With winter hanging on for another couple of months here in the Northwest, and spring right after, we have plenty of weather yet to look forward to. In the past two weeks alone, we have had extreme cold down to –4* and 8” of snow, to 30mph winds of 45* that melted everything and caused a lot of flooding. This is the perfect time to do a unit on weather! It is always interesting and can be really fun and hands-on for the kids.
Resource Websites
There are so MANY websites with helpful things for unit studies. This is just a small selection of the great sites out there, but some of the best, in my opinion.
Weather Unit Resources at HomeschoolShare.com
Climate Kids NASA’s eyes on the earth.
National Geographic Kids has lots of games, videos, and interactive weather resources.
KidStorm: All About Storm Chasing at SkyDiary.com
National Weather Service Government weather tracking site
Science For Kids Weather experiments, projects, and games
NeoK12 Educational Videos, Lessons & Games
Music
I love incorporating multi-sensory experiences into unit studies. Did you know that when things are set to music, kids are better able to absorb and remember them? Even dry random facts are easier when memorized with music! My favorite weather related music for the younger kids is from weatherman Nick Walker, “The Weather Dude”. You can download his CD Sing A Long with the Weather Dude from Amazon.
Videos
Forces of Nature videos at National Geographic Kids
Amazing Weather 60 Minutes of amazing weather footage from Discovery Channel (YouTube links lead to other videos. Parents please be aware of what your kids watch.)
Experiments
Steve Spangler Science Weather Experiments are some of the BEST!
Weather and Seasons Science Projects at How Stuff Works
Games
There are no shortage of educational games online, and there are a good assortment of weather-related ones. Let your kids have fun while learning! Great for reinforcement of concepts or to illustrate something that is difficult to understand.
Tornado Chase at Discovery.com
Weather Whiz Kids Games and Puzzles
Tornado Quiz at National Geographic Kids
Interactive Weather Maker at Scholastic.com
BrainPop Weather Games (Subscription required after initial trial)
The Young Meteorologist Game helps prepare kids for extreme weather.
I hope that you find fun things to add to your weather unit. If you find something really cool that I don’t have listed here, leave me a comment with a link. I’d love to add more!
