Elementary Education: Weather, Clouds, and the Water Cycle

1. What is weather?

1.1. The state of the atmosphere

1.2. The degree to which it is hot or cold

1.3. Describing wet or dry, calm or stormy, clear or cloudy

1.4. How does it affect our daily lives?

1.5. What does the weather look and feel like today?

1.6. Why is weather important?

2. What is climate?

2.1. Region or area with a particular weather pattern

2.2. Long-term weather patterns over time

2.3. Examples: Dry, polar, tropical, desert

2.4. What kind of climate do we live in?

3. Extreme Weather

3.1. When a weather event is significantly different from the average or usual weather pattern

3.2. unusual, severe or unseasonal weather

3.3. Examples: Floods, lightning/thunder storms, hurricanes

3.4. Have you ever experienced extreme or severe weather?

4. Different types of precipitation

4.1. Precipitation is water falling from the sky!

4.2. All precipitation comes from clouds in the sky

4.3. Examples: snow, rain, hail, sleet, drizzle

5. What is the water cycle?

5.1. A continuous cycle where water evaporates, travels into the air and becomes part of a cloud, falls down to earth as precipitation (rain), and then evaporates again

5.2. Water on earth today has been here for millions of years!

5.3. Because of the water cycle, water moves from the earth to the air to the earth again. It changes from solid to liquid to gas, over and over again

5.4. Some climates receive more precipitation and rain than others!

5.5. Main events: evaporation (and transpiration), condensation, precipitation, collection- what is the difference between these?

6. All about Clouds

6.1. What is a cloud? A visible mass of condensed water vapor floating in the atmosphere, typically high above the ground (in the sky!)

6.2. Weather can be described as "cloudy" or "overcast" when there are a lot of clouds in the sky

6.3. Why are Clouds white? Since light travels as waves of different lengths, each color has its very own unique wavelength. Clouds are white because their water droplets or ice crystals are large enough to scatter the light of the seven wavelengths, which combine to produce white light!

6.4. Cirrus: most common and highest cloud, composed of ice and are thin and wispy. Cirrus clouds are usually white and predict fair to pleasant weather.. Seeing cirrus usually indicates that a change in the weather will occur within 24 hours

6.5. Cumulus: clouds are white, puffy clouds that look like pieces of floating cotton

6.6. Stratus: clouds are uniform grayish clouds that often cover the entire sky... like fog that doesn't reach the ground. Light mist or drizzle sometimes falls out of these clouds!