On this page: Weather | Clouds | Tornadoes | Water Cycle | Atmosphere | Experiments

weather

📖 Snow is Falling by Franklin Branley. If you are looking for a very simple scientific introduction to snow for your preschool-aged child, then start with this Stage 1 Let's-Read-and-Find Out title. – Preschool

📖 Down Comes the Rain by Franklin Branley. This Stage 2 Let's-Read-and-Find Out picture book offers a concise first introduction to the basic weather phenomena of rain, snow, and hail. A few very simple experiments are suggested throughout the book. – Preschool • Elementary

📖 Flash, Crash, Rumble, and Roll by Franklin Branley. This Let's-Read-and-Find-Out title gives a basic scientific explanation of thunder and lightning, along with information on what to do if you find yourself caught in a thunderstorm. – Preschool • Elementary

📖 The Magic School Bus Inside a Hurricane by Joanna Cole & Bruce Degen. Ms. Frizzle's classroom is learning about weather. Naturally, the eccentric teacher decides to give her students hands-on experience by flying them into the center of a hurricane. Once again, Degen's excellent illustrations and the side reports provide plenty of information to accompany the fun. – Elementary

🔗 Content Connection: 21st Century. Learn about the devastating effects of Hurricane Katrina.

▶️ The science of snowflakes from TED-Ed. "One could say that snowflakes are simply frozen water — but if you compare a snowflake to an ice cube, you’ll notice a big difference. Why are all snowflakes six-sided? Why are none of them exactly the same? And how do we ski on them? Maruša Bradač sheds light on the secret life of snowflakes." – All

▶️ How to survive a lightning strike from MinuteEarth. The science of how an electric current travels in a lightning bolt. – All

▶️ The most lightning struck place on Earth from TED-Ed. “Lake Maracaibo is the stormiest place on the planet. Thunderstorms rage above this massive body of water for up to 200 days of the year, with each ear-splitting event lasting for several hours. But why? Graeme Anderson lists the factors that create Lake Maracaibo's seemingly ever-lasting storms.” – All

clouds

▶️ Why are there clouds? from MinuteEarth. Simple and clear explanation of how clouds form. – All

▶️ How clouds were named from TED-Ed. “The study of clouds has always been a daydreamer’s science, aptly founded by a thoughtful young man whose favorite activity was staring out of the window at the sky. Richard Hamblyn tells the history of Luke Howard, the man who classified the clouds and forever changed humanity’s understanding of these changeable, mysterious objects.”

tornadoes

📖 Tornado Alert by Franklin M. Branley. This Stage 2 Let's-Read-and-Find-Out Science book gives a simple scientific explanation of a tornado and provides reassuring information on what to do if a twister is on its way—appropriate for young readers. – Preschool • Elementary

▶️ How do tornadoes form? from TED-Ed. “Tornadoes are the most violent storms on Earth, with wind velocities that can exceed 200 miles per hour. How do these terrifying cyclones form? Meteorologist James Spann sheds light on the lifespan of tornadoes as they go from supercell thunderstorms to terrible twisters before eventually dissolving back into thin air.” – All

water cycle

📖 The Magic School Bus at the Waterworks by Joanna Cole & Bruce Degen. Ms. Frizzle takes her students on a field trip to the reservoir. When the school bus gets transported into a rain cloud, the children get a close-up look at the water cycle, the reservoir's water purification system, and the systems that transport water throughout the city. – Elementary

📖 Rivers of Sunlight: How the Sun Moves Water Around the Earth by Molly Bang and Penny Chisholm. Here’s another must-read entry in Bang & Chisholm’s outstanding Sunlight Series. This title highlights the importance of water to life on Earth and explains the Sun’s role in driving the water cycle. – Preschool • Elementary

📖 A Drop Around the World by Barbara Shaw McKinney. Follow a drop of water as it travels all around the world, from Maine to Switzerland to India and back to New England. With a 1-page informational section at the end, this picture book, written in rhyming verse, will make a fine addition to any study of the water cycle. – Preschool • Elementary

📖 Water is Water by Miranda Paul. This book, written by Miranda Paul and beautifully illustrated by Jason Chin, is a lovely and memorable first introduction to the water cycle. The text is poetic and simple: "Drip. Sip. Pour me a cup. Water is water...unless it heats up," while the end notes give some more information on the water cycle. – Preschool • Elementary

📖 One Well: The Story of Water on Earth by Rochelle Strauss and Rosemary Woods. This is another wonderful book to include in your study of water. Beautifully illustrated two-page spreads clearly explain how all the water on Earth comes from just one well and how all life on Earth depends upon it. – Elementary • Middle

▶️ Which came first - the rain or the rainforest? from MinuteEarth. This video examines the interdependence of the rain and the rainforest. – All

▶️ Where did Earth's water come from? from TED-Ed. "Zachary Metz outlines the ancient origins of water on Earth."– All

▶️ Where we get our fresh water from TED-Ed. “Fresh water accounts for only 2.5% of Earth's water, yet it is vital for human civilization. What are our sources of fresh water? In the first of a two part series on fresh water, Christiana Z. Peppard breaks the numbers down and discusses who is using it and to what ends.” – All

▶️ Fresh water scarcity from TED-Ed. “Fresh water is essential for life—and there's not nearly enough of it for the world right now. Why is that, and what could we do? Christiana Z. Peppard lays out the big questions of our global water problem. And no, shorter showers are not the answer.” – All

atmosphere

📖 Air Is All Around You by Franklyn Branley. This Stage 1 Let’s-Read-and-Find-Out title gives a very basic first introduction to air. The level is just right for the preschool and kindergarten crowd. – Preschool • Elementary

connection: air & gases

Explore the physics of air and gases.

▶️ Our atmosphere is escaping! from MinuteEarth. Learn how the lightest elements regularly escape Earth's atmosphere. – All

Experiments

🖐️ Participate in Citizen Science. Search the SciStarter database to find projects appropriate for your child’s age; typical Meteorology-based projects include logging snowfall in your backyard, recording air quality, and tracking storm damage. – All

🖐️ Make lightning and make a tornado. Here are two fun meteorology-based experiments from Crystal Chatterton’s Awesome Science Experiments for Kids: Explore the relationship between electricity and lightning in “Mini-Lightning Spark” and make a vortex in“Tornado in a Bottle.” – Elementary

🖐️ Experiment with meteorology. Janice Van Cleave’s Earth Science for Every Kid is packed with projects to enrich a unit on Meteorology. Learn about the Atmosphere in Unit V and Weather in Unit VI. – Elementary