Embedded Files
scope and sequence
scope and sequence
Suggested Time Frame: Kindergarten Science Curriculum Map
Suggested Time Frame: Kindergarten Science Curriculum Map
The Kindergarten Science Curriculum Map is aligned to the Thematic Scope and Sequence (see below).
The Kindergarten Science Curriculum Map outlines the following information:
- Recommended pacing, scope, and sequence for each unit.
- Alignment with standards, conceptual understandings, and performance indicators
- Links to Unit Concept Storyboard Maps, Content and SEP Support Documents, and Curriculum Guides
- Details for Evidence of Understanding, Essential Learning Experiences, and Suggested Learning Engagements
- Where appropriate, alignment with specific FOSS, DSM, GEMS, and STC kit Activities and Investigations
- Thematic Units: Elements of these standards are addressed during the following thematic units
- SMART Math Weather Introduction
- 1st NW/1 week
- Weather data collecting, recording, and analyzing occurs throughout the entire year
- 1st NW/1 week
- Tree Homes
- 1st NW/2-3 weeks
- Fall Weather
- 2nd NW/1-2 weeks
- Snow/Winter Weather
- 3rd NW/2-3 weeks
- Spring Weather
- 4th NW/2 weeks
- Summer Weather
- 4th NW/1 week
standards and vertical alignment
standards and vertical alignment
Science Standards, Conceptual Understandings, and Indicators
Science Standards, Conceptual Understandings, and Indicators
- K.E.3A Weather is a combination of sunlight, wind, snow or rain, and temperature in a particular region at a particular time. Scientists measure weather conditions to describe and record the weather and to notice patterns over time. Plants and animals (including humans) respond to different weather conditions in different ways.
- K.E.3A.1 Analyze and interpret local weather condition data (including precipitation, wind, temperature, and cloud cover) to describe weather patterns that occur from day to day, using simple graphs and pictorial weather symbols.
- K.E.3A.2 Develop and use models to predict seasonal weather patterns and changes.
- K.E.3A.3 Obtain and communicate information to support claims about how changes in seasons affect plants and animals.
- K.E.3A.4 Define problems caused by the effects of weather on human activities and design solutions or devices to solve the problem.
Prior Learning Experiences
Prior Learning Experiences
- This is the first time this content is introduced
Future Learning Experiences
Future Learning Experiences
- See Science Standards Content Vertical Articulation Chart
learning goals, skills, and concepts
learning goals, skills, and concepts
Learning Goals
Learning Goals
- Students will directly gather daily weather data over a long period of time and describe the current weather conditions using words, weather symbols and simple graphs
- Weather data includes (but is not limited to):
- Temperature
- Precipitation
- Cloud Cover
- Wind
- Students will use their weather data to look for trends and patterns to make predictions about daily weather conditions and changes.
- Students will use their weather data to look for trends and patterns to make predictions about seasonal weather conditions and changes.
- Students will obtain information about how plants and animals are affected by daily and seasonal weather conditions.
- Students will identify problems caused by weather that affect human activities and design and test solutions to those problems.
Skills and Concepts
Skills and Concepts
- Obtain and Communicate Information- SEP Support Document
- Analyze and Interpret Data- SEP Support Document
- Develop and Use Models- SEP Support Document
- Define Problems and Design Solutions- SEP Support Document
- Weather Conditions- Essential Knowledge Support Document
- Seasonal Weather Conditions- Essential Knowledge Support Document
- Plant and Animal Responses to Weather- Essential Knowledge Support Document
- Solving Weather Problems- Essential Knowledge Support Document
Science Concept Storyboard
Science Concept Storyboard
This link will take you to a print-friendly version of the science concept storyboard.
essential learning
essential learning
Core Essential Learning Experience(s)
Core Essential Learning Experience(s)
- It is ESSENTIAL that students directly gather and record local weather conditions and use their weather data to describe daily weather conditions, make predictions about daily weather changes, and make predictions about seasonal weather conditions and changes.
Essential Questions
Essential Questions
- How do we describe the weather?
- How does the weather change from day to day?
- How does the weather change from season to season?
- What will the weather be like tomorrow?
- What will the weather be like next season?
- How does the weather affect plants and animals?
- How does the weather affect us?
- What can we do when the weather causes problems?
Essential Vocabulary
Essential Vocabulary
- Precipitation
- Rain
- Snow
- Sun
- Clouds
- Wind
- Hot
- Cold
- Dry
- Wet
- Temperature
- Thermometer
- Seasons
- Summer
- Winter
- Spring
- Fall
- Pattern
- Trend
- Weather
lessons and activities
lessons and activities
Potential Instructional Strategies/Lessons/Examples
Potential Instructional Strategies/Lessons/Examples
Lessons and Activities:
- Pearson SC Interactive Science Textbook:
- Chapter 3
- Stem Activity Book - Activity 2, Where the wind blows
- AIMS Activities: 2005 SC Science AIMS Kindergarten
- Dress for the Weather
- Calendar Connections
- Spinning Through the Seasons
- A Snap of Time
- Season Cycles
- Season-O
- Weather Patterns (K.E.3A.1)
- This lesson, from the American Association for the Advancement of Science ScienceNetLinks website, details a lesson where students explore ideas about daily weather conditions and patterns and gather and analyze daily weather data.
- What's the Season (K.E.3A.2)
- This lesson, from the American Association for the Advancement of Science ScienceNetLinks website, details a lesson where students identify seasonal patterns in temperature and precipitation.
- STC Exploring My Weather (Pending Purchase)
Lessons/Activities
1st Nine Weeks
- What do we know about weather? (Lesson 1)
- Teach hot, warm, cool, and cold (Lesson 2 activity)
- Make an anchor chart of objects that are hot, warm, cool, and cold.
- Teach sunny, partly cloudy, cloudy, rainy, foggy, windy, snowy
- Graph and chart the weather daily
2nd Nine Weeks
- Exploring Temperature (Lesson 2)
- Comparing temperatures (hot, warm, cool cold)
- Objects - Review anchor chart. Expand learning by using hand warmer, ice pack, jars of warm and cold water. Include objects in the classroom that may be hot or cold (refrigerator, lights, computers, etc.)
- Outdoors - Make predictions of outdoor objects’ temperatures (hot, warm, cool, cold). Ex. I think the slide will be hot because the sun is shining on it. Make predictions of how observations will change based on the seasonal weather.
- Measuring temperature - Teach how to read a simple thermometer. Refer to experiences of using thermometers (outside, inside, health)
- Wind (Lesson 4)
- Observing Signs of Wind (no wind, some wind, strong wind) - Part A
- How do you hear the wind?
- How do you feel the wind?
- How wind blows things around
- Strong winds can cause damage
- Measuring Wind - Part C
- How could we measure the differences in wind?
- How do we know the difference in how fast the wind blows? (evidence of wind would be trees, leaves, flags, sand, kite, hair, bubbles)
- What could we use to help us determine whether there is no wind, some wind, or strong wind? (flags, pinwheels, tree branches, bubbles)
- Activities
- Wind gauge using cardboard tube and streamers:
- Observing Signs of Wind (no wind, some wind, strong wind) - Part A
- Comparing temperatures (hot, warm, cool cold)
- Make a kite
- Blow bubbles
3rd Nine Weeks
- Precipitation Experiment (Lesson 3, Part B)
- Make an anchor chart of precipitation (rain, sleet, snow, hail) including the sounds they make.
- Discuss what happens to snow, sleet, or hail as it gets warmer.
4th Nine Weeks
- Clouds (lesson 5)
- Observing Clouds (Part A)
- Do you see clouds?
- How much of the sly do the clouds cover?
- What color are the clouds?
- Are the clouds thick or thin?
- Are the clouds moving?
- Do clouds stay the same? What changes do you see?
- Show pictures of clouds and discuss similarities and differences
- Cloud Changes (Part B)
- Discuss and share experiences of changes in clouds.
- Observe the clouds in the sky and note changes.
- Sponge paint clouds or use cotton balls on blue construction paper to illustrate cloud forms.
- Measuring Clouds (Part C)
- What kind of measurements do you think people can make about clouds? (how big, how cold, how much water they have, which way they are moving)
- Why might scientists want to measure clouds? (make predictions about upcoming weather)
- Scientists often measure clouds by measuring how much of the sky is covered.
- Describe the sky as no clouds, some clouds, or lots of clouds.
- Observing Clouds (Part A)
- Precipitation (Lesson 3)
- Experiences with Precipitation (Part A)
- Read Julia and Teresa’s Wacky Weather Day. If you don’t have access to the STC materials, read Chimp and Zee and the Big Storm by Catherine and Laurence Anholt. Discuss the story. Include questions:
- Which of the weather conditions is precipitation?
- What kind of precipitation have you experienced?
- How does precipitation affect you?
- Why is precipitation important?
- Measuring Precipitation (Part C)
- Why might we want to measure rain? (predict flooding, look for weather patterns)
- How do you think we could measure rain?
- Show rain gauge. (commercial or created by you)
- How does this work?
- Demonstrate it
- Read Julia and Teresa’s Wacky Weather Day. If you don’t have access to the STC materials, read Chimp and Zee and the Big Storm by Catherine and Laurence Anholt. Discuss the story. Include questions:
- Experiences with Precipitation (Part A)
- Water Changing Forms (Lesson 6)
- Observing Forms of Water (Part A)
- Make an anchor chart of some examples of water you have seen.
- Where do you see water in your life? How is it the same? How is it different?
- What does water have to do with weather? (Precipitation is water- rain, snow, sleet, hail. Water is also found in fog and clouds.)
- Water on the Sidewalk (Part B)
- Fill a small amount of water into a bucket and set it outside to observe observation.
- Paint the sidewalk with water and observe for several minutes to watch water dry and evaporate. Can document in journal/ take pictures of how student shape looked originally and how it looked over time.
- Ask students- What happened? Where have you seen water evaporate before? What weather conditions do you think helped the water evaporate?
- Changing Water (Part C)
- Pour liquid into an ice cube tray and discus that the water is in a liquid state. Discus properties of liquids (it flows, you can pour it, and it takes the shape of the ice cube tray).
- Put the ice cube tray in the freezer. Discus the temperature in the freezer and make predictions about what might happen. Discus how the water changed after you take it out of the freezer. Discus properties of a solid. Make predictions about leaving the ice cubes out in room temperature.
- Leave the ice cubes out of the freezer and allow them to return to a liquid state. Discus what happened during the experiment.
- Observing Forms of Water (Part A)
- How Weather Affects Humans and Other Animals (Lesson 7)
- People and Weather (Part A)
- Discuss kinds of weather and the different types of clothing one would wear.
- Is the same type of clothing worn all the time?
- Protection from Weather (Part B)
- Tell students a family wants to adopt a dog, but the dog will need to live in a doghouse outside. They will need to design a special roof for the house to shelter the dog from bright sunlight, wind, rain, and snow.
- Why do buildings have roofs? What happens when a roof leaks?
- Experiment: Students will be testing cloth, aluminum foil, and newspaper to use as roof material. Use small boxes or containers to serve as the “doghouse” and allow students to use the materials to build the roof to protect the dog from rain. Test each material by dropping water onto each using a water dropper. Discuss student findings.
- A Hat for Protection (Part C)
- A hat is another form of protection from the elements.
- Why might you wear a hat?
- How can a hat protect you from weather conditions?
- Activity: Students will make their own hat.
- Materials: paper plate for each child, string, tape, and/or yarn.
- Show students how to cut out a triangular (pie) shape to allow the “hat” to bend. Provide students materials to staple, glue, tape, or draw on their hat. Punch holes in each side of the hat and use yarn to tie the hats beneath their chins.
- People and Weather (Part A)
- Weather Patterns (Lesson 8)
- Looking for Weather Patterns (Part A)
- Why do meteorologists study the weather?
- Why is it important to know what the weather will be like tomorrow and father in the future?
- Why is it important to predict severe weather?
- Make a class chart of weather over time
- Analyze Data (focus on 3 or more weeks which you have previously recorded)
- Finding Temperature Patterns (Part B)
- Make a class chart of temperature over time
- Analyze Data (focus on 3 or more weeks which you have previously recorded)
- Weather and Seasons (Part C)
- Reflect on observations made in Parts A and B. Ask students if the data may have been different if it was collected during a different season. Discus what would have been different or the same based on the season. Students can draw pictures in journals and brainstorm as a learning club.
- Ask students how weather patterns and temperature would have changed the data collected.
- Looking for Weather Patterns (Part A)
Experiments, Field Studies, Visitors:
- News station meteorologist visit
- Make a cloud in a jar
- Tornado in a jar (with a tornado tube and two plastic bottles)
Workshop and Centers Integration:
- Add seasonal outdoor clothing to dramatic play
- Turn dramatic play into a TV news station
- Students keep a weather journal
Projects and Experiential Learning:
- Design an outdoor dog house
- Design kites
- Design a weather monitoring station (wind sock, rain gauge, etc.)
- Pearson Science STEM Activity Book, Activity 2 - Where the wind blows
- Students design a draft detector
assessment ideas
assessment ideas
Formative
Formative
- Exit slip using checkpoints in the text
- Fist to five
- Turn & Talk
- Think/Pair share
- Observations during investigations
- Vocabulary Smart Cards Games
- Discussions
- Questioning of qualitative weather
- Demonstrations
- Illustrations
- Observing use of daily weather tools
- Independent preparations for recess (jacket, sunglasses, mittens, hat, etc.)
Summative
Summative
- Teacher observation check sheets from workshop and center activities
- Teacher observation of Smart Math participation
- Weather Journals
- Student made weather tools
additional Resources
additional Resources
Literature:
- Cloudy With A Chance of Meatballs by Judi Barrett
- The Cloud Book by Tomie DePoala
- Little Cloud By Eric Carle
- A Rainy Day (Treasures Unit 7 Big Book)
- In The Yard (Treasures Unit 7 Big Book)
- A Year with Bears (Treasures Big Book of Explorations)
- Bear Snores On by Karma Wilson
- “It looked like spilt milk?” by: Charles Shaw
- Come on Rain by Karen Hesse
- Tornados by Gail Gibbons
- The Cat in The Hat by Dr. Seuss
- Frog and Toad All Year by Arnold Lobel: 0064440591
- Oh Say Can You Say What’s the Weather Today? by Tish Rabe: 0375822763
- Weather Words and What They Mean by Gail Gibbons: 082340952X
- Sun Bread by Elisa Kleven: 0142400734
- The Cloud Book by Tomie dePaola: 0823405311
- Shapes in the Sky by Joespha Sherman: 1404803416
- Ladybug Girl and the Big Snow by Jacky Davis: 0803735839
- The Snowy Day by Ezra Jack Keats: 0140501827
- Katy and the Big Snow by Virgina Lee Burton: 0395185629
- Snow by Uri Shulevitz: 0374468621
- The Story of Snow by Mark Cassino: 0811868664
- Snow by Cyntia Rylant: 0152053034
- The Wind Blew by Pat Hutchins: 068971744X
- When the Wind Blew by Alison Jackson: 0805086889
- Otis and the Tornado by Loren Long: 0399254773
- Tap Tap Boom Boom by Elizabeth Bluemle: 0763656968
- National Geographic Kids Everything Weather by Kathy Furgang: 1426310587
- Hide and Seek Fog by Alvin Tresselt: 0688078133
- Come on Rain! by Karen Hesse: 0590331256
- Weather by Seymour Simon: 0060884398
- The Everything Kids Weather Book by Joe Snedeker: 1440550360
- The Magic School Bus Weathers the Storm: 0545086035
- Down Comes the Rain by Franklyn M. Branley: 0064451666
Reading A to Z
- Spring Weather (level A)
- Spring (level AA)
- https://www.readinga-z.com/books/leveled-books/book/?id=878
- It is Spring (level B)
- Summer (level AA)
- Winter (level AA)
- https://www.readinga-z.com/books/leveled-books/book/?id=166
- How is the Weather Today? (level F)
- https://www.readinga-z.com/books/leveled-books/book/?id=252
- Changing Seasons (level F)
- Clouds (level D)
- A Cold Day (level B)
- It Is Fall (level AA)
- https://www.readinga-z.com/books/leveled-books/book/?id=934
- Fall (level B)
- Fog (level D)
- The Four Seasons (level E)
- Rain in the City (level B)
- Rain in the Country (level B)
- The Rainstorm (level A)
Songs:
- Seasons of the year: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x5Lig67t2xg
- 4 Seasons in a Year: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_0zKV6j1MDg
- Singing in the Rain: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NJOKsbaDkXk
- THe Weather Song: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e5UTaPV-DIg
Videos
- Discovery Education
- Observing Weather (11:37)
- Weather Safety (11:39)
- Weather Start: Weather and Seasons (14:25)
- A First Look at Weather (17:00)
- Clouds, Weather, and Life (12:05)
- Youtube
Brain Pop Jr. Weather
Harbor Seal, Volcano, Flowers, and Robot Banner Images Courtesy of National Science FoundationHurricane Banner Image Courtesy of National Oceanic and Atmospheric AdministrationGalaxy Banner Image Courtesy of NASA
Report abuse