Homeschool Voyager's Weather Report

In wrapping up our weather studies, we wanted to come up with an activity to sort of tie it all together. And I think we did!

First, we had the little voyagers watch a few weather reports on youtube, to get an idea of what they involve -- including some funny ones -- or bloopers.

Next, we talked about our current weather, made predictions, and checked the local weather forecast on the internet. (weather.com)

After we decided on what the report should include, we worked the the little voyagers on the script. 

Since this was their first real video report, we tried to keep it simple, and give each little voyager a role in the broadcast.

Weather in San Diego can be pretty boring sometimes, but on this day, Mother Nature was on our side, and even provided us with some rain! 

Enjoy our video!

If you are also studying the weather, we would love to see some student weather reports from around the United States. Please leave us a link in the comments or email us and we will post your video here, too!

Our Cloud Diorama

Mama Voyager came up with a great idea to help the little voyagers remember the kinds of clouds they have been studying. A Cloud Diorama! We worked together on this at the end of the day. It was a great way to reinforce the names and kinds of clouds: 

High - Middle - Low - Fair Weather - Precipitation Clouds

Cirrus - Stratus - Cumulus - Nimbocumulus

We covered the edges of a big cereal box with foil tape.

(Did you know they made this? I didn't!)

Spiderman helped glue in the colored paper for the background.

  

While Rosetta printed cloud labels...

 Saralina traced the cloud names in the Mini Cloud Helper booklet.

Mama Voyager and Saralina used a sewing needle and thread to hang the clouds.

What do you think of the finished diorama?  And what do you think the first thing the little voyagers wanted to do with it? Why, make a puppet show, of course! We shall see.  

*     *     *     *     *

I tried re-googling to find the cloud diagram we used to cut out the cloud forms for the diorama, but we googled that at Mama Voyager's house, and I can't seem to repeat the search results on my computer.

But I did find come cool cloud reference charts:

From Keeping it Easy and Simple - This one could be used as a reference to draw your own clouds.

This one from Our Family of Flowers would make a great bookmark! (They have a GREAT weather/cloud post!)

If you want your child to have a little more practice identifying cloud heights, you might use this nifty worksheet from Have Fun Teaching.

Hi Ho A Cloudy Oh!

Weather Proverbs

The other day, Rosetta was telling me about the weather proverb she heard at bible study, and how there was a similar saying in the bible. That gave me the idea to do a post with lots of proverbs to go with our weather unit.  First, the one Rosetta mentioned:

Image from Roger1952 on flickr

The following explanation is from the Weather Dude:

People have been forecasting the weather for centuries. They once looked to plants and animals for hints about what the weather would do. For example, before it rained, some people often observed that ants moved to higher ground, cows lay down, pine cones opened up, frogs croaked more frequently, and sheeps' wool uncurled. Over the years, people began to notice other natural clues to upcoming weather, and several weather "sayings" grew up over the years.

When looking at weather proverbs, keep this in mind: They are usually based on someone’s observations and not on scientific studies. Because climates and weather patterns differ throughout the world, a weather proverb based on observations in one location may not be valid in another location. Some proverbs arose simply from coincidence, not weather patterns, and therefore may seldom hold true. But under certain circumstances, some proverbs do hold up to science. Here are some that, under the right circumstances, have proven valid. 

"Red Sky at night, sailor's delight.  Red sky in the morning, sailor take warning."

The explanation - Why the Red Sky: 

When the western sky is especially clear, there is often a red sunset. That's because as the sun sets, its light shines through much more of the lower atmosphere, which contains dust, salt, smoke and pollution. These particles scatter away some of the shorter wavelengths of light (the violets and blues), leaving only the longer wavelengths (the oranges and reds.) If an area of high air pressure is present, the air sinks. This sinking air holds air contaminants near the earth, making the sunset even redder than usual. This would be the “red sky at night.” In the middle latitudes of the northern hemisphere, weather systems most often approach from the west. Since high pressure generally brings fair weather, this type of red sky at sunset would indicate that clear weather is approaching, which would "delight" a sailor. If the sky is red in the eastern morning sky for the same reasons as above, then the high pressure region has most likely already passed from west to the east, and an area of low pressure may follow. Low pressure usually brings clouds, rain or storms, a warning for sailors.

Now for a random selection of weather proverbs:

Owls

Ants

 Crows

Squirrels

Spiderwebs

Image from NYPL Digital Library (by Caldecott, Randolph, 1846-1886)

Donkeys

Fish and Fishermen

 Low Barometer

 Wind

Red & Gray Skies

 Dew

March May August

 Morning Rain

 

Mackerel Sky

 

And More Sailor Warnings

 

Rainbow

Stars

Native American Proverbs

More Weather Lore at Sky Watch.

Weather Trivia and Fun Facts

 *     *     *     *     *

Most of the proverbs above were snipped from this book:

Title: Weather proverbs Issue 9 of Signal services notes,
United States Army
Compiled by: Henry Harrison Chase Dunwoody
Publisher    Govt. Print. Off., 1883
(google link)

Cloud Viewing and Classification

free

 

Clouds Mini-Helper from Homeschool Bits via Currclick (free download)

This was our second attempt at the Cloud in the Bottle. This time we used a smaller bottle, hot water (rather than cold) and dropped the burning stick (still no matches) into the bottle: 

Then Rosetta quickly put the lid back on....

 And, as you can see...

A cloudy bottle, but still not that impressive, at least to us! 

 
Quick! Time to move on to something else -- The Cloud Viewer:

E is for EXPLORE! - Awesome website, with great learning activities made this free version of the Cloud Viewer. We printed one for each little voyager, cut out the middle, then laminated them for durability.

Now, as you can see, not a lot of clouds in the sky when I took this picture, but as the day went on, the clouds increased. The little voyagers went outside to observe the clouds several times in between our various projects.

This is a handy little cloud viewer/classifier, even for adults!  

To help us remember which clouds are which, Mama Voyager found  a CLOUD song:

This song by Cynthia Sherwood is kind of catchy (Hi Ho A Cloudy Oh) - It is sung to the tune of A Farmer in the Dell. Click for a larger image, or go to Super Teacher Worksheets.

Here are a few of the clouds we saw today:

Hi Ho A Cloudy Oh!