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Weathering the Summer
Oh, whatever to
do with those GT kids? Having trouble keeping the gifted
turned onto learning throughout the summer? Try
introducing some science into the curriculum. Besides
being exciting, new and hands-on, introducing science into
your curriculum can also give an educator the ability to
integrate a variety of subjects. Students can do science,
read about science, write about science and even calculate
scientific principles. By introducing science and
allowing the children to have fun, you can also sneak in
some summertime review.
Science can be
integrated into any curriculum with little or no effort.
An easy way to do this would be to discuss the types of
clouds. You could even read a book on clouds. And then,
(here is the exciting part) you can take the kids outside
to observe the clouds. While outside the children can
illustrate the clouds, describe the clouds through writing
and they can even estimate lengths and widths. Because
cloud formation and movement is not static, take the
children outside for a short amount of time everyday for a
week to observe changes.
 If
the children enjoy learning about clouds, then you can
begin to develop more lessons concerning weather
patterns. For example, the children could build a rain
gauge. Rain gauges are easy to build. All that you need
is a clean empty container and a ruler. The children can
then graph the amount of summer rain as well as take daily
weather signs. Once the children begin to understand more
about weather patterns, they can then begin to try to
predict the weather and see how accurate their predictions
are. Furthermore, the children can follow the weather
online or by using the newspapers.
The children
can also incorporate weather patterns into their summer
curriculum by taking measurements of the local flora and
fauna. By graphing the growth of plants and the amount of
rain, the children will be able to draw correlations based
on how rain affects the growth of plant life. This
information can then be extended to discuss how the amount
of summertime rain affects food production in our
country. A field trip to a farm could also be planned.
 Besides
tracking rain, the students could also learn about
storms. Summertime weather in our country includes
thunderstorms, tornadoes and even hurricanes. By learning
about severe weather, the children will begin to see how
weather in one part of the country affects weather in a
different section. Children can begin to learn how to
read weather maps, which can be found in the local
newspapers, and predict how weather occurring in another
part of the country will have an affect on them.
As the summer
begins to end, the children can take all of their gathered
data, their drawings and illustrations, and their newly
acquired information and make their very own weather
book. This book can be documentation of what they learned
and how they spent their summer gathering information.
Assigning a
weather project to the children will give them the
opportunity to learn, to gather data and to have a good
time while predicting future weather patterns.
Furthermore, the children will be able to understand how
one situation can affect another and how important the
weather is to our daily lives. This project can grow and
develop along with the interests of the children.
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