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This is a great way to bring something visual to a concept that is mostly invisible: evaporation. It gets the students outside and moving a little.

This is a great activity to make the concept of the water cycle hands-on. Students can watch the process right before their eyes over the matter of an afternoon.

This website has a few ideas on where to go on a field trip involving the water cycle.

This resource contains a song about weather. It is a video that asks if the weather is sunny, rainy, cloudy, or snowy. I selected this resource because I could see myself using the video every morning as a teacher. I would use it to gather my class to discuss the weather and the calendar. I wouldn't necessarily play the entire video every day, but the first 35 seconds covers plenty of information.

This movie visually explains the how hurricanes form and their movement. The movie defines "low pressure systems" and "tropical depression" that a student would hear a meteorologist use in a forecast. This movie could be used to introduce a lesson on storm systems that occur. I chose this BrainPOP movie because it seems as though students love the visual and retain the information given from BrainPOP.

By creating a beach in a pan, students are able to make observations about how erosion occurs in nature. Place rock and damp sand at one end of the pan. Place a brick under the pan on the end with the sand so that the pan is tilting. Pour water into the opposite end of the pan. With a sponge in the water, press down on the sponge to create waves that hit the beach. The students will then be able to observe what happens to the sand and gravel after the waves continue to crash into the sand. I chose this resource because it allows the students to have a hands on activity and watch erosion take place systematically.

This lesson shows the process of the water cycle. Water is placed in a small cup in the corner of a plastic zip lock bag. With a marker, show the stages of a water cycle in a circular direction. Place the bag on the window so that the sun causes the water to heat, thus starting the water cycle. I thought this would be a good activity to lead into a lesson on water accumulation, condensation, precipitation and evaporation. If a teacher was fortunate enough to live close to a local newscast, they could have a meteorologist come to talk to the class one day during the lesson on the water cycle.

This lesson allows students to investigate which way is best to clean up oil and researching how oil spills affect the environment. The students will try three different ways to remove oil from a tub of water, then they will determine which way is the most effective. Afterwards, the students will present their findings to the class. I like that this lesson is engaging and it can easily be related to real world oil spills. I would tell my students that they were a team that was hired to find out how to get rid of the oil after the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. This way the students feel that they are doing something realistic.

This is a slideshow that explains weathering, erosion, and deposition. There are 31 informational slides. The slideshow explains in depth what each word means and how it affects the world and landmarks around us. I chose this slideshow because I thought it would help visual learners and it would be a nice introduction to the topic. Sometimes it is better to actually see what erosion does to a rock rather than just talk about it. I also liked that it gave real life pictures of erosion and weathering. I would use this resource to start my lesson on erosion. I would start with the slideshow and discuss all the important details and then break the students into groups to do an activity dealing with erosion and weathering.

For this activity, ask the students what they think will happen if you heat a bar of ivory soap in the microwave. Make a graph of their predictions on the smartboard. Then heat the bar of ivory soap in the microwave for one minute. After you show the students what happened to the soap. Allow them to hold pieces of the "cloud" and make observations about texture and why they think the soap formed into a cloud. I chose this activity because this teacher also has a unit on weather connected to this activity that includes daily weather observations, non-fiction passages and writing organizers.

Who knew!? Very cool and surprising outcome. I am a little concerned that this activity might lead students away from true understanding of the formation of clouds, though. What do you think?

I think this would be a great extension activity following a lesson over the phases of the moon as students will be showing their understanding of these phases using Oreo cookies. Each student is given 8 split Oreo cookies and one plate with the phases of the moon on the bottom of the plate. Students will use their spoon to move the cream off the cookie to model the correct phase of the moon. After completing eight correct moon phases with their cookies, the student will label each phase of the moon with the correct name strip which is provided. Once the student has correctly labeled the 'moons', they may eat the cookies and take the plate home. This is a great way to check and make sure students have an understanding of this material. It also makes it fun for the students as they are able to finish the assignment by eating their cookies!

I enjoy this lesson because it is another hands on activity for students. Students will get to compare and contrast what they know about the seasons. The students will get to place pictures in the correct poster for what season that picture may be related to. This lesson also involves reading books to the children to expand their knowledge on each of the seasons.

"If you're looking for a fantastic way to end your spring plant/botany unit, try this fun activity from Ms. Lopez of Coloring Outside The Lines that will have your kiddos snacking through the parts of a plant!" This lesson/activity could tie a unit on plants with healthy eating unit! I would first make a diagram with the students labeling the different parts of the plant to activate their background knowledge. After that, I would go through my different foods I had out and ask the students what part of the plant they thought it was. They would attach their food to their worksheet and once they were done we could eat the different parts of the plant! I think younger students would love this activity!