Wednesday, January 27, 2016

Brrrrrilliant Blizzardarious Lesson Plans

It's no surprise to anyone that the Eastern has been dumped with snow.  A LOT! This past weekend was a blizzardarious 48 hours worth of wind, blowing snow, drifts, and ever-falling snow.  To look at one falling snowflake, you wonder how in the world it can be an item of such peril. Then you ponder how many millions, billions of snowflakes are out there, piled up!

While contemplating all of that, with all that gift of time (and equally wonderful gift of snow days), teachers start thinking about the way to incorporate all those snowflakes in topical, seasonal lesson plans.

If that's you, here's a few lesson plans that might come in handy:

Free Tech 4 Teachers: Lots of Lessons About Winter Weather
Richard Byrne includes quite the collection of resources all in one post on the hottest cold topic of the week. Some of the topics he includes are:

  • A multitude of activities from Scholastic (including the Interactive Weather Maker)
  • A video explaining the Wind Chill Formula
  • A video from Minute Earth entitled "This is Your Brain on Extreme Weather"
  • A video from Bytesize Science entitled "The Chemistry of Snowflakes"
  • A video from Minute Physics entitled "Why the Full Moon is Better in Winter"
  • And a list of some fun things to do in the snow (which always includes igloo making!)

Education World:  A Blizzard of Winter Lessons
Education World has "shoveled up" (their words) links for 2 dozen sites which directs you to over 50 cross-curricular activities, with approximate grade levels next to each link.

Just In Weather  Baltimore Snow History: Breaking Pattern Of Storms
In the neighborhood of more information than lesson plans, we have Justin Berk's weather site with news on the pattern of storms over the past 2 decades or so.  Baltimore apparently has a history of a major snowstorm (or two) every 3-4 years.  This year, however, it broke that pattern!  In checking out the snow measurements at the cusp of this storm, I was struck with how this would make a great graphing project to take that chart, and then add in the numbers of this storm.  Topping out at 29.2 inches of snow here in my neck of the woods, it certainly was a recordbreaking doozy. Have students jump on Excel, Numbers, Google Sheets, or the Create-a-Graph website. What a great real-world math problem and STEM connection!


Snow photos from the toasty comfort of my house; "Big Baltimorre Snowstorms" chart from http://news.justinweather.com/2016/01/22/baltimore-snow-history-breaking-pattern-of-storms/

2 comments :

  1. Great plan! Thank you, Green Team Gazette!

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  2. Thanks Jennifer! Had my favorite 4th grade make up the "Create a graph" graph, and it turned out super! Hope you are weathering the wintery wonderland superbly swell!

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