Smart Summer: Weather

It’s week seven of our Super Smart Summer Plan!  If you’re wondering what in the world I’m talking about, start here to read about our laid back learning plan and to find links to each of our past themed weeks.

Before I start with our weather week, this might be a good chance to talk about our nature journals.  Each week the kids and I have done worksheets and activities related to our themes.  We have collected our papers into our “Nature Journals.”  The journals are getting filled with all kinds of great work and my hope is to have a big party at the end of the summer when the boys can show off their work to their grandparents.  There are a lot more nature journaling ideas and links on my Smart Summer Pinterest Board.

–Climate and weather video for kids This video is fantastic!  It explains difficult concepts in an easy to understand way and even I learned something new!

Outings:

-See if your local news station allows tours.  Wouldn’t it be fun to watch the weather being filmed live or see the meteorological equipment!

Books:

-Read Job chapter 38 about God’s control of the weather.

Activities:

–Four season trees– we used Q-tips and finger paints to make trees that looked like the four seasons.

–Record the weather each day.  Here’s a great printable for this.

–Seasonal Dress Up.  Write each of the seasons or weather conditions on a different notecard (sunny, windy, rainy, summer, winter, etc..) then turn them over.  Have the child choose the notecard and dress according to that season or condition using their real clothes.
–Sun spots. To study the effects of the sun, put objects on dark construction paper.  Leave it out for a day and then remove the objects to see the way the sun has bleached out the paper.  This is a great visual encouragement for the kids to wear their sunscreen!

Snacks:

-Marshmallow “clouds”

You can find links to more ideas and coloring pages on my “Smart Summer” Pinterest board.