What's the Weather Like in My Backyard?

Lesson Author

Tony Lotzer

Grades: 3-4

Lesson Summary

During this lesson, students will act as chief meteorologists for a local news station. As part of their job they will report the weather for a selected state on the nightly newscast. Google Earth will be used by students during their research and when presenting their forecast in front of the class.

Literature Connection

What's the Weather by Melissa Stewart

This book is a great introductory resource for teachers to use when teaching about different types of weather. This short book includes text, pictures, and activities.  

N.C.S.S. Standards

  • Students will describe and speculate about physical system changes, such as seasons, climate and weather, and water cycle.

  • Students will use appropriate resources, data sources, and geographic tools such as atlases, data bases, grid systems, charts, graphs, and maps to generate, manipulate, and interpret information.

Concepts and Skills

weather, physical system

Objectives

By the end of this lesson, students will be able to:

  1. use technology to gather information for a weather forecast for a given area.

  2. present an accurate weather forecast using Google Earth.

Google Skills Needed

  • use the "fly to" feature

  • zoom in and out

  • use layers

Step-by-Step Teaching Procedures (PDF document)