Kindergarten Earth & Space Science — Unit 1: Weather & Seasons
📚 Grade: Kindergarten🧭 Unit: K-ESS2 Unit 1 — Weather & Seasons🔢 Lesson: 1 of 6⏱️ Duration: 30–45 minutes
☀️ 🌧️ 🌬️ ❄️
What's the sky doing right now? That's weather!
📋 NGSS Standard: K-ESS2-1 — Use and share observations of local weather conditions to describe patterns over time.
🎯 Learning Objective
Students will identify at least 4 types of weather and record daily weather observations for one week using a Weather Watcher Journal.
🔬 The Big Idea
Weather is what the atmosphere (the air around Earth) is doing right now — is it sunny? Rainy? Windy? Cold? Weather can change from hour to hour and day to day.
Climate is different — it's the average pattern of weather for a place over many, many years. Denver, Colorado has a semi-arid climate, which means it's usually dry — but any one day could still be rainy or snowy!
Weather Watcher Journal (last pages of this lesson)
Pencil or marker
🔬 Let's Get Started
Step 1 — Go Observe! (5–10 min)
Head to a window or go outside briefly. Ask your child:
👀 What do you see in the sky? (clouds, sun, rain, snow?)
🤚 What do you feel? (warm, cold, wind on your skin?)
👂 What do you hear? (wind, rain drops, birds?)
Let them soak it in like a real scientist would!
Step 2 — Make Your Weather Icons (10 min)
On a blank piece of paper, draw 5 weather icons together: ☀️ sunny, ⛅ cloudy, 🌧️ rainy, 🌬️ windy, ❄️ snowy. Color them brightly. These become your key for the weather journal!
Step 3 — Day 1 Journal Entry (5 min)
Fill in the Day 1 box on the Weather Watcher Journal (next page). Draw the weather icon that matches today. Write or dictate one sentence: "Today the weather is ______."
Step 4 — Continue All Week
Each morning this week, look out the window and fill in the next day's box. By Friday you'll have a week of real weather data! You'll use this journal again in Lesson 6 to look for patterns.
Step 5 — Weather vs. Climate Discussion (5 min)
Read or explain: "Weather is what's happening outside RIGHT NOW. Climate is the pattern over many years — it tells us what weather to usually expect in a place."
Ask: "If Denver usually gets 300 sunny days per year, but it's raining today — is Denver's climate sunny or rainy?"
💬 Discussion Questions
🗣️ Talk about these together:
What types of weather have you seen this week?
What's your favorite type of weather? Why?
What would you wear outside today? Does the weather change what you wear?
Big Question: What's the difference between weather and climate?
💡 Suggested answer: Weather is what's happening outside right now — sunny, rainy, windy. Climate is the average weather pattern over many years for a place. Denver, Colorado has a "semi-arid climate" — usually dry — but any given day could be rainy or snowy. Weather changes daily; climate changes over decades.
🚀 Extensions
🌡️ Temperature Check: If you have an outdoor thermometer, record the temperature each day too!
📺 Weather Forecast: Watch a TV or online weather forecast together. What do meteorologists predict for tomorrow?
🗺️ Weather Around the World: Look up what the weather is today in a faraway place like Alaska, Florida, or Australia. How is it different from yours?
📚 Read Aloud:Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs by Judi Barrett — a wild take on weather!
👩🏫 Parent/Teacher Notes
This is a week-long activity: The Weather Watcher Journal is meant to be filled in each day this week. Save it — you'll need it for Lesson 6!
Weather vs. climate confusion is normal: Young kids often think "it's raining, so my place has a rainy climate." Use local examples they know.
Outdoor safety: Even a peek out the front door counts if it's too cold or wet to go outside longer.
Assessment: Can your child name at least 4 types of weather? Can they explain why today's weather might be different from yesterday's?
SAVE the journal — it's used again in Lesson 6: Weather Patterns Over Time.
