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KIDS HOPE AUS.
THEMED MENTOR HOUR
October 2014
WEATHER EVENTS “I wonder how much snow will fall this winter”
“I had to stay inside all day because of the storm!”
“Nice weather we’re having!”
Weather affects us every day. Weather is different all over the world - some countries have
hot climates, some have cold climate, and some are in between. Weather affects the decisions
we make, where we live, and what we can do. Weather is made up of many different things,
including wind direction, wind force, temperature, sunshine, visibility, cloud and precipitation.
There’s so much to explore when we look at the weather.
EXTREME WEATHER
Extreme or severe weather is simply really bad weather or weather on a larger, more serious
scale.
For example:
Instead of a few snowflakes falling, there is a snowstorm and snowdrifts
can be many meters deep.
Extreme forms of a windy day include gales, cyclones and
tornadoes.
Heavy rain may last much longer than a few hours or even days and
result in flooding of rivers, roads and homes. Extreme weather events
may not happen very often. When they do they can cause destruction of
buildings, vehicles, roads and homes, costing many billions of dollars.
People’s lives are also at risk from some unexpected weather events. Modern technology
allows predictions to be made so people know when and where a cyclone is going to hit land.
However, some storms, including tornadoes, still cannot be forecast accurately.
ONLINE WEATHER GAMES CAN BE FOUND ON THESE WEBSITES:
http://www.weatherwizkids.com/weather-games.htm
http://kidsahead.com/subjects/5-extreme-weather/activities
http://www.scholastic.com/teachers/activity/earthquakes-severe-weather-and-natural-disasters-
activity
http://lessonplanspage.com/seasons-htm/
LANGUAGE ACTIVITIES
EXTREME WEATHER WORDS
Present the following words to your child and ask them to tell you words which describe each
weather event. Suggested answers are in the brackets. Word lists could be written to
describe each event. They could also be illustrated by your child.
Thunderstorm( rain, clouds, lightning, thunder, wind)
Tornado (clouds, strong wind, rain, hail)
Hurricane or cyclone (strong wind, heavy rain)
Blizzard (heavy snow, ice, cold temperatures)
Dust storm (strong winds, arid conditions)
Flood (heavy rainfall)
Hail storm (cold or warm temperatures, rain, ice)
Ice storm (freezing rain)
FORCES OF NATURE MAZE WORKSHEET
Directions: Guide the rain to the tornado.
WIND
WIND EXPLORATION
In this activity, kids can feed their curiosity by
exploring wind - both the kind they make by
blowing through a straw and the naturally occurring
wind that moves a pinwheel!
What you’ll need:
2 or more large, wide tubs to hold material
for wind observations (something similar to a large dish tub would be ideal)
Fill one tub with water
Fill one tub with sand, bird seed or similar substance
Straws
Crayons or colored pencils to color in the the pinwheels
Safety scissors to cut out the pinwheels
Pencils with erasers
Drawing pins to secure the pinwheels to the pencils
WIND ACTIVITY
Hand kids straws and have the children blow through the straws on to their hands
Ask them what that feels like
Can they make the force of the “wind” stronger by blowing harder?
Have the children blow through the straws into the tubs to see how the force of the wind
affects the different materials.
Float an object on the water and have them blow on
the object.
How does the wind affect the object?
Talk to them about the role the wind plays in the environment.
Why do they think wind is important?
You may want to give them hints to think about things like Dandelions and clouds to discuss how the wind is
important for things like seeds and the weather
PINWHEEL ACTIVITY
How to Make a Pinwheel
You will need:
Several pieces of scrapbook or strong paper cut into
10cm squares
Drawing Pins
Pencils with eraser tops
Scissors
Directions
Encourage your child to color the pinwheel before folding or cutting.
First, fold a piece of paper diagonally. Keep your paper folded in a triangle. Fold it
again, into a smaller triangle.
Now unfold the paper, so it looks like a square. Your paper will have crease lines in an
“X” shape.
Cut about 3/4 the way up towards the center of the paper on each fold line.
Bring each corner with a hole in it towards the center of the paper. You will start to
see the pinwheel shape taking form.
Once you’ve gathered all of the corners to the center, put the pin through the center to
hold them down.
Finally, press the pin into the eraser on top of the pencil to attach your pinwheel to its
handle.
Is the pinwheel spinning? What’s making it spin?
Can you make the pinwheels spin faster or slower?
CYCLONES
What is a cyclone? A cyclone is a huge storm! Hurricanes, cyclones, and typhoons are all the same weather
phenomenon; we just use different names for these storms in different places. It can be up to
1000 kilometres across and have strong winds spiraling inward and upward at speeds of 120 to
300 kph.
Each cyclone usually lasts for over a week, moving 15-30 kilometres per hour over the open
ocean. Cyclones gather heat and energy through contact with warm ocean waters. Evaporation
from the seawater increases their power.
Cyclones rotate in clockwise direction in the
Southern Hemisphere and an anti-clockwise
direction around an "eye" in the Northern
Hemisphere.
The center of the storm or "eye" is the
calmest part. It has only light winds and fair
weather. When they come onto land, the
heavy rain, strong winds and large waves can
damage buildings, trees and cars.
How Do Cyclones Get Their Names?
Short, distinctive names for cyclones in written and spoken communications are quicker and
less likely to be mistaken, unlike the older more cumbersome latitude-longitude identification
methods.
In Australia, the name of a new tropical cyclone is usually selected from a list of names. If a
named cyclone moves into the Australian region from another country's zone of responsibility,
the name assigned by that other country will be retained. The names are normally chosen in
sequence, when the list is exhausted, the Bureau of Meteorology returns to the start of the list.
When a significant cyclone affects Australia (like TC Tracy in 1974 or TC Larry in 2006), the
name is "retired" and replaced in the list with a name of similar initial and gender.
CYCLONE WORD SEARCH
Directions: All words are positioned left to right, right to left, and diagonally.
V U B J G I V N H F P Z H M I
P A A U L W D L L N C S Y T F
Y C O N V E C T I O N O Z A X
F I S T Q Y I Q F V Y V W Z Q
H W U S H I V A G O F F C S F
F A C Y C L O N E K N T E U E
R M U X I T T E T J L P D R E
V X L Z X R O D X R I C R G T
O Q K X U C K O A S I T W E B
R D I R G M M I L L I B A R O
T S T Y P H O O N M M E Y E K
E A P H H U R R I C A N E R Y
X J I R Z T P U V Z J W S R Q
P T T X L A K T O R N A D O Z
T W M D X B P R E S S U R E L
Words:
cyclone convection pressure eye hurricane millibar typhoon tornado
vortex surge
CYCLONE WORD-CHOP WORKSHEET
Directions: The table below contains words that have been chopped in half. Find the pieces
that fit together and write them in the answer area below.
sation E Tropical cyc
Vor Stream ction nado
rent Atmospheri ye Depression
tex Winds Gulf conden
conve Trade c Pressure Typ
hoon cur hurr lone
Tor mill ibar icane
Answers:
________________________
________________________
________________________
________________________
________________________
________________________
________________________
________________________
________________________
________________________
________________________
________________________
________________________
________________________
________________________
________________________
THUNDERSTORMS
What is a thunderstorm?
A thunderstorm is a storm with lightning and thunder.
It is produced by a cumulonimbus cloud, usually producing
gusty winds, heavy rain and sometimes hail.
What causes a thunderstorm?
The basic ingredients used to make a thunderstorm are
moisture, unstable air and lift. You need moisture to form clouds and rain. You need unstable
air that is relatively warm and can rise rapidly. Finally, you need lift. This can form from fronts,
sea breezes or mountains.
When are thunderstorms most likely to occur?
Thunderstorms can occur year-round and at all hours.
They are most likely to happen in the spring and summer months and
during the afternoon and evening hours.
How many thunderstorms are there every day?
It is estimated that there are around 1,800 thunderstorms that occur across our planet every
day.
MAKING THUNDER!
Materials:
Brown paper lunch bag
Process:
Blow into the brown paper lunch bag and fill it up with air.
Twist the open end and close with your hand.
Quickly hit the bag with your free hand.
Explanation:
Hitting the bag causes the air inside the bag to compress so quickly that the pressure breaks the bag. The air rushes out and pushes the air outside away from the bag. The air continues to
move forward in a wave. When the moving air reaches your ear, you hear a sound.
Thunder is produced in a similar way. As lightning strikes, energy is given off that heat the air
through which it passes. This heated air quickly expands producing energetic waves of air
resulting in a sound called thunder.
MAKE A THUNDERSTORM
Materials:
clear, plastic container (size of shoebox)
red food coloring
ice cubes made with blue food coloring
Process:
Fill the plastic container two-thirds full with lukewarm water
Let the water sit for one minute.
Place a blue ice cube at one end of the plastic container.
Add three drops of red food coloring to the water at the other end of the plastic
container.
Watch what happens.
Explanation:
The blue and cold water sinks while the red and warm water rises. This happens because of
convection. The blue water represents the cold air mass and the red water represents the
warm, unstable air mass. A thunderstorm is caused by unstable air and convection plays an
important part. A body of warm air is forced to rise by an approaching cold front therefore
thunderstorm’s form.
LIGHTNING
Lightning is a bright flash of electricity produced by a
thunderstorm.
What causes lightning?
Lightning is an electric current. Within a thundercloud way up in the sky, many small bits of ice
(frozen raindrops) bump into each other as they move around in the air. All of those collisions
create an electric charge. After a while, the whole cloud fills up with electrical charges. The
positive charges or protons form at the top of the cloud and the negative charges or electrons
form at the bottom of the cloud. Since opposites attract, that causes a positive charge to build
up on the ground beneath the cloud. The ground’s electrical charge concentrates around
anything that sticks up, such as mountains, people, or single trees. The charge coming up from
these points eventually connects with a charge reaching down from the clouds and - zap -
lightning strikes!
Have you ever rubbed your feet across carpet and then touched a metal door handle? If so,
then you know that you can get shocked! Lightning works in the same way.
MAKE LIGHTNING IN YOUR MOUTH
Materials:
Peppermint lifesavers
dark room
mirror
Process:
Go to a really dark room and stand in front of the mirror. Wait a few minutes until
your eyes get accustomed to the darkness.
Put a Peppermint lifesaver in your mouth.
While keeping your mouth open, break the lifesaver up with your teeth and look for
sparks. If you do it right, you should see bluish flashes of light.
Explanation: Why does this happen? When you break the lifesaver apart, you’re breaking apart sugars inside
the lolly. The sugars release little electrical charges in the air. These charges attract the
oppositely charged nitrogen in the air. When the two meet, they react in a tiny spark that you
can see.
RAIN AND FLOODS
How does rain form?
Water droplets form from warm air. As the warm air rises in the sky it cools.
Water vapor (invisible water in the air) always exists in our air. Warm air
holds quite a bit of water. For example, in the summer it is usually very
humid. When enough of these droplets collect together, we see them as
clouds. If the clouds are big enough and have enough water droplets, the
droplets bang together and form even bigger drops. When the drops get
heavy, they fall because of gravity, and you see and feel rain.
What causes rain?
When clouds develop or rain occurs, something is making the air rise. Several things can
make this happen. Mountains, low-pressure areas, cold fronts, and even the jet stream.
How big are raindrops?
Raindrops are much smaller than we think!
They are actually smaller than a centimeter. Raindrops range from 0.0254 centimeter to 0.635
centimeter in diameter.
How fast do raindrops fall?
Not including wind-driven rain, raindrops fall between 11 and 29 kilometres per hour in still air.
The range in speed depends on the the size of the raindrop. Air friction breaks up raindrops
when they exceed 29 kilometres per hour.
What is a flood?
A flood results from days of heavy rain and/or melting snows, when rivers rise and go over
their banks.
What is a flash flood?
A flash flood is sudden flooding that occurs when floodwaters rise rapidly with no warning
within several hours of an intense rain. They often occur after intense rainfall from slow
moving thunderstorms. In narrow canyons and valleys, floodwaters flow faster than on flatter
ground and can be quite destructive.
For more information and activities on floods, go to the SES website:
http://www.ses.vic.gov.au/students/kids-zone-resources/floodsafe-game-lesson-plans/grades-3-4-
lesson-plan.pdf
MAKE A RAIN GAGUE
Materials:
clear jar
ruler
Process:
Put a jar outside in an open area before it starts raining.
After it stops raining, measure how many inches of rain are in the jar with your ruler.
You can also use a jar to see how much water is in snow. Put an inch of snow in a jar,
then bring it inside and let it melt. Heavy wet snow will have a lot more water in it than
dry fluffy snow.
Explanation:
You’ve just created your own rain gauge and can measure how much you received from the
storm!
SUCK AN EGG INTO A BOTTLE
What does an egg in a bottle have to do with the weather??? Pressure! Weather forecasters
measure air pressure with a barometer. Barometers are used to measure the current air
pressure at a particular location.
Materials:
glass bottle with a long, narrow neck (an apple cider jug works well)
boiled egg
matches
Process:
Put the empty bottle on a table.
Peel the boiled egg.
Light a match and drop it into the bottle. Repeat about three or four times.
Quickly put the egg over the mouth of the bottle.
Explanation:
What happens? The lit match heats the air inside the bottle. When air is heated it expands and
takes up more room. As the heated air expands, some of it escapes out of the bottle. When
the matches go out, the air inside the bottle cools and contracts, which takes up less room.
This creates a lower pressure inside the bottle than outside the bottle. The greater pressure
outside the bottle forces the egg to get sucked into the bottle.
To get the egg back out of the bottle, tilt the bottle and blow air into it. Make sure you get out
of the way, because the egg will shoot out!
Explore how differing pressure systems affect the weather.
MAKE IT RAIN
Materials:
glass mayonnaise or canning jar
plate
hot water
ice cubes
index cards
Process:
Pour about 5cms of very hot water into the glass jar.
Cover the jar with the plate and wait a few minutes before you start the next step.
Put the ice cubes on the plate.
Explanation:
What happens? The cold plate causes the moisture in the warm air, which is inside the jar to condense and form water droplets. This is the same thing that happens in the atmosphere.
Warm, moist air rises and meets colder air high in the atmosphere. The water vapor
condenses and forms precipitation that falls to the ground.
WEATHER JIGSAW PUZZLES
See following pages - for younger children
WEATHER SUDOKU
Instructions:
Print out the template
Complete the Sudoku puzzle making sure no image is repeated in a row, a column or a
square. You can draw the images in or just use the numbers that correspond to the
image.
