Rain, rain, and possibly more rain...

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Woke up this morning to more rain... and yesterday, we had a fantastic hail storm that left a lot of hail on the grass -but not the concrete I wonder if the hail bounces easier on the concrete so ends up on the grass where it doesn't bounce so well?...
Anyway, it got me thinking that here's a great chance to do some science! We can do lots of work around the capabilities with students measuring the rainfall, observing the clouds, checking the wind direction and reading weather maps. They can make predictions about the weather and check! They can critique each other's measurements and forecasts. They can create their own weather maps and learn to identify different cloud types.

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Children can gather data and could need maths skills to measure capacity, and draw bar graphs showing rain fall for each day, or perhaps the morning, afternoon... students could find out there are certain periods of the day where it rains more than others. From my own experience, most rain falls just before the 3pm bell until about 3:15! We could look at the water cycle in action -rather than the good ol' water cycle on paper! Students might notice that the water does drain away, or disappears off the tennis courts. They might also notice that the streams are higher and might have changed colour (the streams not the students). Can we use all these observations to start thinking about what's going on? The TKI site has a lesson using a Connected article: http://scienceonline.tki.org.nz/Science-capabilities-for-citizenship/Introducing-five-science-capabilities/Interpret-representations/Interview-with-a-Glass-of-Water.
From a literacy point of view, keeping with the weather theme could mean sharing some poems, stories and articles about the weather. Across in North America, this hurricane season has been particular vicious and children could read newspaper articles, watch video clips, etc to keep up with what's happening. The fourth capability Interpret Representations is nicely integrated here with students exploring the different ways the weather is represented. The MetService website is great with students being able to move the timescale on different maps to see the weather happening. There are a lot of maps and forecasts for children to explore. Science Learning Hub has some weather activities too, including one about clouds (https://www.sciencelearn.org.nz/resources/628-observing-clouds-and-weather) and one that has some information on the water cycle and weather maps (https://www.sciencelearn.org.nz/resources/725-water-and-weather).

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With one of the Key Competencies being about 'symbols', we can learn about that too! Could they forecast the weather from the maps? I'm always curious that locals (and usually the older more grizzly ones!) can look up at the sky and say It'll be raining in an hour...
There's also a particular language used in weather forecasts... could the students read a few, learn the vocabulary used and then write some themselves... What kind of day would you like to forecast -for your birthday, or for the cross country? In my case, this forecast would be perfect for the dreaded run: Showers, some heavy with possible hail, easing from afternoon. Snow to 500 metres at first.  (I pinched it from today's forecast for Southland!). 

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In terms of music, my kids loved doing soundscapes with the weather -lots of noise and excitement! Could children do some art around the topic of weather? Could we look at how weather impacts society -in fact the very recent Edgecumbe floods is one example.
Remembering that the essence statement in the NZC says that students explore how the natural physical world and science itself work. So how could we do this with the weather? Is there a cycle to the weather? Is there a bit of a domino effect happening? In terms of science, how do meteorologists know what's going to happen? Are they always right? How come they're not? Are they getting better? I know the science learning hub are keen to connect classrooms to scientists so you might have the opportunity to have a chat with one.

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Finally what questions do the children have? Are the sayings right? How come (if they are)? Are raindrops really tear shaped, because hail isn't!

And whilst it's windy, we could make kites... but I think that's another post!

Stay dry,
Paul