Weather Unit is finished

The month of July was supposed to be our month to study the weather. We needed a little more time so took another week to explore our topic. We studied the seasons, air, wind, clouds, and finally different types of storms. Having done this unit in the summer means we didn't get to check any rainfall but we did get an anemometer and weather station and we could check the temperature every day and also see how fast the wind was blowing. We could see the anemometer, on our fence, from down the street so as we drive into the driveway the kids often jumped out of the car to watch it spin. I am sure we will continue to check it often and hopefully that little rain gauge will see some action in the future and we can watch it too.

When studying clouds we made a cloud diagram with cotton balls. The kids loved this.
Anytime they get to glue anything it is fun. I only thought we would do the 3 major types of clouds but Sophie insisted on doing a few extra on hers. We have actually had a few cloudy days recently so we have been discussing which kinds of clouds we thought they were. I love to hear Ian say "Look mom, stratus clouds".
Last week, to finish off the unit, we rowed the book Storm in the Night by Mary Stolz. My kids enjoyed the book. Especially that the cat's name was Ringo. "The cat is named after a Beatle?" I was asked the first time through. I guess Ian was listening when we "studied" the Beatles as our composer a few months ago.
We have been reading books on weather, seasons and such all month. I have returned many of them to the library each week. These are the ones I had last week for our storm week.
The magic School bus book about Hurricanes was their favorite. Magic School bus always is. But Ian also keep asking for Thundercake by Patricia Polacco. I am surprised he didn't request baking our own cake but then we didn't have a thunderstorm. One day we were supposed to get one which would have been perfect. The clouds rolled in and were nice and dark one day and gave us the feeling like it was going to storm but in the end we just got a really beautiful rainbow to look at as the sun set one night. We read a few books on rainbows the next day and even watched the Magic School bus movie about rainbows. And drew a few of our own.

We made rain sticks one day. I had been saving the tubes from paper towels and aluminum foil for just such a project. We scrunched a twisted a long strip of foil and put that inside our tube along with a few tablespoons of rice. Glued some construction paper ends on the tubes. Taped them to make sure they were strong and then decorated the tubes with weather stickers. We had quite a thunderstorm with all three tubes flipping back and forth.
When the kids started to hit each other with the sticks they told me that was just part of the thunder and lightning storm. Lovely excuse to beat each other with paper tubes. Luckily only one burst open. So there wasn't too much rice to clean up all over the front room.

I can't believe how quickly the summer has flown by. It is almost mid August already. We are now moving on to the actual earth in our science studies. The next few weeks we will look more at the continents and talk about the plates of the earth and what the earth is made out of. I am sure we will get into volcanos and even earthquakes. I hope mother nature doesn't try to give us an object lesson that week!

And while out on a bike ride the other day the kids spotted this. I can't believe Fall is almost here. The trees seem to think it is already. I was so proud when Ian told me "The sweet gum tree has red leaves on it". All those Outdoor hour challenges are great and are teaching him, the other kids, and even me the names of the trees and plants in the neighborhood. We need to get out more often!

I have mentioned Ian a lot in this post. He was thrilled with this study. Sophie just went along with it but Ian was always there excited about the subject. Science and Math are his subjects!