Table of Contents

• Letter to the parents

• Understanding Temperature
• Wind Direction
• All About Clouds
• Predicting Weather
• Global Climate
• Characteristics of Natural Hazards
• Solutions to Reducing Damage from Natural Hazards
• Severe Weather Across the Globe
• Hurricanes
• Friends Helping Friends
• Final Assessment
Dear Parent/Guardian,

I have some exciting news! For the next six weeks your child is going to become an
meteorologist and learn about the earth’s global climate! The entire unit will be aligned with the
California State Science Standards as well as Common Core and will incorporate science,
technology, engineering, art, and mathematics (STEAM).

Throughout this unit our meteorologists will investigate these topics:

1. How do we measure temperature?
2. Why do we see different clouds in the sky?
3. How does a weather vane work?
4. How can we predict the weather?
5. What can we do to stay safe in severe weather?

As our meteorologists dig deep into these ideas they will be meeting the Next Generation
Science Standards and they will gain a deeper understanding of the phenomena in the world
around them. This unit will challenge our students to think critically, develop inquiry, and apply
the knowledge they have learned to the real world.

Our meteorologists will be using their knowledge to create a working wind vane, announce
weather forecasts, help global communities, and identify every cloud in the sky! At the
completion of our unit your child will be able to use their brand new knowledge to make their
own observations about the weather.

During this unit students will become change makers and design a homeless shelter that will be
weather resistant. We will also be hosting a clothing and blanket drive, so please help us spread
the word. At the end of the unit we will be delivering our collection to our local San Diego
homeless shelters.

I am thrilled to participate in this discovery with your students! Thank you for your continued
support!

Warmest Regards,
Ms. Sawaya
Name: Stephanie Sawaya
Subject: Earth Science: Weather (math)
Grade Level: Third Grade

Understanding Temperature

1. Standard:

● Math: 3.MD Solve problems involving measurement and estimation of intervals of

time, liquid volumes, and masses of objects.
● Science: 3-ESS2-1.Represent data in tables and graphical displays to describe
typical weather conditions expected during a particular season

2. Instruction Resources and Materials:

● Mercury thermometers, cups of water (luke warm and room temperature), one cup of ice
per table, thermometer printouts, red markers, science journal print out sheet,
whiteboards with thermometer cut outs on them, red whiteboard markers, teacher
thermometer tool, jackets, scarves, fans, sun hats, and closure sheets.

3. Lesson Objective:
● The student will be able to measure temperature by recording thermometer measurements
in different temperatures of water.
● Academic language: thermometer, freezing, boiling, room temperature, Celsius, and
Fahrenheit.

4. Assessment
● Formative: Teacher observation. During the instruction assess students progress on
understanding measurements by having them hold up the whiteboard over their head to
see if all students are on track. Walk around during the lab and observe students work.
● Summative: Collect science journals and check thermometer lab.

5. Instructional Strategies and Learning Tasks

1. Anticipatory:
● Motivation:
○ Ask students to sit a circle. When students are all in a circle ask students to
close their eyes and reach into the box that you are walking around with.
Inside this box will be sweaters, scarves, sun hats, and fans. Once every
student has chosen an item ask all students to open their eyes and to go to
their 9:00 partner and discuss what items the got. After a few minutes of
 discussion ask students to hold up the items they would use in the winter
and say “Why would you use this in the winter?”. Then ask students to
hold up their items if they are items they would use in the summer and
say “Why would you use this in the summer?”.
● Activate Prior Knowledge
○ Ask students “What are some ways we can know if we should dress for a
warm or cool day?”
2. Instruction and Modeling:
● Have the class sit on the rug and then play thermometer song video to the class
(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vk6rP_4wpvk)
● Briefly go over how to read a thermometer by showing the class using your
teacher model thermometer.
● Explain that other countries around the world use Celsius, show image of Celsius
thermometer.
● Ask students “Why do you think we use Fahrenheit?”
● Facilitate classroom discussion on why we measure in Fahrenheit and what the
temperatures of boiling, freezing, and room temperature are. (ask open ended
questions to promote inquiry “what is boiling?” etc).
● After teaching how to read a thermometer dismiss groups of students to go
retrieve a whiteboard and come back to the rug. Students will notice that there
will be cut outs of thermometers on the whiteboards, explain to the students that
this is done on purpose.
● As the teacher, use your model thermometer to a certain temperature and then ask
students to draw that temperature on their whiteboard thermometer.
● After each student has drawn on the whiteboard, ask students to close their eyes
and hold their whiteboards over their head so that you can asses the students
progress.
○ Do this three our four times and then dismiss groups back to their table.
● Ask the class “What do you think happens to the thermometer when it’s hot and
what happens to the thermometer when it’s cold?”.
3. Guided Practice:
● At student’s tables there will be two cups of water (one warm and one room
temperature), one cup of ice, three thermometer, and enough thermometer
worksheets for each student to record data.
● Tables will work as a team to measure the temperature of each cup.
● Table teams will assign roles to each member of the table. Two student will
record ice, two students will record warm water, and two table mates will record
room temperature water, and each student will draw on their thermometer
worksheet the temperatures they observed.
 ● After students are done recording one temperature the table team will rotate
around the table so that each students can observe each temperature.
● Students will make a bar graph to compare and contrast the three temperature.
● While walking around from table to table the teacher will ask. “What are you
observing is happening with the thermometer? What changes are taking place?
Turn to your table team and discuss what you observe in cold,warm, and room
temperature water and why you think the thermometer is performing the way it is.
Was anything at boiling, was anything at below freezing temperature?”
● Once students are done recording the temperatures on their worksheet, they must
tape it into their science journal.

4. Closure:
● On your closure sheet write down one new vocabulary term you learned and it’s
definition.
5. Independent Practice:
● Students will each take home a thermometer and their science journal. Students
will be asked to find three cold objects in their house and record their temperature
in their science journal.
6. Inclusive Practices:
● ESL Student
○ Provide translation during whole class instruction.
○ Provide thermometers that have both Celsius and Fahrenheit on them.
○ If there is a student who speaks their native tongue, pair them up at the same table
team for experiment.

(Teacher model thermometer with adjustable temperature.)

Name: Stephanie Sawaya
Subject: Earth Science: Weather (engineering)
Grade Level: 3rd

Wind Direction

1. Standard:

● 3-ESS3-1.Make a claim about the merit of a design solution that reduces the impacts
of a weather-related hazard.

2. Instruction Resources and Materials:

● Pencils, paper, scissors, markers, colored pencils, sewing pins (for teacher use only),
empty cool whip buckets, tape, plastic drinking straw, playdough, hand held white flags,
classroom ipads/laptops, giant fan, ribbons, laminated world maps, dry erase markers,
venn diagram, exit cards with a unlabeled compass print out, weather vane model.

3. Lesson Objective:
● The student will be able to understand the direction of the wind by building a weather
vane.
● Academic Terms: Weather vane, north, south, east, west.

4. Assessment
● Formative: Teacher observation
○ Listen in on partner conversation during the flg experiment outside. Walk around
the room and observe student progress when creating the weather vane, are they
working together? Are they thinking critically?
● Summative: Weather vane models.
5. Instructional Strategies and Learning Tasks

1. Anticipatory:
● Motivation:
○ Hand out white flags to each students and then take the class outside to
observe what happens to the movement of the flags when outside.
● Activate Prior Knowledge
○ Ask the students to work with their “12:00” partner and observe what is
happening to their flags. Are the flags moving? Why are they moving? In
what direction are the moving?

2. Instruction and Modeling:

 ● Ask students to bring their iPads to the rug and have them check the local weather
on google.
● Ask students to work with their 3:00 partner and discuss what they observe on the
website.
● Ask the students if they see anything about wind on the weather app.
● Bring students back to the rug and as a class fill out a venn diagram and compare
and contrast how weather used to be recorded versus how it’s recorded now.
● Discuss how wind used to be measured and briefly introduce a weather vane.
● Introduce North, South, East, and West.
● Play the video: Cardinal Directions Song.
(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f2I81_BFb-s)
3. Guided Practice:
● Dismiss students to their group table.
● Show students the model of the weather vane; pass it around from table to table.
● Direct the students “Using the materials at your table, recreate this weather vane
as best you can” (have multiple models of the wind vane accessible to every
student).
● First have students work independently for 10 minutes.
● Then allow students to work with their table team and discuss what they believe is
the best way to create a wind vane for 15 minutes.
● If after 15 minutes students are still struggling, you may allow students to ask for
your aid. Keep all questions open ended and allow students to figure it out on
their own.
● Once students have completed their weather vane, ask them to raise their hands so
you, the teacher, can pin it all together (the last step of creating the wind vane).
● Lastly direct students to discuss with their table teams how wind vanes could be
used to prepare for weather and how it can help prevent a weather hazard.
4. Closure:
● Ask students to label their exit card printout of a compass (north south, east, and
west).
5. Independent Practice:
● Have students bring home their weather vane and science journal. Ask students to
record the direction of the wind for one week.

6. Inclusive Practices:
● ESL Student
○ Model all the activities myself so student will be able to watch and understand.
○ Teach using Total Physical Response.
○ Provide comprehensible input.
 ○ At the end of the lesson, provide directions for weather vane in Farsi, Arabic,
Spanish, and English. This will allow students to see the vocabulary used in class
translated into their native language.
● Students who Take More Time
○ Give students as much time as they need, If they do not finish today it’s OK.
Students will be able to work on this throughout the day at the PBL table if they
do not finish during the lesson.
Name: Stephanie Sawaya
Subject: Earth Science: Weather (Literacy)
Grade Level: Third

All About Clouds

1. Standard:

● ELA: RI 3. Key Ideas and Details. Ask and answer questions to demonstrate
understanding of a text, referring explicitly to the text as the basis for the answers.
● NGSS: 3-ESS2-2.Obtain and combine information to describe climates in different
regions of the world.

2. Instruction Resources and Materials:

● “ Clouds” by, Anne Rockwell, photo printouts of clouds with tape on the back, a chart
with the name of each type of cloud at the top of the section, “what are clouds” passage
and worksheet (http://www.k5learning.com/worksheets/reading-comprehension/3rd-
grade-3-reading-what-are-clouds.pdf) , science journals
● Academic Language: water vapor, fog, cirrus clouds, cumulus clouds, stratus clouds.

3. Lesson Objective:
● The student will be able to identify clouds by reading a passage on clouds and filling out
a worksheet that pertains to the passage

4. Assessment
● Formative: Ask students on a scale of one to three how comfortable do they feel with the
new information “3: I could teach it to a first grader, 2: I understand it but am not ready
to teach the material, 1: I need some more clarification”. Teacher observation, walk
around the room during partner discussion and observe their conversation and take notes.
● Summative: Collecting the worksheets from the cloud passage to see if students
understood the passage.
5. Instructional Strategies and Learning Tasks

1. Anticipatory:
● Motivation:
○ Take the class on a brief fieldtrip outside and look at the clouds. Ask the
students what do they see, smell, and feel. Do they see any clouds? What
are their shapes? What color are they?
● Activate Prior Knowledge
○ As a class fill out a KWL chart on clouds
2. Instruction and Modeling:
● Read “ Clouds” by, Anne Rockwell.
○ Ask students what they observe on the cover before
reading the story.
● Briefly go over the different forms of clouds while using
photo evidence.
● Take out a chart and label it with the name of each type of cloud at the top.
● Fill out the chart as a class. Pull out pictures of clouds and ask students where
they believe the photo belongs on the chart. Ask students why they feel the cloud
belongs to be sorted there.
3. Guided Practice:
● Dismiss students to their table and have them read the passage and fill out the worksheet
on their own.
● After 30 minutes of alone time, students may be allowed to work with their table team on
the worksheet if they need the support
● Once the worksheets are completed, pair off students with their “4:00” buddy.
● Direct partners “interview” one another and discuss what they learned from the article
and ask the students to share what they thought was interesting from the article and why.
● Ask “what do you think it means when there are no clouds in the sky? Discuss with your
partner.”
4. Closure:
● Students will stand up and share one thing they’ve learned about clouds, so we
can complete our KWL chart
5. Independent Practice:
● Students will take home their science journals for the week. During the week they
must record the clouds they see in the sky every day. Students must draw pictures
and discuss what type of cloud it is.

6. Inclusive Practices:
● Visually impaired
○ Provide braille version of the article or an audio version of the article
 ○ Allow student to type up article response.
● ESL Student:
○ Provide comprehensible input.
○ Teach using Total Physical Response.
○ Provide “Clouds” by, Anne Rockwell transcript in Spanish, Farsi, and Arabic
○ Provide article in Arabic, Farsi, and Spanish
○ Allow students to fill out their articles in both their native language and English.
○ Make sure students are in table teams with peers who can translate for them
○ Allow students to take home worksheets if they need extra time.
Name: Stephanie Sawaya
Subject: Earth Science: Weather (Cloud Art)
Grade Level: 3rd

Predicting Weather

1. Standard:

● 3-ESS2-1. Represent data in tables and graphical displays to describe typical

weather conditions expected during a particular season.
● Visual Arts: 2.4 Create a work of art based on the observation of objects and scenes
in daily life, emphasizing value changes.

2. Instruction Resources and Materials:

● Cotton balls, yarn, glue, construction paper, glitter, paint, detective hat, magnifying glass,
weather forecasts printed out on paper (one per table), science journals

3. Lesson Objective:
● The student will be able to predict weather by creating cloud artwork
● Academic Terms: stratus, nimbostratus, cumulus, cumulonimbus, and cirrus cloud
4. Assessment
● Formative: Teacher observation
● Summative: Cloud artwork

5. Instructional Strategies and Learning Tasks

1. Anticipatory:
● Motivation:
○ Pretended to get a phone call from the local weather station, act surprised
and say “Oh no! Your meteorologist is sick with the flu? How can we
help?” Inform students that the KUSI meteorologist os sick and they need
our help! Ask “How can we help? What should we do?”.
● Activate Prior Knowledge
○ Direct students to look out the window. Ask them what types of clouds
they see (this lesson should proceed the literacy lesson where we learned
about clouds). Ask students if they can make any guess as to what those
clouds in the sky mean? Then ask the students does it look hot or cold
outside?

2. Instruction and Modeling:

 ● Put on your detective hat and get out your magnifying glass, and inform students
that we must solve the mystery of the clouds. Ask students what they think this
must mean?
● Inform students that since the meteorologists are sick, you must find clues to
predict the weather.
● Briefly introduce the weather pattern of clouds and how one can predict weather
from clouds.
● Take students outside and ask them what they observe and predict.
● Play the video: How To Predict The Weather By Looking At The Clouds
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I00vcHLJXCc
● Read out scenarios and ask students why type of cloud they think it is with their
fingers. 1 is for a stratus cloud, 2 is for a nimbostratus, 3 is for a cumulus, 4 is for
a cumulonimbus, and 5 is for cirrus cloud
3. Guided Practice:
● Students will be dismissed to their table teams. At their tables will be a piece of
paper with a weather forecast on it
● Looking at the weather forecast prediction, table teams must create the type of
cloud that appears in this weather.
● Using the cotton balls, yarn, glue, paint, construction paper, and markers, students
will create their giant clouds
● Students will then present the cloud to the class and the teacher will then hang up
the clouds throughout the classroom.
4. Closure:
● Have each student write down on a notecard one new thing they learned about
their cloud and turn it into the teacher.
5. Independent Practice:
● Take home your science journal, and record your weather predictions every day
for a week.
6. Inclusive Practices:
● ESL
○ Provide transcripts of each cloud description and function in Arabic, Farsi, and
Spanish
○ Put translations next to the photos of clouds during the class lesson so students
can see the words in their language during instruction.
○ If there is a student who speaks their native tongue, pair them up at the same table
team for experiment.
Name: Stephanie Sawaya
Subject: Earth Science: Weather (global)
Grade Level: Third

Global Climate

1. Standard:

● 3-ESS2-1 Represent data in tables and graphical displays to describe typical weather
conditions expected during a particular season.
● 3-ESS2-2. Obtain and combine information to describe climates in different regions
of the world.

2. Instruction Resources and Materials:

● iPads, cut up names of cities around the world, hat, props (umbrellas, coates, fans, balls,
coats, scarves, etc), toy microphone, news themed music, graph paper, colored pencils,
bar graph showing the temperature throughout the week, globe.

3. Lesson Objective:
● The student will be able to graph weather across the globe by creating news report skits.
● Academic language: hemisphere, seasons, bar graph, humidity, dry, temperature.

4. Assessment
● Formative: Teacher observation, walk around during “think, pair, share”.
● Summative: News report skit.

5. Instructional Strategies and Learning Tasks

1. Anticipatory:
● Motivation:
○ Gather students on the rug and then begin to play the news themed music.
Put on a suit jacket and pick up a microphone and say “Breaking news!”
and then go in and show a clip of snowfall and say “A natural occurrence
just happened in Kansas in these below freezing temperature” without
saying what the natural phenomena is.
● Activate Prior Knowledge
 ○ Ask the students “What do you observe, do you know what’s happening in
Kansas?”
2. Instruction and Modeling:
● Pull out the classroom globe and point to a random country. Ask students what
they think the season is over there.
● Explain that in some countries it’s summer, some countries it’s winter, depending
on what side of the hemisphere it’s on.
● Briefly discuss how to document weather with bar graphs.
● Show teacher model of the weekly temperature bar graph. Pass out samples to
each student.
● Ask students to point to the hottest day of the week and hold it above their head.
● Ask students to point to the coldest day of the week and hold it above their head.
● Get into student pairs and discuss why they believe one day is the hottest and one
day is the coolest.
3. Guided Practice:
● Have students go back to their table team.
● Once students are ready, walk around with a hat filled with names of cities from
around the globe.
● Ask the table captain (of that week) to close their eyes and pick a city from the hat
● Once tables have their city they must research this weeks weather of that city (on
their tablets) and create a bar graph documenting the weather.
● Then students must create a weather report on their city. This weather report will
be filmed on their Ipads and all students must be assigned a role in the skit.
(students are allowed to use any classroom props they need)
● Students will then present their skits to the class.
4. Closure:
● Students will stand up and say one thing weather related about the city they
researched (what was the high of the week, low, was it dry, humid etc).
5. Independent Practice:
● Choose any city in another country and journal it’s weather for the week.

6. Inclusive Practices:
● ESL
○ Put students in a group where one other student speaks both their native tongue
and English
○ Farsi, Arabic, and Spanish words will be taped on props across the classroom so
students will be able to hear the words spoken in English, but understand what
they are in their language.
Name: Stephanie Sawaya
Subject: Earth Science: Weather (Visual Arts)
Grade Level: 3rd

Characteristics of Natural Hazards

1. Standard:

● Art: 2.8 Create, memorize, and perform original movement sequences with a partner
or a small
group.
● 3-ESS2-2.Obtain and combine information to describe climates in different regions
of the world.

2. Instruction Resources and Materials:

● Severe weather crossword puzzle, ribbons, rain sticks, foil noise makers (for thunder like
sound), drums, cotton balls (for snow), fabric scarves, colored t-shirts (blue, grey, white),
note cards.
3. Lesson Objective:
● The student will be able to describe severe weather characteristics by choreographing a
dance.
● Academic Terms: hurricanes, drought, tornados, blizzard, thunder storm, flash floods,
choreography, arabesque, improvisation, jump, leap, hop, twirl, choreography.
4. Assessment
● Formative: whiteboards, teacher observation during dance rehearsal.
● Summative: choreographed dance performance.

5. Instructional Strategies and Learning Tasks

1. Anticipatory:
● Motivation:
○ Bring in a tornado jar to class. Pass around the jar to your students.
● Activate Prior Knowledge
○ Ask students “What is happening inside the jar? Meet with your 7:00
partner and discuss”.

2. Instruction and Modeling:

● Briefly introduce severe weather and the categories of each sever weather
 ● Watch video Severe Weather: Crash Course Kids #28.2
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QVZExLO0MWA
● As a class fill out a web organizer for each severe weather: hurricane, blizzard,

flash flood, tornado, and drought.

● Ask students to get out their whiteboards and a marker.
● Write down keywords on the classroom whiteboard (drought, tornado, hurricane,
blizzard, flash flood).
● Say scenarios and ask students to write down which sever weather they believe it
to be. Have students close their eyes and place the whiteboard atop their head.
3. Guided Practice:
● Assign each table a sever weather
○ Blizzard, tornado, hurricane, thunderstorm, flash flood, drought
● Direct tables to do research on their assigned weather, each table must write down
5 facts about their storms. One fact must answer this question: “where in the
world does this phenomena occur?”
● Using the 5 facts they have, have students choreograph a dance simulating that
sever weather in 30 minutes.
● Students may use iPads to find instrumental music for their dance
● As a table gteam, students must work together and create dance moves that best
represent their severe weather
● Students are allowed to use all props within the classroom.
● Make a fieldtrip to the auditorium where table teams will present their dance to
their classmates
● After students present their dance to their peers, they must share their five facts to
the classroom, allowing students to journal in their science notebooks.
4. Closure:
● On a note card, students write down one new fact they learned about severe
weather
5. Independent Practice:
● Severe weather crossword puzzle (tailored to only severe weather)
6. Inclusive Practices:
● ESL Student
○ Put students in a group where one other student speaks both their native tongue
and english.
○ Provide translated crossword puzzle (in Spanish, Farsi, and Arabic) along with the
english crossword for homework.
○ Farsi, Arabic, and Spanish words will be taped on props across the classroom so
students will be able to hear the words spoken in english, but understand what
they are in their language.
Name: Stephanie Sawaya
Subject: Earth Science: Weather (technology)
Grade Level: 3rd

Solutions to Reducing Damage from Natural Hazards

1. Standard:

• 3-ESS3-1. Make a claim about the merit of a design solution that reduces the impacts of a
weather-related hazard.

2. Instruction Resources and Materials:

• Ipads, MarcoPolo Weather App, construction paper, glue, tape, crayons, markers,
colored pencils, science journals, prop snow, white sheets, fake ice cubes, cotton balls.
3. Lesson Objective:
• The student will be able to understand how to reduce the impact of weather-related
hazards by designing a weather resistant home.
• Academic Terms: hurricane, drought, blizzard, tornado, flash flood
4. Assessment
• Formative: teacher observation
• Summative: weather resistant home design.

5. Instructional Strategies and Learning Tasks

1. Anticipatory:
• Motivation:
o Create a winter wonderland for the students. Decorate the classroom with
cotton balls, and fake snow props. Wear a big winter coat and talk about
how cold it is. Then pretend that the floor is slippery.
• Activate Prior Knowledge
o Ask your engineers to work with their 2:00 partner to create a solution for
the “icy floor”. Walk around the room and listen to students ideas.

2. Instruction and Modeling:

• Show a video of extreme weather phenomena.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Jm7FRRIspo
• Ask students to discuss what they observed in the video.
• Briefly describe what hurricane, tornados, floods, and blizzards are.
• Ask students what they would do in order to prepare for extreme weather.
 • Create a chart labeled with four types of severe weather: hurricane, flood,
tornadoes, and blizzards.
• Then ask students to think about things they can do to stay safe during these
scenarios and why.
3. Guided Practice:
• Dismiss students to their table and instruct them to take out their Ipads
• Instruct students to go onto MarcoPolo Weather App (this is an app where
students have characters and they create weather scenarios for their character,
they can chose the temperature, wind speed etc). Let students know that they must
create a sever weather scenario for their app character.
• Once students have created their weather scenario instruct students to design a
house that is resistant to this weather.
• After students have completed their houses ask them to write a summary about
their house in their science journals.
4. Closure:
• Find you 6:00 partner and share your house design.

5. Independent Practice:
• In student’s science journals, pick a severe weather, then with your family,
discuss five ways you can stay safe during the phenomena. Journal your ideas.
6. Inclusive Practices:
• ESL Student
o In a small group, model all the activities myself so student will be able to watch
and understand.
o Put students in a group where one other student speaks both their native tongue
and english.
o Allow students to write their journal entry in both their native tongue and English
Name: Stephanie Sawaya
Subject: Earth Science: Weather (literacy)
Grade Level: 3rd

Severe Weather Across the Globe

1. Standard:

• NGSS: 3-ESS2-2. Obtain and combine information to describe climates in different

regions of the world.
• CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RI.3.1: Ask and answer questions to demonstrate understanding
of a text, referring explicitly to the text as the basis for the answers.

2. Instruction Resources and Materials:

• Globe, science journals, kids national geographic articles, power point with images from
across the world.

3. Lesson Objective:
• The student will be able to understand global severe weather phenomena by taking notes
on national geographic articles
• Academic Terms: Thunder, lightning, hurricanes, drought, floods, blizzards, tornadoes,
data, researchers.
4. Assessment
• Formative: Classroom observation
• Summative: National geographic article notes

5. Instructional Strategies and Learning Tasks

1. Anticipatory:
• Motivation:
o Greet your class as “world renowned researchers”. Tell students that we
will be going across the globe in order to collect more data for our
research, Present powerpoint slide show of pictures of different climates
around the world.
• Activate Prior Knowledge
o After each image, pause the power point and ask students where in the
globe they think this photo was taken. As students to come up to the class
globe, point to the location, and explain their reasoning.

2. Instruction and Modeling:

• Touch back on severe weather lesson from the other day
• Ask students to get out their iPads and bring them to the rug and place them in
front of you.
• Take out the globe ball and ask students to throw it to one another. Wherever their
right thumb lands they have to announce it to the class.
• Then on their iPads students must google today’s weather of that country
 • Facilitate by asking “Does severe weather only happen in the United States?” .
• Ask students why they thought it does or doesn’t happen outside of the united
states..
• Show powerpoint displaying 5 historical natural disasters from around the world,
and how communities got together to help these countries and make a change
3. Guided Practice:
• Travel around the world with stations. Set up each table as a country. At that
country have articles about extreme weather that happens in that country
• Students will take their science notebooks with them to each country and journal
about the extreme weather national geographic article they read, referring to that
country
• Students will rotate countries every 15/20 minutes.
• Once students are done they well head back to their team table
• Ask students “what are some natural disasters you observed?” after 5 minutes of
discussion as students “what do you think you can do to help the country your
table was assigned
4. Closure:
• Stand up and share one thing you can do to help those who suffer from the natural
disasters in the country you were assigned.
5. Independent Practice:
• Choose a country and research common natural disasters that happen there. Write
down 5 facts from your research.
6. Inclusive Practices:
• ESL Student
o Provide article translations in Arabic, Farsi, and Spanish
o Allow students to write their journal entries in both their native tongue and
English
o Give students as much time as they need, If they do not finish today it’s OK.
Students who need more time can work on it at the PBL table during free-time
▪ If needed, students may even take articles home
Name: Stephanie Sawaya
Subject: Earth Science: Weather (engineering)
Grade Level: 3rd

Hurricanes

1. Standard:

• 3-ESS2-2.Obtain and combine information to describe climates in different regions of the

world.
• 3-ESS3-1.Make a claim about the merit of a design solution that reduces the impacts of a
weather-related hazard.

2. Instruction Resources and Materials:

• Articles about hurricane Maria, videos showing the phenomena of a hurricane.

3. Lesson Objective:
• The student will be able to describe hurricane characteristics by designing hurricane
resistant crate blueprint.
• Academic Terms: hurricanes, winds, Puerto Rico, blueprint.
4. Assessment
• Formative: Teacher observation.
• Summative: blue prints.

5. Instructional Strategies and Learning Tasks

1. Anticipatory:
• Motivation:
o Show students a video of the hurricane phenomena.
• Activate Prior Knowledge
o Ask kids if they know what is going on.

2. Instruction and Modeling:

• As a class fill out a KWL chart on hurricanes.
• Briefly explain what a hurricane is and how it has impacted Puerto Rico.
• Ask students “how this make you feel? How can we help?”.
• As a class fill out a web-organizer on hurricanes and their features.
• Pass out copies of a (kid-appropriate) article on Hurricane Maria and Irma and the
effects it’s had on Puerto Rico.
• Facilitate group discussion on the article.

3. Guided Practice:
• Dismiss kids to their table teams.
• As a table brainstorm ways you can create weather resistant crates to get
recourses out to Puerto Rico.
 • Then design a blueprint plane of your tables crate (clarify that this crate must be
hurricane resistant).
• Once students have completed their crate direct the tables to make a list of
resources to include in the crate (children may refer back to the article to see what
Puerto Rico is in need of).
• Have students present their crates to the class.
4. Closure:
• Exit card: Say one thing you learned about a hurricane
5. Independent Practice:
• Write a letter to the president urging him to aid Puerto Rico, include a design of
your crate into the letter.
6. Inclusive Practices:
• ESL Student
o Model all the activities myself so student will be able to watch and understand.
o Put students in a group where one other student speaks both their native tongue
and english.
o Provide article translations in Arabic, Farsi, and Spanish
o Allow students to write their letters to the president in both their native tongue
and English
o Give students as much time as they need, If they do not finish today it’s OK.
Students who need more time can work on it at the PBL table during free-time
▪ If needed, students may even take articles home
Name of Project: Friends Helping Friends
Duration: 6 weeks

Subject/Course: Earth Science: Weather

Teacher(s): Stephanie Sawaya
Grade Level: 3rd grade

Other subject areas to be included, if any:

Key Knowledge and Understanding (CCSS or other standards)

CA NGSS standards – Students will learn 1) how natural hazards impact humans and how
humans have the power to reduce these impacts, 2) how weather is measured, 3) how
engineers use their knowledge and resources to improve existing technologies
CCCSS Math – students will 1) work with shapes , 2) add, subtract, multiply, or divide to solve
mass and volume problems, 3) measure areas by counting unit squares in order to create a
scaled model..
CCCSS ELA – Students will 1) collect data from articles, 2) use articles to describe cause and
effect of weather, 3) write persuasive text to get their ideas heard, 4) use the internet to publish
class oral presentation, 5) as a class make a speech at the San Diego district meeting.

21 Century Skills
st

(Name which of the 4 Cs are evident in Project and how they are engaged): Critical
thinking, Collaboration, Communication and/or Creativity)

Critical Thinking/Problem Solving – Designing and making improvements to a model

homeless shelter; making connections between human activities, severe weather, and it’s
impact on our community.

Collaboration – Working together as an engineering team to design an improved model of

a weather resistant homeless shelter.

Communication- Communicating with San Diego officials on how to create the Charger’s
training space into a homeless shelter that is resistant to many weather forms. As well as
filming a proposal and sending it to the San Diego Mayor’s district office. Finally, writing
letters to San Diego officials supporting the proposal of building a new homeless shelter.

Creativity- Using their knowledge of engineering, units, volume, and mass, students will
design and build a scaled model of the new homeless shelter. This shelter will have many
innovative features that students will create using the knowledge they learned from the
unit (EX: built in thermostats, rain resistant material, weather vanes, a sunroof to look at
the clouds and predict the weather, etc)

Project Summary

San Diego has recently announced that it plans to take the Chargers former training space
and turn it into a homeless shelter. In light of this recent story, students will engineer a
homeless shelter that is built to resist severe weather and keep the homeless safe during all
weather activity. Students will individually write letters supporting the proposal of turning
the training center into a homeless shelter and send it to the San Diego district office.
Students will take their knowledge on what they learned about weather, clouds,
temperature, and severe weather and will create a model of how this shelter should be
built, accommodating to every weather. This model will include materials that are weather
resistant. Students will use their knowledge of shapes, units, area, and volume to create a
well proportioned model. Students will showcase their model by filming a proposal
supporting the new homeless shelter and sending it to San Diego’s mayor's office. Students
will also write letters to the Mayor with a blueprint of their design ideas for the training
center. Meanwhile, throughout this project students will participate in a clothing drive, and
at the end of the unit we will deliver our collection to local San Diego homeless shelters.

Driving Question

What can we do as a community to provide housing for the homeless durable in any
climate?
Name: Stephanie Sawaya
Subject: Earth Science: Weather
Grade Level: Third

Assessment:

For the final assessment of the unit, students will create a skit about weather and weather
prediction using all the knowledge they have learned from this unit. Using the five questions
below, students must answer these questions within their skit. The students will write, direct, and
act in the show. Students must use at least one bar graph in their skit, at least one thermometer
measurement, and must use the academic terms we discussed throughout the unit. They will use
the resources we have created in class and should add as much detail as they can. Students will
create the backdrop and will be in charge of coordinating costumes. Students will perform this
skit in front of a first grade class. After the skit all of the students will have a one to one
conference with the teacher where they have the opportunity to elaborate on their character and
present their learning.

● What do the different clouds mean?

● How can we predict the weather?
● How can we measure temperature?
● What can we do to stay safe in severe weather?
● How does a weather vane work?
*In this Rubric I would rename “Vision/purpose” to “Use of weather terms, and weather
comprehension in performance”. I will also grade students to see if they answered all five
questions in the play. I would put each question on the rubric and grade them on how clear they
explained each question. The rubric above is just a photo reference of what my rubric would look
like.