For our last term of Science in Kindy we are talking all things weather and seasons! We will look at the types of weather in our everyday lives as well as some interesting weather events that we hope to never experience in real life. Classes will talk about how we know what is happening with the weather and how to understand weather symbols and reports and why knowing what is happening with the weather is important for ourselves, pets, gardens and homes. We will track the weather each week during our lessons and we if we can see the seasons changing across the term. We will finish the term and the year by creating group projects relating to a season or a type of weather. Check in on the website to see what we have been up to each week.

The Magic School Bus Kicks Up a Storm

Ms Frizzle and her students journey into the clouds to find out how weather happens. We learn that weather is made up of three elements HEAT, AIR and WATER. The combinations of each of these elements creates the weather we experience each day. 

Monitoring the weather

Each science lesson this term the kindy classes are monitoring the weather we are experiencing that day. 

We begin by naming how we are feeling: hot, cold, cool, warm. 
We then look at the clouds: amount, shape, movement, colour. 
Next we gauge the amount of wind by looking at the movement of the clouds and the trees around us. 
We discuss if it has rained yet that day and talk about what we think the likely hood of rain later that day is based on the cloud cover, amount of wind and the temperature. 
Another way to monitor the weather is to look at what clothes the students are wearing. This gives us idea of what the season is and what we can change during the day to make ourselves more comfortable if the weather changes eg add or remove a jumper. 
The students' favourite part is predicting what the temperature is that day. We remind ourselves of the hottest temperature ever recorded and what it needs to be for it to snow in order to make our predictions as reasonable as possible. We then have a look at the temperature in various locations around Australia and the world, especially places a number of students have visited such as Melbourne, Canberra, Bali and Fiji.
Finally we discuss what students need to do to take care of themselves based on the weather conditions; wear hats, long sleeves, sunscreen, raincoats, stay in the shade, drink lots of water. 

Weather symbols