Childhood is a time for wondering. Young children are typically curious and ask endless questions about their world and how it works. Their curiosity about weather may lead them to ask specific questions, but more often it may show itself in other ways. Think, for example, of a young child playing in the snow. Here, questions are probably not spoken but instead take the form of playful investigation as the child jumps in a snowdrift, watches a powdery snowball fall to pieces and a slushy one hold its shape, or blows on a snowflake and watches it melt. In whatever form the curiosity is expressed, the child is clearly seeking information.

The Weather unit was designed to draw upon and expand this natural curiosity and enthusiasm for finding out about weather. In doing so, it also provides a comfortable introduction to what may be students' first experience with the study of science.

Weather is a 16-lesson unit developed and successfully field-tested with first-graders. It builds on children's observational capabilities by introducing them gradually to specific weather features. As these features are presented, students discover that their own powers of observation can be extended by using tools of science--for example, the thermometer. Developing new skills such as reading the thermometer also leads them to explore some practical facets of weather as it affects their daily lives.

Lesson 1, a pre-unit assessment, acknowledges children's interest in weather by starting with a brainstorming activity that invites them to discuss what they already know about this subject. In Lesson 2, their observations become more focused as they concentrate on what their individual senses tell them about weather. In Lesson 3, students begin recording their observations on a long-term data collection device, the daily Weather Calendar. Keeping track of the weather on a daily basis lets them see how it changes from day to day and week to week.

In Lessons 4 through 14, students focus on observing, discussing, measuring, and recording data on the four weather features explored in the unit. These features are cloud cover, precipitation, wind, and temperature.

In Lesson 4, students learn how to work with a wind scale to estimate the speed of the wind. This is the first of the three simple scales they will use. The importance of scales is reinforced in Lessons 5 through 7, when students become acquainted with the Fahrenheit thermometer scale. They learn to read model and real thermometers, take daily temperature readings, and record their findings on a class Temperature Graph. They continue to practice reading thermometers in Lessons 8 and 9.

Precipitation becomes the focus of study in the next three lessons. In Lesson 10, students construct their third scale, a rain gauge, and practice measuring rainfall. In Lesson 11, they explore what happens to rain after it has fallen. An experiment in Lesson 12 provides an opportunity for students to learn about appropriate clothing for rainy weather.

In Lessons 13 and 14, students turn their attention to the fascinating diversity of cloud appearances, categorizing an assortment of cloud photographs in different ways on the basis of their observations.

By the end of the unit, students have become more experienced at measuring and recording their weather observations. They are ready to summarize the data they have collected over the course of the unit. In Lesson 15, they compare an actual weather forecast with their own data. In Lesson 16, they refer to their data to form generalizations about the weather that has occurred in their own locale since the unit began.

Following Lesson 16 is a post-unit assessment, which is matched to the pre-unit assessment in Lesson 1. In addition, final assessments provide further questions and challenges for evaluating student progress.

By the end of the unit, children will have approached weather phenomena both in ways that were already familiar to them, by using their senses, and in new ways, by using the tools of science to measure weather features and record data. Their new scientific and practical knowledge will have contributed to their understanding of weather and the way it affects their lives.