Lesson Plan: Science

Goals:
Students will be able to observe weather, describe weather and make a
weather calendar using weather symbols to record how the weather is like
every day in both Philadelphia and Bamako, the capital of Mali.
Essential Question(s):
Why is it important to know about weather and how does weather
affect our lives?
Standards (and Assessment Anchor):
ESS2.A: Earth Materials and Systems
Wind and water can change the shape of the land. (2-ESS2-1)
ESS2.C: The Roles of Water in Earths Surface Processes
Water is found in the oceans, rivers, lakes, and ponds. Water exists as
solid ice and in liquid form. (2-ESS2-3)
CSSS: People, Places & Environment
Performance Expectations
o Describe how people create places that reflect ideas like
personality, cultures, wants and needs as they design homes,
playgrounds, classrooms and the like (g)
o Examine the interaction of human beings and their physical
environments, the use of land, the building of cities and
ecosystem changes in selected locales and regions (h)
Materials and Preparation:
Hows the Weather? by Pat Cusick (mentor text)
Vocabulary cards: Meteorologist, monitor, symbol, overcast
Weather website to keep track of Bamakos weather
https://weather.com/weather/today/l/Bamako+Mali+MLXX0001:1:ML
Weather calendar for the month
Pencils/Crayons
Weather journal for students

Classroom Arrangement and Management Issues:

Students will stay at their tables in groups
Signs and languages they are already used to (eyes and ears, hand
claps, one-two, eyes on me)
Positive recognition to students who follow directions
Work station (set folders around desk for personal space) that brings
down chattering and distraction
Plan:
The Hook
o Activating prior knowledge: What is air? How is air related to
weather?
o Going into weather: What is weather? What kind of weather do
you see every day?
Short discussion: Where do you find weather? Why is it
important to know about weather?
Share with neighbors
Briefly share with the whole class
The Body
(I): Introduce students to the new vocabularies: meteorologist,
monitor, symbol, etc
o (We): Read aloud (review): Hows the Weather? specifically on
page 7-9, 17-19
Introduce the weather calendar
Introduce the weather symbols
Explain the job of recording weather for the month in both
Philly and Bamako
Use the website to search for Bamakos weather
o (You): Discuss on weather journals: how to keep a scientific
journal
How is scientific journal different than a personal journal?
What words can we use to describe the weather today?
Closure:
o Send students back to their table to record todays weather on
the weather calendar (draw the weather symbol with crayons)
o Use words to describe the weather they observed today on the
weather journal
o Keep their calendar and journal in the science folder
Assessment of the goals/objectives listed above:
Vocabulary review: understand what a meteorologist is
Weather calendar: use weather symbols to record daily weather

Check on the weather journals: know the difference between personal

journal and scientific journal
Anticipating students responses and your possible responses:
Management issues
Remind students of the rules and norms
Silent moments: wait for everyone to be quiet before going to
the next step
Phrases theyre familiar with: eyes and ears track the
speaker
Positive recognition to students who are showing classroom
expectations
Response to content of the lesson
That is an excellent answer! What makes you think like that?
Are you making connections with the book (name) we read last
week?
What are some of the facts you can recall from?
That is a very nice descriptive. Let us write it down on the board.
Accommodations
Early finishers
o Double check to see if they could add more details on weather
journals
o Read to themselves
Students who need assistance
o Explain the vocabularies again
o Check individually to go over the expectations
o Refer to what we have on the whiteboard as a sample