During Unit 1 of this module, your student will launch into a study of weather. By the end of the unit, students will gain the knowledge and vocabulary necessary to answer the unit’s guiding question: “What is weather?” I am writing today to explain what your student will be learning, describe the activities that will support this learning, and suggest how you can support this learning at home. I hope that you will plan to join us at the end of our deep study to celebrate all of your student’s learning!
WHAT will your student learn?
Students will begin to study the topic of weather with a focus on learning about the components that make weather. The learning will be focused on these ideas:
The combination of sun, wind, and clouds make the weather.
Weather occurs in patterns that we can measure and predict.
Students will also practice these reading foundation skills:
Identifying the name, shape, and sound of letters
Identifying rhyming words and syllables in words
HOW will your student learn?
Throughout the unit, your student will read, think, listen, talk, write, and ask questions about the topic of what makes weather and how to be prepared for any type of weather. Students will participate in these activities, among others, to build their literacy skills:
Listening to read-alouds of a variety of texts about weather. These include Weather Words and What They Mean, by Gail Gibbons, and Weather (National Geographic Readers) by Kristin Baird Rattini
Singing songs about weather
Engaging in conversations with classmates
Observing weather outside, through pictures, and on videos
Writing and drawing about different types of weather and how to be prepared for those types of weather
What can you do to SUPPORT your student’s learning at home?
Here are a few activities that you can do at home with your student to support his or her learning:
Ask your student to talk with you about this question: What makes weather?
Read books and sing songs about weather from home or at the library.
Observe the weather daily and record it using pictures and words
Practice identifying letters, and how to form them and the sounds they make. The beginning of the module focuses on the letters v, s, g, and i
Be on the lookout for these high-frequency words in your everyday life: “he” and “on”
During Unit 2 of this module, your student will continue to learn about the weather by reading stories about how weather affects people. Students will read stories about how the weather affects people around the world. They will also read stories about how weather affects one person or family. Through reading these weather stories, students will learn to identify the basic elements of a story: the characters, setting, and major events. I am writing today to explain what your student will be learning, describe the activities that will support this learning, and suggest how you can support this learning at home.
WHAT will your student learn?
Students will continue to study the topic of weather with a focus on weather in stories. The learning will be focused on these ideas:
Weather is different around the world.
Weather affects what people wear, the plans they make, and how they feel.
Students will also practice these reading foundation skills:
Identifying the name, shape, and sound of letters
Identifying rhyming words and syllables in words
HOW will your student learn?
Throughout the unit, your student will read, think, listen, talk, write, and ask questions about how weather affects people. Students will participate in these activities, among others, to build their literacy skills:
Listening to read-alouds of weather stories and identifying the character, setting, and major events in those stories. These include: On the Same Day in March: A Tour of the World’s Weather, by Marilyn Singer; Come on, Rain! by Karen Hess; Brave Irene by William Steig; Umbrella by Taro Yashima; and One Hot Summer Day by Nina Crews.
Creating an interactive map to chart how weather is different around the world
Performing “weather cheers”
Working with an “Interactive Word Wall” to learn new vocabulary
Drawing and writing to complete a daily weather journal
Sharing a daily weather report with classmates
What can you do to SUPPORT your student’s learning at home?
Here are a few activities that you can do at home with your student to support his or her learning:
Talk with your student daily about the weather. Ask these questions: “What is the weather like today? What would be best to wear? What would be a good activity to do in today’s weather?”
Search for more weather-related stories at your local library, bookstore, or online.
Watch the morning or nightly local weather report with your student.
If you have family living in a faraway place, help your student contact them and ask them about the weather in their city or town. Is it the same or different?
Discuss a memory of when the weather affected you or your family. Talk about the memory with your student in the form of a story. (Example: “A really big hurricane came when I was your age …”)
Encourage your student to read the weekly student decodable reader or a letter book to you every night.
Practice identifying letters, and how to form them and the sounds they make. The middle of this module focuses on the letters d, f, l, k, y.
Be on the lookout for these high-frequency words in your everyday life: “and” and “up.”
During Unit 3 of this module, your student will write his or her own weather story inspired by the text The Snowy Day by Ezra Jack Keats. Students’ learning will be guided by the question “How can I write a story that teaches my reader about weather?” I am writing today to explain what your student will be learning, describe the activities that will support this learning, and suggest how to support this learning at home. I hope that you will plan to join us at the end of our deep study to celebrate all of your student’s learning!
WHAT will your student learn?
Students will learn to write a story about an imaginary character who experiences a certain type of weather (e.g., “The Very Snowy Day,” “The Very Hot Day,” “The Very Rainy Day”). The learning will be focused on these ideas:
Writers use words and detailed pictures to tell stories.
Writers tell stories to entertain and teach others.
Mentor writers can inspire and influence our writing.
Writers persevere to create stories that are of high quality.
Students will also practice these reading foundation skills:
Identify the name, shape, and sound of letters
Identify rhyming words and syllables in words
Naming the onset (beginning sound) and rime (ending chunk) of words.
HOW will your student learn?
Throughout the unit, your student will read, think, listen, talk, write, and ask questions about the topic of how writers create stories to teach others about weather. Students will participate in these activities, among others, to build their literacy skills:
Listening to a read-aloud of a famous weather story, The Snowy Day by Ezra Jack Keats
Creating puppets and using oral storytelling to plan and tell their story
Creating high-quality illustrations to help tell their story
Writing words, phrases, and sentences to help tell their story
Practicing answering reflection questions about the process of writing their story
What can you do to SUPPORT your student’s learning at home?
Here are a few activities that you can do at home with your student to support his or her learning:
Ask your student to talk with you about his or her weather narrative: What’s the weather? Who’s the character? What does he or she wear and do?
Read books about the weather from home or at the library.
Identify different types of weather and encourage your child to select clothing and activities appropriate for certain types of weather.
Practice identifying letters, and how to form them and the sounds they make. The end of this module focuses on the letters q, u, x, b, o, w, j, e, z.
Be on the lookout for these high-frequency words in your everyday life: “a,” “you,” “see.”
Books to check out or you can type in their name and the word read aloud to see if it a read aloud on YouTube or sora.
Clouds: Ready to Read Level One
Bauer, Marion Dane
Feel the Wind: Let's-Read-and- Find-Out Science Level 2
Dorros, Arthur
Mushroom in the Rain: Adapted from the Russian of V.
Ginsberg, Mirra
One Hot Summer Day
Crews, Nina
Outside Your Window: A First Book of Nature
Davies, Nicola
Rain
Stojic, Manya
Rain: Ready to Read Level One
Bauer, Marion Dane
Snow
Shulevitz, Uri
Snow: Ready to Read Level One
Bauer, Marion Dane
The First Snowfall
Rockwell, Anne
The Wind Blew
Hutchins, Pat
Tracks in the Snow
Yee, Wong Herbert
Weather: Poems for All Seasons
Hopkins, Lee Bennett, selector
What Will the Weather Be: Let's- Read-and-Find-Out Science
DeWitt, Linda
Who Took the Farmer's Hat
Nodset, Joan L
Wind: Ready to Read Level One
Bauer, Marion Dane
Brave Irene
Steig, William
Come On, Rain!
Hesse, Karen
On the Same Day in March
Singer, Marilyn
One Hot Summer Day
Crews, Nina
The Snowy Day
Keats, Ezra Jack
Umbrella
Yashima, Taro
Weather (National Geographic Readers Series)
Rattini, Kristin
Weather Words and What They Mean
Gibbons, Gail