Virginia Department of Education
Changes in Ecosystems
How does water pollution affect the environment? Provide your class with the resources to answer this question as they learn about eutrophication and ecosystem changes. Over two weeks, they simulate the effects of pollution on the...
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Gone With The Wind
Students review the different types of natural disasters. As a class, they examine how people and communities deal with weather disasters. They compare and contrast how two communities respond to a tornado or hurricane. They present...
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Weather Emergency Safety
High schoolers identify different types of weather emergencies that may happen during the seasons. They list the steps involved when taking cover and fleeing dangerous weather patters. A comprehensive list of service agencies that can...
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Novel Study- As You Read: Night of the Twisters
In this reading worksheet, students discover that author Ivy Ruckman doesn't describe or explain what tornadoes are in Night of the Twisters. Students jot notes as they read about what the characters experience before, during and after...
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And Tomorrow's Forecast Is...
Students create original short stories that feature distinctive weather phenomena, such as rainbows, snowstorms, tornadoes, thunder and/or lightning. They use a story map, imbedded in this plane, to help them organize their story.
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Make A Thunderstorm!
Students create a thunderstorm by putting ice cubes and food coloring into a container and observe what happens to the food coloring. In this thunderstorm lesson plan, students discuss the cause and effects of thunderstorms and then...
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Night of the Twister
Students use reading strategies for Night of the Twister. In this reading strategies activity, students name five major catastrophes and books about each. Students complete a vocabulary section, make inferences and predictions, read the...
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Introduction to Community Helpers
First graders identity at least one community helper and what that helper does to help their community. To start the lesson, ask students if they know what a community helper is. students role-play some of these jobs that their community...
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Fronts
Fourth graders define cold and warm fronts, explain how they are formed and they ways that they affect the weather.
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Convincing Characters
Young scholars create vivid, active characters for a story. In this character lesson, students discuss the characters in books they are familiar with. Young scholars create a list of novels they have read and discuss the character types....
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Parachute - Land and Weather
Students use different parachute activities to study weather and land patterns and formations. Tornados and hurricanes can be discussed as students make large waves (move from very high to very low) that mimmick these two weather...
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Feelings about Current Events
Students explore feelings about negative events. In this health and social studies lesson, students discuss and write about personal feelings about events that have had an impact on their life, such as hurricanes, tornadoes, and plane...
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Learning Lesson: Measure the Pressure II -- The "Dry" Barometer
Learners use simple items to create their own aneroid barometer. They have five days to build it and ten days to observe and collect data. They examine tornado safety tips to end the instructional activity.
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Checking Out Community Preparedness
Students research storm preparedness in their community. They interview city officials to determine the current emergency plans, warning systems, etc. Students write an analysis of the situation.
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Franklin D. Roosevelt
Discuss the life of Franklin D. Roosevelt. This story, called "Franklin D. Roosevelt" by Laura Hamilton Waxman, is used to explore comprehension skills. Some of these skills include identifying prefixes and suffixes, making comparisons,...
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Colossal Squid Caught in Antarctic
Students define the word colossal, then read a news article about an enormous squid caught off Antarctica. In this animal studies and current events instructional activity, the teacher introduces the article with dictionary and...
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Air Pressure
Learners participate in a series of demonstrations about Bernoulli's principle. They explain how air pressure varies with air speed. They write a detailed lab report about the activity. This is a great way to explore this concept.
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Vocabulary Practice: Little House on the Prairie
In this vocabulary worksheet, students learn ten words in a list. Students then answer 11 short answer questions about the meaning of the words. This worksheet appears to be related to the book Little House on the Prairie.
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Severe Weather
Ninth graders investigate the cause and effect of severe weather. In this Earth Science lesson plan, 9th graders use a learning contract and a rubric to develop a presentation about severe weather.
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Threatened, Endangered & Extinct Lesson Plan
Young scholars examine the basic needs of living organisms. In this science lesson, students study ecosystems and discover that organisms have basic needs that must be met.
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Earth Science - Weather
Students build an understanding of the dynamics and composition of the atmosphere and its local and global processes influencing climate and air quality. They analyze air masses and the life cycle of weather systems.
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Volunteering For Others
Students research the kind of volunteer options for teens in their area. They estimate the number of teens who do volunteer by conducting a simple survey. Students display findings in a paper and in charts.
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Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs
The classic book, Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs lesson, is used to help readers compare and contrast the weather in Chewandswallow to their own town. Students write their own fantasy weather story. This lesson is intended to be an...
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Picking Up the Pieces
Students recall and write about a time in which they felt helpless, focusing on how they coped with the situation then and now.