Mount a big outdoor thermometer outside a classroom window, out of the sun. If your window gets too much sun, find another place. Help the children read the thermometer, and record the reading for a week on a daily basis. Each day, ask the children to predict what they think the next day's reading will be. Record the prediction to see who was close.

RAIN GUAGE

With the children, put a ruler or a stack of Legos in a coffee can, and set the can outside where it won't tip over and where it will be easy to observe. Help the children to measure the water in the can after a rainfall. Record rainfall for a month and graph the results on a bar graph. At the end of the month ask the children, "Did we have a rainy month, a dry month or an in between month?".

Make a wind indicator with the children by hanging a piece of yarn to a tree branch. If possible hang it where you can see it from inside the classroom. Then you can discuss the way the wind is blowing or not blowing the yarn.

Dip a ping pong ball in paint and set it near the edge of a table covered with paper. Have a child blow the ball as far as he/she can. The paint will leave a trail. Mark the trail with the child's name. Dip the ball in clean water, dry it, and dip it again in paint, perhaps in another color. Have another child blow it across the same sheet of paper. Give every child a chance to make a trail.

Balloons, string, postcards, plastic sandwich bags, a tank of helium. Children write their names and the schools address on one side of their postcards and a message on the other side, asking the person who finds the card to return it with the time and place it was found. Help the children put postcards into plastic bags and tie them to the balloon. Then have a launching. This is a wonderful thing to do with the children. We have had at least one balloon for each launching a year to come back with a response.

You can tell the children that the wind is air. You can't see air, but air is all around you, above you, behind you, over you. Try these experiments:

BALLOONS-Air is what is inside a balloon when it is blown up. Air comes out of the balloon when you let it go.

SOAP BUBBLES-Air is what is inside a soap bubble. Blow some bubbles with the children.

STRAWS AND BUBBLES-When you blow through a straw into a glass of water, it is the air that makes the bubbles.

CANDLES-It is the air that blows out the candle.

Pour hot water into a glass milk bottle. When the bottle becomes hot, pour out all but one inch of the water. Stretch a cloth over the mouth of the bottle. Fasten. Place some crushed ice on top of the cloth. A cloud forms as the warm air meets the cold. Discuss the difference between hot and cold.

Let one child each day have a turn being the weather person. This is a wonderful opportunity for the children to learn to use descriptive words.

Be sure you use identical glass containers. Try dissolving salt, sugar, and sand. Stir thoroughly and let settle. Salt and sugar will dissolve. The sand will not. Try some other things: bread, sponge, dye, etc.

Materials needed: Feather, Tissue, Leaf, Paper, Rock, Magnet, Stick, Spoon, Marker, and Poster paper.

Ask the children which objects they think they can move by blowing on them. Write their answers on the poster paper. Have the children blow on different objects. Only one child should be blowing at a time.

Select a calendar with large squares or make your own. Cut sun, cloud, raindrop and snowflake shapes out of construction paper. Each day let one of the children select the appropriate weather shape and attach it to the calendar. At the end of the month help the children make a graph showing the number of cloudy days, sunny days and so on.