This unit entitled “Weather” is designed for 3rd grade.

This unit will integrate many academic

discipline while teaching students about weather with specifics such as the water cycle, clouds,
tools to collect data, storms and the four seasons.
Students will do a variety of activities to enhance their learning. First students will explore an
introduction of weather and ways to collect different kinds of weather. Then students will learn
the different parts of the water cycle and create their own water cycle diagrams. Next students
will learn the different types of clouds and create a class bulletin board with the three different
types of clouds on it (change if you want). Next students will use literature and videos to learn
about different types of storms that happen in Pennsylvania. Lastly, student will explore the
different types of characteristics of the four seasons in Pennsylvania.
According to the Pennsylvania Department of Education Standards,

 S3.D.2.1.2 Describe how weather variables (i.e., temperature, wind speed, wind direction,
and precipitation) are observed and measured.
 S3.D.2.1.3 Identify appropriate instruments to study and measure weather elements (i.e.,
thermometer [temperature]; wind vane [wind direction]; anemometer [wind speed]; rain
gauge [precipitation]).
 Standard - 3.3.3.A4 Connect the various forms of precipitation to the weather in a
particular place and time.
 S3.D.1.3.3 Distinguish between slow and rapid changes to Earth’s surface (i.e., rapid
[earthquakes, volcanic activity]; slow [weathering, erosion]).
 S3.D.2.1.1 Recognize that clouds have different characteristics that relate to different
weather conditions
 Standard - 3.3.3.A5 Explain how air temperature, moisture, wind speed and direction, and
precipitation make up the weather in a particular place and time.
The students will be producing works of art, speaking and listening during discussions,
applying process knowledge that enables them to become independent leaders through inquiry
and design, and study the dynamics of earth science, which includes the studies of forces of
nature that build earth and wear it down.
When the unit is complete, the students will be able to describe different types of weather, the
process of the water cycle, the four types of clouds, different types of storms, describe different
tools to collect data and describe the four seasons. This content is key in a student’s ability to
understanding, explore, and explain the natural world around them.