Concluding our Weather Unit

We are wrapping up our Weather unit in science right now. The kids have been learning about all different aspects of weather. Along the way, we have built some "home made" weather equipment to see how they work, and we have been creating little booklets and other "craft" items about weather. Yesterday, each of the kids put all of their craft items together into a "lapbook", which is simply a file folder made into a fold out book that kids can build to learn about a subject and display their results. The lapbook we created for Weather is one that I designed myself based on what we were learning in our weather curriculum. It was fun to make and even more fun to see the kids eyes light up as they realized what they had created.

Then today, we took a special field trip. We went to the NBC station in Washington, DC and met the morning weather man, Tom Kierein. We watch him a lot in the morning as we determine what kind of weather we'll be having during the day. Mr. Kierein showed the kids all of his screens and equipment and how he did his weather broadcasts. We watched him do 3 separate broadcasts while we were there. It was a really neat tour. We also got to see other parts of the NBC studio, including the temporary news studio they were using while renovations were occuring in their main studio - we also got to see the main morning news anchors in action. We saw the control room where the producers and directors worked and controlled the cameras. We also got to see the studio where national programs, such as "Meet the Press" and "The Chris Matthews Show" are filmed. It was really neat to see. The kids had a great time and Mr. Kierien was really great with them the entire time!!

This was a great way to end our unit - but I'm just not sure I'll be able to live up to it when we finish our Astronomy and Oceans units.