Weather Unit

The Weather Unit

An engaging and comprehensive resource package, the Weather Unit is designed to kindle curiosity and foster learning about weather in students. It's a versatile educational tool suitable for educators in public schools as well as homeschooling parents.

CLOSE Reading Nonfiction Passages

These passages illuminate various facets of weather- from the basic concept, elements like water cycle and clouds, different types of weather conditions, to meteorology and forecasting. Each passage comes with text-dependent questions that enhance comprehension skills.

Weather Research Report

Included is a report that motivates students towards independent inquiry into the intricate world of weather.

• A PowerPoint or handout that explicates the steps involved in CLOSE Reading along with anchor charts for student annotation.
• 'Text Dependent Questions', Common Core Essential questions ideal for assessments or performance tasks.
• RAFT ideas (Role-Audience-Format-Topic technique), Cognitive Content Dictionary improving vocabulary retention through visual association.

• KWL Chart (Know-Want-Learned)
• Venn Diagrams promoting comparison analyses among learnt elements
• Tree Map Graphic Organizers to breakdown grammar components found in passages

This bundle is an ideal choice for Grades 3 - 6 teachers teaching Science particularly Earth Sciences; bridging theoretical know-how with fun stimulating activities ensuring student motivation levels remain high throughout their learning journey of Weather. File formats available are Multiple File Types allowing easy access on various platforms to better suit your teaching needs.

This unit contains the following elements:

CLOSE reading nonfiction passages with illustrations:

o Passage number one is “What is weather?”

o Passage number two is “The Water Cycle”

o Passage number three is “Clouds”

o Passage number four is “Types of Weather”

o Passage number five is “Meteorology and Forecasting”

• Vocabulary cards with definitions for each CLOSE reading passage

• CLOSE Reading Instructions PowerPoint (or handout) explaining the steps of CLOSE Reading

• Anchor Charts for student annotation and Discussion Topics for CLOSE Reading

• “Text Dependent Questions”, to be used after all passages are read; this is intended as a summative assessment, or practice in citing textual evidence and giving examples from the reading of nonfiction text

• Common Core Essential questions (to be used after all passages are read, can be used as a summative assessment or a performance task)

• RAFT ideas (explanation included if you’re not familiar with RAFTS)

• Cognitive Content Dictionary (to be made into a “book” for student vocabulary words, definitions, and pictures

• KWL Chart ( you can use this at the beginning of the unit to ascertain what they may already know about the weather)

• Venn Diagram to compare and contrast similarities and differences.

• A Tree Map Graphic Organizer ( a grammar component for students to analyze the words in the passages and their parts of speech)

• A CLOZE worksheet (a fill-in the blank) worksheet and answer sheet to accompany each passage to assess vocabulary attainment and your students’ ability to utilize context clues.