Wednesday, April 28, 2010

Weather Lesson 10-climate research project

What is climate? Climate is the weather conditions of an area for a year's time. Today,after learning the definition of climate, the students were assigned groups to complete a climate/weather research project presentation on a given area of the United States. We learned how to use GoogleDocs-presenation and were shown how to add pictures of our area's weather from Google's Picassa. We are so excited to see how much our students have learned throughout the unit through their presenations. The presentations should showcase all the different aspects of weather that we have discussed from temperature to the various weather storms. These presenations should also include graphs and weather maps as we have learned so much about them. Ms. Lancellotti and I can not wait to see each group's presenation on their area of the US!

Weather Lesson 9-Blizzards


Blizzards! Blizzards! Blizzards!! Today we explored about blizzards. We learned about where blizzards occur in the United States, how they are formed, and different characteristics. We also read a book about blizzards called Wild Weather: Blizzards. During the reading, we were able to distinguish key characteristics of blizzards, why they form , and where they occur. We wrote these responses on our chart paper about blizzards. We also watched a recent video on blizzards. We then were able to create a snow storm picture. Great job, today! I had a lot of fun!

Monday, April 26, 2010

Weather Lesson 8-Hurricanes

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Hello 3rd grade friends and families,

Another successful weather lesson today! I highly enjoyed viewing the hurricane video and then creating our own class hurricane with the water and food coloring. Seymour Simon's book Hurricanes provided us with interesting facts about hurricanes and fun pictures. Following the book, we viewed the hurricane video on weatherforkids.com. We wrapped up our lesson by creating our own hurricane in the experiment "stir up a hurricane." I enjoyed listening to what my third grade friends learned about hurricanes. This was one of my favorite lessons! Great job today! Students, remember to do your homework in your science journals!

Weather Lesson 7-Tornadoes


Good afternoon, students and parents. Today we had a successful lesson on tornadoes. We read a book on Weather by Seymour Simon. We learned about how tornadoes are formed and where they are located. In addition, we used colored pencils to distinguish where tornadoes occur in the USA. We also watched videos on tornadoes on the Delicious website. We saw different photos on the delicious website. We created a tornado in a bottle in groups of three. Great job today! Remember to complete your homework assignment on blackboard.

Wednesday, April 21, 2010

Weather Lesson 6-Introduction to Weather Storms



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Hello third grade friends and family,

Today was a great day in exploring weather. Today we learned about several different weather storms. I loved how the students worked together to brainstorm different storms and what they know about them. To learn more, we read selections from the book Storms by Seymour Simon. After reading the book, we created a class list on all the storms we know. The students then enjoyed being shown pictures of the various storms and recalling times when they experienced the storms themselves. The class then took responsibility for their learning. The students enjoyed working as teams to research a storm and create a poster to share with the class on the assigned storm. I loved watching the students work cooperatively and present their posters to the class. This was such a fun lesson! Students do not forget to discuss with your families your storm stories and record them in your journals!

Monday, April 19, 2010

Clouds and Cloud Types Lesson


Hello third grade students and parents! Today we had a very successful lesson on cloud types. The students were introduced to three different cloud types: Cumulus, Cirrus, and Stratus. We enjoyed the story The Cloud Book by Tomie de Paola. The story introduced different cloud types and "stories" about clouds. After the story, we viewed pictures of the three different cloud types on Flickr. I was impressed on the students ability to identify the cloud types on the mini check. We then enjoyed creating the three cloud types by using a pencil and cotton balls. The pictures turned out great. At the end of the lesson, we entered our new weather information into our journals.

Wednesday, April 14, 2010

Weather Maps!



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Hello Class! Today we had a very successful lesson on weather maps. We explored weather.com and learned about the various types of weather maps. The students viewed a clip of a meteorologist using weather maps to provide the forecast. The students worked in groups to create a weather map assigned to them, and then they presented it to the class. I thoroughly enjoyed the presentations and the weather maps were well done! Students please do not forget to do your homework sheet on labeling the various weather maps!

Monday, April 12, 2010

Weather Lesson Three: Temperature



Good evening, students and parents. Today we completed a lesson based on temperature for our weather unit. The students seemed to have a great time experimenting with thermometers with their partners. They determined the temperature of a spot outside, of a glass of cold water, and a glass of warm water. They also looked up the high and low temperatures for the week on weather.com. They created a line graph of the high and low temperatures based on data from weather.com. The students should update this graph daily. Have a blast using the thermometers at home tonight to determine the temperatures of a cold water and warm water sample at home. Students be sure to record your findings in your journals.


Wednesday, April 7, 2010

Weather Lesson 2- The Daily Weather Calendar




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Hello 3rd grade friends and parents! Today we will be completing our second lesson on weather. After learning about various weather types, we will now learn how to record the weather daily. We will learn how to identify the weather based on observation and how to find out the exact weather from weather.com. We will then relate our science theme to math by using GoogleDocs to create a bar and line graph. The bar graph will chart the sky conditions (sunny, cloudy, partly cloudy, rainy, etc). The line graph will show the daily temperature change. The should get excited about the new class job as the daily meteorologist!

Friday, April 2, 2010

Lesson Number 1: Introduction to Weather and Weather Types



Good afternoon, students and parents! Today our first lesson will be based on weather and the different types of weather. Students will learn about different types of weather by looking at pictures on Flickr. The students will be able to draw different types of weather and create a class list of what weather means to them. In addition, they will listen to a book read by Ms. Lancellotti called Weather by Seymour Simon. Students will be split into groups and will develop a definition of weather as well as different types of weather. They will also create sentences with the different types of weather in their notebooks. The lesson plan can be found on blackboard.


Wednesday, March 31, 2010

Welcome to Third Grade Weather Fun



Welcome parents and 3rd grade friends to Ms. Doty and Ms. Lancellotti's weather blog! We are extremely excited to be starting an engaging unit on Weather. Our weather unit will consist of many science experiments but also be incorporated into language and math. Our unit will consist of ten lessons planned and taught by both of us. We will start by generally introducing weather. What is weather? What types of weather can you think of? Following the introduction, we will teach a lesson on creating a daily weather calendar and how to keep up with it daily. We will then go into temperature, weather maps, as well as clouds and cloud types. After clouds, we will introduce weather storms such as thunderstorms, hurricanes, blizzards, tornadoes, earthquakes, etc.... After the introduction to storms, we will then conduct detailed lessons on tornadoes, hurricanes, and blizzards. Our unit will culminate with a lesson on climate around the world. The students will then be assigned a culminating group research project on climate.