Kindergarten
Temperature, Water and Weather

OBJECTIVES:          Discuss weather.          Collecting temperature data.  VOCABULARY:          weather          temperature          cool         warm          hot          cold MATERIALS:          construction paper          crayons          stapler         weather data sheets

BACKGROUND:

Students should have learned that the weather we experience is due to many factors. It depends on how close we are to land, water, and mountains. But it also depends on how the Earth rotates through space. Movement of the atmosphere throughout the world helps explain the weather patterns that we see. A combination of air in the atmosphere and water from the oceans interact will influence our weather greatly.

Weather changes all the time. Weather is created in the atmosphere that envelops the Earth. Weather changes so much because the Earth is constantly spinning. Lands and water bodies heat up differently that cause constant atmospheric change. Also note that "seasons" are not the same as weather. Seasons have to do with the angle of the solar radiation we receive caused by the tilt of the Earth's axis.

QUESTION:  Does temperature at school change through time and why?

BACKGROUND:  Students are learning how to collect data and record it.  Putting data on a line graph helps them to visualize the changes through time.  Students learn how to read a thermometer. 

PRIOR RESEARCH FOR CLASS:  none

EXPERIMENTAL DESIGN:  Measurement of temperature in shade.  Thermometer should be vertical. They take the temperature in one spot and time of day.  You can collect data for 3 days every half hour.  Have a child go outside and record.  You can do this maybe every month  from Nov 1 to March 1. 

CONCLUSIONS:  Students by the end of the school year should learn that temperature changes for several reasons.  Time of year because of the quality of the Sun rays; moisture in the air (if rainy), cloud cover

PROCEDURE:

1.     Students are learning how to collect data over a period of time.  This helps them to understand that scientists take time to come up with an answer, which is only as good as the data.

2.     Students make a "data" collection that would store their sheets.  These sheets will be used toward the end of the year when they can put the information on a data sheet. 

3.    Go over the parts of the data sheet for one day.  Throughout the year they will learn more about clouds and wind.  At the beginning you can just answer "yes" or "no."  They can be more descriptive as they learn new words to describe what they see.