Teaching tornado safety through literacy

Tornado safety is an extremely important subject to teach no matter where one is teaching! This is another activity that can be altered depending on the grade level you are teaching, especially since a refresher is usually needed before tornado season starts no matter what grade level!

Materials Needed:

Book about tornadoes (magic school bus is a great one for younger grades, dependent on grade level)

Black construction paper

Pencil

White crayons

scissors 

Steps:

- Read grade level appropriate book about tornadoes to students

- Discuss as a class different safety tips during a tornado, importance of these tips/rules

- Write down these steps on a small piece of paper (one tip per piece of paper)

- Hand out one piece of paper to each student

- Give each student one piece of black construction paper

- Have the student trace an outline of a tornado on their paper with pencil

- Have the student cut out their tornado outline

- Have the student write down their safety tip with white crayon inside the tornado outline

Extension/Assessment:

- This activity should be done shortly before tornado season begins so that it is fresh in the students' minds.

- The students' tornadoes can then be taped up onto the wall inside the classroom as a reminder for the students of all the tips incase of emergency

- Students will be assessed during tornado drills performed by the school.

Learning the flower (science and art)

This activity is great because it can so easily be altered to fit any grade level!
For the younger children, I recommend providing a picture for the students, where the older children can draw their own picture!

Materials Needed:
- Paper
- List of terms
- Colored pencils
- Picture of flower *optional
- Textbook for proper labeling *optional
- Pen/permanent marker

Steps:
- Either have the students draw the outline of a flower, including all the parts to be labeled, or provide a handout
- Allow the children time to color their work of art
- Have the children use their textbook, or list of terms to label the flower

Extension/Assessment:
- Have the students label different types of flowers, then you can have them on the wall or in the hallway for students to see similarities and differences among flowers
- Have the children do this activity as a review for a test, or even do this activity as an assessment and do not provide the list of terms or allow use of the textbook.

Science- Does hot air rise?

To show preschoolers how hot air rises in a science lesson is surprisingly easy!
This lesson can also be connected with story time by reading The Magic School Bus: Inside the Hurricane.

Materials needed:

Piece of paper

Scissors

Tape

Lamp

Steps:

Draw a spiral on the paper

Cut out the spiral

Tape the thread to the spiral.

Hold the spiral by the thread above the warm/hot light bulb

Watch the hot air rise and make the paper spiral spin

Questions for assessment:

Ask your children why they think the spiral spins?

What does the light bulb do to the air?

What happens to the warm air? Where does it go?

What does this activity do to the spiral?