The Little Ice Age - Understanding Climate and Climate Change

As part of a unit on climate, this ongoing activity takes the kids outdoors to make observations along a selected walking route. They repeat the walk several times over a number of months and take note of changes that occur. At the end...

You will want to use this unique approach to increasing awareness of human impact on the environment. Each participant pulls an object out of a grab bag and comes up with a metaphor for how that object might represent or relate to the...

Model how the sun's energy strikes the planet and help your class relate it to a climate map. Assign small groups an individual climate zone to discuss. They reflect on and research how humans survive in the assigned climate and write a...

Future weather forecasters collect daily temperatures over a period of time. Afterward, they compare their data with monthly averages, as researched on national weather websites, in order to grasp the difference between weather and...

Fourth graders observe and identify a variety of weathering and geological activities in the area in which they live. This focuses primarily on what happened during the Ice Age, and how, even today, glaciers are shaping and re-shaping...

Here is a wonderful lesson which has youngsters interview family and local elders about the seasonal history of their local area. They focus on climate change by asking questions about rainfall, temperatures, length of the seasons, and...

What is weather? How is weather different from climate? Factors such as temperature, thunderstorms, precipitation, and wind speed refer to weather. Climate consists of the overall patterns of weather in a particular region of the world,...

If your class's knowledge of the Ice Age is limited to animated movies, use this lesson plan to strengthen their knowledge. After sharing what they know about the Ice Age, young readers explore a news article seeking to dispel...

Ice is nice, and its condition on the planet has a significant effect. Junior geoscientists experiment with ice melting in both water and on land to discover how each affect the rising sea level. This detailed lesson outline even...

After reviewing the causes and effects of climate change, students become observers for "Plant Watch," a program to monitor the effects of climate change on plants. Students record blooming and leafing dates for selected local species...