Right now I’m in an amazing University course that involves sending third and fourth year geography students (such as yours truly) out to elementary schools to be a geography resource for classes. Today I got my assignment - I’m going to help teach grade 5 kids about weather! Yay!
I’m so excited about this - I love geography and everything related to it, but even more than that I love sharing that stuff with people who didn’t know about it. The fact that I’m sharing it with kids is even sweeter.
There’s a curriculum in place, of course, but I haven’t seen it yet. I need to come up with activities and demonstrations as added material for the teacher. The school even has a weather station that’s sat unused for years because nobody knows what to do with it! ::Rubs hands with glee::
I’m thinking about doing a special presentation on chinooks (the winds, not the helicopters or salmon) because:
[ul]
[li]They’re such unusual phenomena[/li][li]They are a distinctive feature of Calgary’s climate[/li][li]Everyone here knows what a chinook means, but I’d say 99% of people couldn’t tell you how they form.[/li][/ul]
I’m going to brainstorm, and (obviously) consult with the teachers involved, but if anyone can think of weather realted stuff that 10 - 11 year olds would be interested in, feel free to add it!
I think that thunderstorms, hail and tornadoes would also rank pretty high on the interest scale for kids.
What fun!
I love geography too!
As for the weather, there is always the tornado in two soda bottles connected together and filled with water thingie that is always popular.
Any weather event that is of Mass Destruction or Cancels school is popular with kids. Make it fun!
" Kids, today I am going to tell you about Pompeii High, where one day, the local volcano blew it’s stack, burned everyone to a crispy critter *and * they never had to go to school again! "
Avalaches would be distinctly relavent to the recent slides over in BC. *Destruction, yuppies buried under tons of fast moving killer snow! *
Or stuff that is just disgustingly gross, which none come to mind.
**chinook ** That’s eaaaasy. It’s a fishin’ boat 
( wait, maybe it’s a snowmobile or something. )
I wish you the best of luck, Miss Gretchen. It’s great to see you so excited! Having an enthusiastic teacher makes an incredible difference.
I can emphathize with your excitement. I’m about to dive into my first classroom experience in my Teacher Cadet class this next month. crosses fingers And I’m giving a model lesson on volcanoes next week.
Anyway, it sounds like you’ll be a great asset to that classroom. Have fun!