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Weather or Not...

The weather is constantly changing. Students will explore weather patterns and create piece of artwork depicting various types of weather.

Lesson Plan

Supplies Needed

Gather all the supplies needed to bring your craft ideas to life! From paints and markers to glue and scissors, our crafts section has everything to spark creativity and make every project truly special.

  • Paper
  • Textured Materials

Steps

  • Step 1

    The local weather that impacts our lives results from global patterns in the atmosphere caused by the interactions of solar radiation, the ocean, diverse landscapes, and motion in space. Have students explore some of these phenomena such as global winds, air masses, cold and warm fronts, jet streams, the Coriolis effect, etc. 

  • Step 2

    Ask students to think about how the changing weather affects their lives. Perhaps there was an outdoor game that had to be rescheduled because of rain. Or maybe they had to help shovel after a snow storm. Or perhaps they enjoyed an impromptu picnic on a surprisingly pleasant day late in the fall. 

  • Step 3

    Then have students create a piece of artwork that depicts various types of weather. They can use different techniques to achieve different effects. They might do a rubbing, where they lay a piece of paper over a textured object and rub over it with a peeled crayon. Or they might create patterend swatches of paper, then cut them out and glue them onto the drawing along with recycled materials. They can add a layer of transparent watercolor over sections of their drawing.

  • Step 4

    Have students present their art and discuss the weather patterns they created and the techniques they used to achieve the effect.

Standards

SCI: Convey designs through sketches, detailed drawings, or physical models to communicate ideas and solutions.  

SCI: Explore similarities and differences in patterns and use them to sort, classify, communicate, and analyze natural phenomena and change. 

Adaptations

Invite a local meteorologist to speak to the class, either in person or via video, about weather phenomena and how the weather is predicted. Have students prepare questions for the speaker in advance.

Have students explore weather trends through the years and learn about how climate change is affecting the planet and what can be done to combat it.