Australian Curriculum links
Learning areas
Science
Foundation
Daily and seasonal changes in our environment, including the weather, affect everyday life (ACSSU004)
Year 1
Living things live in different places where their needs are met (ACSSU211)
Observable changes occur in the sky and landscape (ACSSU019)
Year 2
People use science in their daily lives, including when caring for their environment and living things (ACSHE035)
Geography
Foundation
The representation of the location of places and their features on maps and a globe (ACHGK001)
Year 1
The weather and seasons of places and the ways in which different cultural groups, including Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples, describe them (ACHGK006)
Year 2
Collect and record geographical data and information, for example, by observing, by interviewing, or from sources such as, photographs, plans, satellite images, story books and films (ACHGS014)
General capabilities
- Literacy
- Critical and creative thinking
Cross-curriculum priorities
- Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander histories and cultures
- Asia and Australia’s engagement with Asia
- Sustainability
Students share what they know about weather. They match words to images and list questions they have about the weather.
Preparation
- access to the internet and Interactive White Board (IWB) OR printed images of weather
- a recent news weather report (from media outlet)
- Behind the News clip Wild Weather (2010)
Read/view a recent news weather report and record as many words about the weather as you can.
Share what you know about these words.
Create a weather word wall with words and images or definitions.
Examine the following images and label them with the type of weather that you can see.
Sort the images into categories and give your category a heading.
Select one image and answer the following:
- Where might this place be?
- What might the weather be like here?
- What clues did you use?
- How might the weather here affect daily life?
Play true or false with the statements below:
- Cyclones only happen in Australia.
- Floods only happen once every 100 years.
- Weather changes all the time.
- All places have four seasons (summer, winter, autumn, spring).
- Droughts can happen in any place.
Watch Behind the News clip Wild Weather (2010)
Add to the weather word wall.
Draw a picture of the weather you like the best and the weather you like the least (you may want to use an online drawing tool) and label it with the things you do in this type of weather.
Students observe changes in the sky and recognise how people use observations to predict weather and its effects.
Preparation
Watch How do you know when rain is coming? or read Bringing the Rain to Kapiti Plain.
List ways in which people and animals note know that it’s about to rain.
Use a T-chart to compare what life is like before and after the rain.
Observe the sky outside and discuss the weather now.
Predict what the weather might be like in the next few hours based on your observations.
Record the weather each day for a week using a digital camera, thermometer, rain gauge and windsock (or whichever device is being used to measure wind speed).
| Day and time | Weather details | What can you do/not do in this weather? |
|---|
| | temperature, sunshine, rainfall, wind | |
Read and play on the IWB L10 Experience the weather.
Label the places mentioned on a world map (Antarctica, the Sahara Desert, New Zealand mountains, Amazon rainforest) and note the type of weather and its effects.
Choose from these places one that you would like to visit and draw the types of clothes you would need to wear.
Create a Placemat in groups about the things you need if you live in a cold place/hot place/dry place/wet place.
Extension
Look at an atlas/globe/world map and name some places that you have heard of. Try and include various continents and a mixture of climates.
Findout what the weather is lik there and attach a label using weather forecasts from the World Meteorological Organization.
Students examine the design of houses and make links about how the designs may suit local weather. They discuss advantages and disadvantages for different housing in various climates.
Preparation
- selection of images of houses from places around the world. (You may want use the images below.)
- Interactive White Board with internet access to Weather and people
Explore how the weather influences the houses on the BBC Weather and people website.
Discuss how the houses are built to suit the weather (with features such as verandas, small windows, stilts, louvered windows).
Investigate buildings and homes in your area. How are they suited to the weather?
Look at the images. What kinds of houses or buildings are they? Find their locations on a map. What features of the house show how it is suited to the weather? What extra information might you need?
Look carefully at what the house is made out of, the size of the windows, roofing, shape, size. What interesting things do you notice?
Discuss and list the kinds of things you need in your house or building if you live in a hot place.
Discuss and list the kinds of things you need in your house or building if you live in a very cold place.
Discuss and list the kinds of things you need in your house or building if you live in a wet place.
Use the IWB or cut and paste images of houses into the table below to suit the different types of weather.
| Climate | Type of roof | Built out of | Doors and windows |
|---|
| hot | | | |
| very cold | | | |
| wet | | | |
Discuss: How are these houses adapted to the weather of their location?
Extension
Choose a place and list if the weather is hot/dry/cold/wet.
Make a model of a house that would be suited to the weather in this place. Label parts of the house.
Students reflect on how drought affects living things and the availability of food.
Preparation
- picture book Two Summers by John Heffernan
- T-chart
Read Two Summers and discuss:
- What is a drought?
- Where can droughts happen? Locate on a map.
- Who does it affect?
- How does it affect animals?
Compare the farm before the drought and during the drought using a T-chart.
Discuss
- What might people have to do when there is a drought?
- How might it affect what people eat?
- Who might help people affected by drought?
Students recognise that weather varies from place to place and that weather goes in cycles, called seasons.
Preparation
- Create labels: hot, cold, freezing, snowy, dry, drought, humid, wet, floods, seasons
- Interactive White Board with internet access to M013017 Indigenous seasonal descriptions
- picture books about seasons throughout the year such as Walking with the Seasons in Kakadu by Diane Lucas & Ken Searle or Ernie Dances to the Didgeridoo by Alison Lester
Read Walking with the Seasons in Kakadu by Diane Lucas & Ken Searle or Ernie Dances to the Didgeridoo by Alison Lester.
Discuss the seasons and how they affect what people can do throughout the year.
- What would it feel like to live in the dry season?
- What would be some good things about the wet season?
- What might be some things to be careful of?
Create a chart for months of the year and their related season.
Compare your chart to M013017 Indigenous seasonal descriptions
Draw symbols for the different types of seasons where you live.
Investigate the kind of weather in another place.
Add this information to a class map.
Examine the map and make statements about the contrast of seasons between where you live and the other places.
Make statements about how weather can affect people in different locations.
