We took advantage of the windy weather today, exploring our next weather concept, wind! Students began the morning creating a make and take book about wind. Through our reading we discovered wind is moving air that can be gentle or powerful and can occur in sudden bursts called gusts. Students read about the jet stream, or a band of high winds separating warm air from the south and cool air from the north. Attaching yarn to a map of North America, we simulated the movement of the jet stream. Finally, students read about The Beaufort Wind Scale, ranking wind power from 0 to 12. Integrating literacy concepts, students listened to a fictional wind story, The Wind Blew, by Pat Hutchins. Through the book we focused on comprehension strategies of making predictions and sequencing events. This afternoon, students made their own pinwheels which we tested out on the patio. We’ll continue to explore wind next week with a variety of simple experiments and demonstrations.
