First Grade
Science
Unit: 01
Lesson: 02
Suggested Duration: 5 days
Weather: Forms of Precipitation
Lesson Synopsis:
Students will learn about the different forms of precipitation, and the weather that is most likely to produce precipitation.
TEKS:
1.5
The student knows that organisms, objects, and events have properties and patterns.
1.5A
Sort objects and events based on properties and patterns.
1.5B
Identify, predict, and create patterns including those seen in charts, graphs, and numbers.
1.7
The student knows that many types of change occur.
1.7A
Observe, measure, and record changes in size, mass, color, position, quantity, sound, and movement.
1.7C
Observe and record changes in weather from day to day and over seasons.
Process TEKS:
1.1
1.1A
1.2
The student conducts classroom and field investigations following home and school safety procedures.
Demonstrate safe practices during classroom and field investigations.
The student develops abilities necessary to do scientific inquiry in the field and the classroom.
1.2C
Gather information using simple equipment and tools to extend the senses.
1.2D
Construct reasonable explanations and draw conclusions.
1.2E
Communicate explanations about investigations.
1.4
1.4A
The student uses age-appropriate tools and models to verify that organisms and objects are parts of organisms and
objects can be observed, described, and measured.
Collect information using tools including hand lenses, clocks, computers, thermometers, and balances.
1.4B
Record and compare collected information.
GETTING READY FOR INSTRUCTION
Performance Indicator(s):
•
Create a flip book that represents 4 forms of precipitation (1.C)
ELPS: 1C, 1E, 2E, 2I, 3D, 3H, 4D, 4E, 5B, 5F, 5G
Key Understandings and Guiding Questions:
•
Different types of weather have different forms of precipitation.
— How does temperature affect precipitation?
— In what ways are forms of precipitation different?
Vocabulary of Instruction:
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
clouds
wispy
puffy
blanket
Materials:
•
class science notebook (spiral
bound chart paper)
• markers
©2008, TESCCC
•
•
•
•
•
weather
precipitation
rain
hail
water and containers (3
per group)
Q-Tips (1 per container)
07/22/08
•
•
•
sleet
snow
temperature
alum
Epsom salt
sugar
page 1 of 14
•
•
cloud pictures
black construction paper
(enough for ½ the class)
• white construction paper
enough for ½ the class
• white onion (1 per group
and 1 per teacher) (Other
•
•
•
types of onions may be
substituted based on
availability)
large bowl with water (1
per group)
large sponge (1 per group)
large bowl with crushed ice
(1 per group)
•
•
•
1st Grade
Science
Unit: 01 Lesson: 02
container with water @
1 cup (1 per group)
3 sheets of paper (per
student)
hand lens
Appropriate materials may be substituted as needed to incorporate district resources and availability.
Resources:
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
STATE RESOURCES
— Elementary GLOBE: Do You Know That Clouds Have Names?
Fold book: Weather: Forms of Precipitation
http://www.srh.noaa.gov/jetstream/synoptic/clouds.htm
http://sky-fire.tv/index.cgi/cloudgallery.html
http://eo.ucar.edu/webweather/cloud3.html
http://www.globe.gov/fsl/pdf/en_fr_es.pdf
Story about clouds, such as The Cloud Book or Little Cloud
Story about precipitation, such as Wet Weather: Rain Showers and Snowfall or Down Comes the Rain
Advance Preparation:
1. Make copies of the following handouts:
• Fold book: Weather: Forms of Precipitation (1 per student)
• Sample Verbal/Visual Cards (to use with story, cut apart, optional)
• Teacher Directions for Growing Snowflake Activity (1 per teacher)
• Information for Teachers (1 per teacher)
• Recording Our Predictions: Which Color Paper Grows the Best Crystals? (1 per teacher)
• Teacher Directions for Exploring Hail (1 per teacher)
• What You Need (1 per teacher)
• What You Do (1 per teacher)
• Sample Template (1 per student)
2. Select a story about precipitation.
3. Select a story about clouds.
4. Freeze white onions for 2-3 hours in order to cut down on ‘crying’ when they are cut. The onion will be a model of
hail formation.
Background Information:
Precipitation is a major component of the water cycle (hydrologic cycle) and is responsible for depositing most of the fresh
water on Earth. Precipitation comes in many forms, but the focus in the primary grades is going to be on sleet, snow, hail,
and rain.
Sleet refers to snow that has partially melted on its fall to the ground because of surrounding air that is sufficiently warm
to partially melt it while falling but not warm enough to fully melt it into rain. It refers to partially melted droplets, a mixture
of snow and rain. It does not tend to form a layer on the ground, unless the ground has a temperature that is below
freezing and then it can form a dangerous layer invisible on surfaces known as ‘black ice.” Sleet is rain that almost freezes
as it falls down; it can happen that clouds higher up are in warmer air than a cold front (mass of air) below.
Snow is precipitation in the form of crystalline water ice and consists of a multitude of snowflakes that fall from the clouds.
Snow is composed of ice particles and is a granular material. Snow is tiny frozen particles of water vapor (ice) that
aggregate together in the cloud before falling out of the clouds. If they melt on the way down, they become rain after all.
Hail is a form of precipitation that consists of balls or irregular lumps of ice. Hailstones can range from 5mm to 50mm in
diameter. Larger hailstones tend to occur during severe thunderstorms. Hail is produced by thunderclouds
(cumulonimbus). Hail starts out like rain. but typically it gets blown upwards (updrafts into cumulous clouds). The higher
up you go, the colder the air is. The rain freezes, and then tumbles out the sides of the updrafts, falling on us as little
chunks of ice.
Rain is precipitation that forms when separate drops of water fall to the Earth's surface from clouds. Not all rain reaches
the surface; some of it evaporates while falling through dry air.
©2008, TESCCC
07/22/08
page 2 of 14
1st Grade
Science
Unit: 01 Lesson: 02
Stratus clouds are uniform grayish clouds that often cover the entire sky. They resemble fog that does not reach the
ground. Usually no precipitation falls from stratus clouds, but sometimes they make drizzle. When a thick fog "lifts," the
resulting clouds are low stratus.
Cumulus clouds are puffy clouds that sometimes look like pieces of floating cotton. The base of each cloud is often flat
and may be only 1000 m (3300 ft) above the ground. The top of the cloud has rounded towers. When the top of a cumulus
cloud looks like a head of cauliflower, it is referred to as towering cumulus. These clouds grow upward, and they can
develop into thunderstorm clouds.
Stratocumulus clouds are low and puffy. They typically cover most of the sky. These clouds don't usually lead to
precipitation.
How Clouds Form: Cooling air that contains water vapor will cause the vapor molecules in the air slow down. As they slow
down, some molecules are not able to maintain their vapor form. They cluster (condense) in the air to form tiny liquid
droplets. Typically they need some sort of particle, such as dust, to condense upon. These particles are called
condensation nuclei.
A cloud is composed of tiny water droplets (or ice crystals) that are suspended in the air. If the droplets become large
enough, they may be visible as a cloud or fog. They may also fall to Earth in the form of rain (or snow).
GETTING READY FOR INSTRUCTION SUPPLEMENTAL PLANNING DOCUMENT
Instructors are encouraged to supplement, and substitute resources, materials, and activities to differentiate instruction to address the needs of learners.
The Exemplar Lessons are one approach to teaching and reaching the Performance Indicators and Specificity in the Instructional Focus Document for
this unit. A Microsoft Word template for this planning document is located at www.cscope.us/sup_plan_temp.doc. If a supplement is created
electronically, users are encouraged to upload the document to their Lesson Plans as a Lesson Plan Resource in your district Curriculum Developer site
for future reference.
INSTRUCTIONAL PROCEDURES
Instructional Procedures
Notes for Teacher
ENGAGE
NOTE: 1 Day = 50 minutes
Suggested time: Day 1
1. Distribute booklet: Weather: Forms of Precipitation. Have students fill in
their name on the front cover.
Ask:
• What is a cloud?
Allow students to draw their cloud. Then, ask what they think comes from a
cloud. Have students respond and write their thinking in the class science
notebook (large spiral chart paper).
2. Read: a story about precipitation, such as Wet Weather: Rain Showers
and Snowfall or Down Comes the Rain (suggested titles are in the
bibliography). Students are to be introduced to the idea that precipitation
comes from clouds, and that precipitation comes in 4 different forms. You
could have 4 verbal/visual cards to hold up as the different forms of
precipitation are mentioned. (Sample cards attached to lesson.)
MATERIALS:
• Booklet: Weather: Forms of
Precipitation (1 per student)
• chart paper (class science
notebook)
• markers
• Handout: Sample Verbal/Visual
Cards (to use with story, optional)
• story about precipitation, such as
— Wet Weather: Rain Showers
and Snowfall (or)
— Down Comes the Rain
3. After the story, ask what they heard comes from a cloud. Add this to the
information they gave earlier in question 2.
•
•
•
EXPLORE
Snowflakes
1. Say: Today we are going to make crystals that grow in a similar way
to snowflakes. Half of the class will use white construction paper and
half the class will use black construction paper. Later we will observe
©2008, TESCCC
07/22/08
MISCONCEPTIONS:
Students may think that rain comes
from holes in clouds, or from clouds
sweating.
Students may also think clouds are
made of cotton, wool, or smoke.
Students may believe that water
disappears when it evaporates.
Suggested time: Day 2
Although some students in Texas see
snow in the winter, for most it is an
abstract concept they only read about in
books. This lesson helps make the
page 3 of 14
1st Grade
Science
Unit: 01 Lesson: 02
Instructional Procedures
Notes for Teacher
the crystals using a hand lens and then we will decide which paper
‘grew’ the best crystals.
2. Using a “thumbs-up” signal if you agree, how many of you predict
the black paper will grow better crystals?
(Record the results on handout: Recording Our Predictions: Which
Color Paper Grows the Best Crystals?)
3. Using a “thumbs-up” signal if you agree, how many of you predict
the white paper will grow better crystals?
(Record the results on handout: Recording Our Predictions: Which
Color Paper Grows the Best Crystals?)
4. Using a “thumbs-up” signal if you agree, how many of you predict
there will be no difference between black paper and white paper?
(Record the results on handout: Recording Our Predictions: Which
Color Paper Grows the Best Crystals?)
5. Review the procedure for this activity by reading the handout: Teacher
Directions for Growing Snowflake Activity. Model for the students if
necessary.
6. Distribute cup with alum solution. Allow students to draw their snowflake.
connection between the word ‘crystals’
and the actual object.
MATERIALS:
• water and containers
• Q-tips
• alum
• Epsom salt
• sugar
• black construction paper
• white construction paper
• Handout: Recording Our
Predictions: Which Color Paper
Grows the Best Crystals? (1 per
teacher)
• Handout: Teacher Directions for
Growing Snowflake Activity (1 per
teacher)
• Handout: Information for
Teachers (Why do we get snow?)
(1 per teacher)
7. Collect the alum solution and distribute the Epsom Salt solution. Allow
students to draw their snowflake.
8. Collect the Epsom salt solution and distribute the sugar solution. Allow
students to draw their snowflake.
9. Set papers in a sunny location to dry.
10. Discuss how real snowflakes are created and the type of weather that
produces snow. (See handout: Information for Teachers)
EXPLORE
Suggested time: Day 3
1. Students will participate in three activities explore the different forms of
precipitation.
2. Say: Today you will have the opportunity to explore different forms of
precipitation. We will be doing three different activities today. Before
we begin, let’s talk about safety.
3. The teacher needs to review safety concerns and rules the students need
to follow.
4. Students will complete three activities: one explores rain, one explores
hail, and one explores sleet.
5. The handouts: Teacher Directions for Exploring Hail, What You Need,
and What to Do are available for teacher reference.
©2008, TESCCC
07/22/08
MATERIALS:
• 1 white onion, scored (1per group)
(freezing for about 3 hours will help
with preventing “crying” when
working with onions)
• 1 large bowl filled with water, 1
sponge, a small hand towel (1 per
group)
• 1 bowl filled with crushed ice mixed
with water so it is slushy (shaved
ice would work well) (1 per group)
• Handout: Teacher Directions for
Exploring Hail (1 per teacher)
• Handout: What You Need (1 per
teacher)
• Handout: What You Do (1 per
teacher)
page 4 of 14
1st Grade
Science
Unit: 01 Lesson: 02
Instructional Procedures
Notes for Teacher
Note:
The precipitation activity does not take
long, but the key to learning is spending
time on active questioning. The hail
activity will most likely take the longest
to do.
EXPLAIN/ELABORATE
Suggested time: Day 4
1. Read a story about clouds. See some example in the notes for teacher.
2. If it is a cloudy day, go outside for a few minutes and observe the clouds.
Once back inside- have students add the clouds they observed to their
booklet: Weather: Forms of Precipitation.
3. If there are no clouds outside, use the pictures attached to the lesson to
explain the 3 main cloud types, and whether or not they produce
precipitation. Some cloud websites are listed in the teacher notes column.
MATERIALS:
• book on clouds
• Weather: Forms of Precipitation
booklet (from Day 1)
• cloud pictures
• hand lens
4. Review what students should know about clouds and precipitation.
5. Have students record the information in their booklet: Weather: Forms of
Precipitation:
• Clouds can tell us what the weather might be like.
• Different clouds produce different precipitation.
• Rain can be light (drizzle) or heavy (downpour).
• Sleet is a slushy mixture of snow and rain.
• Hail has many layers and forms when a water droplet freezes and
grows inside a cloud.
• Snow has a crystal formation, is six sided, and forms when the
temperatures are very cold.
6. Have students get their snowflake papers from Day 2, and using a hand
lens, discuss their observations.
Ask:
• Did either the black or white paper grow better crystals?
• If so, which one?
Poll students again, and complete the graph that was started in the Day 2
snowflakes lesson.
EVALUATE
−
STATE RESOURCE:
Elementary GLOBE: Do You Know
That Clouds Have Names?
Cloud Web Sites:
http://www.srh.noaa.gov/jetstream/syno
ptic/clouds.htm
http://skyfire.tv/index.cgi/cloudgallery.html
http://eo.ucar.edu/webweather/cloud3.ht
ml
http://www.globe.gov/fsl/pdf/en_fr_es.pd
f
Suggested time: Day 5
1. Have the students create a flip book that represents 4 forms of
precipitation. A sample is provided on the handout: Sample Template.
MATERIALS:
• Handout: Sample Template
• 3 sheets of paper (per student)
A sample template is attached.
Students will need three sheets of
paper. They layer the three sheets so
they are about 1 ¼ inches apart, then
fold the three sheets over so it forms six
layers. The Sample Template can be
cut apart, and each strip glued onto the
flipbook. Students will “show what they
know” on each of the pages. Students
may use pictures or words to
demonstrate their understanding.
©2008, TESCCC
07/22/08
page 5 of 14
1st Grade
Science
Unit: 01 Lesson: 02
Sample Verbal/Visual Cards
©2008, TESCCC
RAIN
SNOW
SLEET
HAIL
07/22/08
page 6 of 14
1st Grade
Science
Unit: 01 Lesson: 02
Teacher Directions for Growing Snowflake Activity
1. Make solutions with each of 3 substances and water (alum, Epsom salt, and sugar). To
make the solutions:
• Boil water.
• Pour boiling water in a heat-proof dish.
• Add Epsom salts until the salts are fully dissolved. Allow to cool slightly.
• Repeat for the sugar and again for the alum.
NOTE: You can find Epsom salts (magnesium sulfate) in the laundry and pharmacy sections of
most stores. Epsom salt crystals are safe to handle, easy to grow, and form quickly.
You can find alum in the ‘canning’ section of the grocery store, or by the baking products.
2. Have the students fold their paper in 4ths. Label the four squares: 1) their name 2) A (for
alum) 3) E (for Epsom salts) 4) S for sugar.
3. Students will use only one solution at a time. It would be useful to have the containers
marked “A”, “E”, and “S” so there is no confusion.
4. Have the Q-tips in the solutions (1 per student). Instruct them to return the Q-tip to the
container after drawing each snowflake.
5. Model the use of the Q-tip. Show how to draw a “snowflake” by making a design like this on
the paper. Make sure the Q-tip is saturated.
6. Set the papers in a sunny location to dry.
7. Use hand lens to observe crystals.
8. Talk about how snow is made up of crystals.
©2008, TESCCC
07/22/08
page 7 of 14
1st Grade
Science
Unit: 01 Lesson: 02
Information for Teachers
Why do we get snow?
You need more than just cold weather to make snow. The other thing you need is water vapor.
Nashville, TN, for example has plenty of that, thanks to its relative proximity to the warm Gulf of
Mexico and the prevailing westerly winds that bring moist air all the way from the warm Pacific. The
South Pole has none of these factors. It is farther from open water and the water around Antarctica
doesn't evaporate as readily because it's so cold, and the prevailing winds tend to carry what
moisture there is parallel to the coast, and not toward the interior. Barrow, Alaska is in pretty much
the same situation as the South Pole, but to a lesser degree. It gets several times more snow, and
summers there are warm enough that the snow melts every year. Another thing to consider is that
frigid air can "hold" less water vapor than merely chilly air.
"Snowflake" is often used to mean the little six-sided symmetrical crystal that falls to Earth, but to
meteorologists that is properly called a "snow crystal.” A snowflake is an aggregate of from two to
several hundred snow crystals. At temperatures anywhere near freezing, snow crystals have a strong
tendency to stick together (aggregate) if they touch as they fall, so snowfalls near freezing will feature
mostly snowflakes. As the temperature falls, aggregation is less likely to occur. At temperatures
below about 23ºF (-5ºC), individual snow crystals sometimes fall. Aggregated flakes rarely fall when
the temperature is below 0ºF (-18ºC) and never below -33ºF (-36ºC). So you might be correct in
saying it can be too cold for snowflakes to fall.
So, to sum up, at temperatures near freezing, you can expect big (usually ‘fluffy’) snowflakes and lots
of them. On those comparatively rare occasions when it snows near 0ºF, you can expect individual
snow crystals, but not very many of them because such cold air can't "hold" as much water vapor.
Below about -40º, you can expect only very small crystals to fall, but very few of them.
©2008, TESCCC
07/22/08
page 8 of 14
1st Grade
Science
Unit: 01 Lesson: 02
Recording Our Predictions
Which Color Paper Grows the Best Crystals?
20
19
18
17
16
15
14
13
12
11
10
9
8
7
6
5
4
3
2
1
# of
Students
©2008, TESCCC
Predict:
white paper
better
Actual
Predict:
results: white black paper
paper
better
07/22/08
Actual
Predict: No
results: black difference
paper
Actual: No
difference
page 9 of 14
1st Grade
Science
Unit: 01 Lesson: 02
Teacher Directions for Exploring Hail
1.
2.
3.
6.
7.
8.
4.
9.
1. Whole onion
2. Take the skin off, and trim ends
3. Score only ¼ of the onion. Don’t cut all the
way through.
4. Remove the layers and keep in a stack.
5. The onion and layers is what the students
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
©2008, TESCCC
will have. When you are modeling this
activity, point out that the inner core (bulb)
is representing the rain drop. It looks like
it’s in the shape of a raindrop.
As the drop moves through he cloud, water
freezes on the drop, and the ice ball gets
larger.
Have students “grow” the hail stone by
placing layers on the “raindrop.”
They should be able to see how the layers
form on the inner core.
They can take the layers off again and “regrow” the hailstone.
07/22/08
st
1 Grade
Science
Unit: 01 Lesson: 02
What You Need
(Per group)
Activity 2
Exploring Sleet
Activity 1
Exploring Rain
•
•
•
•
©2008, TESCCC
Big Bowl
Large sponge
Water
Paper towels or a small
hand towel
•
•
•
•
Big Bowl
Crushed Ice
Water
Paper towels or a small
hand towel
07/22/08
Activity 3
Exploring Hail
• 1 frozen white onion,
scored.
• Take frozen onion and cut
into it, only going as far as
the bulb inside. About ¼ of
the way from that cut, make
another cut so ¼ of the
onion can be removed
down to the bulb.
page 11 of 14
st
1 Grade
Science
Unit: 01 Lesson: 02
What You Do
Activity 1
Exploring Rain
1. Hold the sponge. How does it
feel (its mass - light, heavy)
2. Dip the sponge into water. Let
the sponge absorb lots of
water.
• What do you observe?
• How does the sponge feel
now?
3. Hold the sponge over the big
bowl.
• What do you observe?
• What might this be like in
the natural world?
Activity 2
Exploring Sleet
Activity 3
Exploring Hail
1. Observe the crushed ice in
the big bowl.
• What does it look like?
(describe the color and
shape)
• What does it smell like?
• How does it feel?
(describe the temperature
and texture)
1. Have student remove the layers of onion until they reach
2. Carefully add the water to the
crushed ice.
• Now how does it look?
• How does it feel?
• In what ways is it different
with water than without?
4. Gently squeeze the sponge
and watch the water drop into
the bowl.
• What do you observe now?
• In what ways is the sponge
like a rain cloud?
• In what ways is it different?
the inner bulb. They should carefully set each layer next to
each other. (The teacher will model this, and the
students will repeat the teacher’s actions.)
2. Hold up the inner bulb, have students observe their onion
bulb. Explain that it is going to represent a water drop in a
cloud. The water drop has formed around a dust particle.
Sometimes hail can form around pebbles, leaves, twigs,
nuts, and insects that have been lifted into the storm cloud
by strong updraft winds. The size of hailstones usually
increases with the intensity of the storm cell. To form
hailstones the size of golf balls, the super-cooled droplets
must remain in the storm cloud for at least 5 to 10 minutes.
3. In order for the layers to form, they have to accumulate or
collect ice particles (add about three layers of the onion
onto the bulb). The temperature has to be about 0° C. (To
help students recall what 0°C feels like, they could put
their hand in the “sleet” from activity 2.)
4. As the hailstone becomes larger (add about three more
layers) it becomes heavier and begins to fall through the
cloud. If there is an updraft (demonstrate by whooshing
arms upward) then the hailstone will remain inside the cold
cloud and grow more. (Add remaining layers to onion)
5. If there is no updraft, the hailstone will fall to Earth, melting
some as if falls. (Hold the onion high, slowly bring it to
desk level, or floor level, and “melt” the hailstone by
letting some of the onion layers come off.)
©2008, TESCCC
07/22/08
page 12 of 14
First Grade
Science
Unit: #01 Lesson: #02
Sample Template
Weather: Forms of Precipitation
What Comes From A Cloud?
________________________________
_______________________________
________________________________
________________________________
©2008, TESCCC
07/22/08
page 13 of 14
First Grade
Science
Unit: #01 Lesson: #02
Bibliography
Branley, F. (1997). Down comes the rain. New York: HarperTrophy.
Carle, E. (2001). Little cloud. New York: Putnam.
DePaola, T. (1984). The cloud book. New York.: Holiday House.
Kahl, J. (1992). Wet weather: Rain showers and snowfall. Minneapolis, MN: Lerner Publishing Group.
Martin, J. (1998). Snowflake bentley. New York: Houghton Mifflin.
Shaw, C. (1988). It looked like spilt milk. New York: HarperTrophy.
©2008, TESCCC
07/22/08
page 14 of 14