fill it in with color.
I took out two of my husband's t-shirts, both heavy cotton. One was white and the other was black. I walked around and let each student compare how the two felt. I wanted them to notice that the fabric of both was identical.
I asked which of the two t-shirts might be the most comfortable for Mr. Duckworth to wear working in the yard when it was hot and sunny. I explained the experiment we would do to find out. I had two identical thermometers (real ones). I read the temperature on each of them. They both registered 70 degrees, since we were indoors with the heat on. I told the students I would place one thermometer inside each shirt then we would take them outside and lay them on the ground in the sun and set a timer for 15 minutes.
Well, it was freezing and quite cloudy outside! I set the timer and told the kids they could play on the playground until I sounded my Duck Call.
When the time was up, we gathered by the t-shirts and read the thermometers in each. The white shirt read 54 degrees; the black shirt read 64 degrees! Wow! Even when the sun wasn't shining strongly, our experiment gave great results.
We went back inside and recorded our results on a Data Sheet for our experiment. We drew a picture of what we did, traced the words of two sentences that explained our experiment, then circled whether dark or light clothing would be more comfortable to wear in the hot sun.
This was the final page for our Weather Journals. I asked everyone to bring their Journal pages to me so I could staple everything together. I'm so proud of how their Journals turned out. We did a lot of great work!
I gave out the Weather pictures everyone had painted on the first day of our Weather Unit. I got out my handheld microphone and showed students how I could give a weather report like a meteorologist. I showed Everett's painting (a hurricane) and pretended I was telling my audience that a hurricane was in the forecast, that they should find a place to shelter their families and pets. We talked about the temperature, the clouds, and the wind conditions.
Then I let each of the students come up and take a turn giving a Weather Report about the type of weather they had illustrated. We had a tornado, a blizzard, hail, fog, sun, rain, wind, tsunami, and all the things. They did a good job and enjoyed giving their reports. Things unraveled a bit when Graham's report about Windy Weather turned out to be caused by an enormous number of chickens flapping their wings! Oh boy! You never know what you're going to get around here!
It was a day packed with action. I had hoped to read Eric Carle's great book Little Cloud, but we ran out of time.
That's all for this week!
Until next time,
Mrs. Duckworth
Assignment for next Friday: We will be starting our unit on Plants by learning about seeds. Would you please save seeds from some veggies or whatever you've got about your house? Send them in a ziploc or container and label them with the type of seed and your child's name. Thank you!