How to Inspire Young Readers with Weather Week Fun

Kids find learning about the weather pretty fascinating. It seemed natural to make weather week part of our summer reading camp. From thunderstorms to hurricanes to tornadoes, there is no shortage of books and resources teachers can use to tap into their students' interest. This post offers a review of all that was included.

Kids find learning about the weather pretty fascinating. It seemed natural to make weather week part of our summer reading camp. From thunderstorms to hurricanes to tornadoes, there is no shortage of books and resources teachers can use to tap into their students’ interest. When we planned out our summer reading camp, we let the kids give input. My students were quick to tell me that they thought it’d be fun to have weather week, so that’s what we did! In this post, I share some of the resources I used as well as information about the kids’ activities.

BEGIN WITH GREAT LITERATURE for weather week

The first step in planning weather week was to gather up text sets and miscellaneous weather themed books.  We had a few leveled reading sets that I pulled to work with the kids in a guided reading fashion, but I also pulled individual books that I thought the kids might be interested in taking home. With some of the activities we did, we used them for research too.

Kids find learning about the weather pretty fascinating. It seemed natural to make weather week part of our summer reading camp. From thunderstorms to hurricanes to tornadoes, there is no shortage of books and resources teachers can use to tap into their students' interest. This post offers a review of all that was included.

Of these, my favorite of course was Thunder Cake since I adore Patricia Polacco. However, I also loved The Weather Book by Usborne. It hit the reading level of my kids perfectly, and they were just amazed by the interesting information shared within the book.  The kids just loved making thunder cake with me, and ironically, we had a thunderstorm the night before!  One nice thing with both of these books is that I was able to bring in both fiction and nonfiction too.

During weather week, the children completed these wonderful activities in conjunction with the literature we read, and they were all FREE!  (even better, right!) . We were able to work on weather vocabulary using these vocabulary cards and the research project to the right.

The kids really enjoyed reading Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs and creating a weather mobile with the activity to the right. You can see the finished projects in my title image. The resource worked in a few reading skills too.

One thing the kids needed to work on during the week is reading fluency, so we used a poem I had about weather tools to work on fluency skills. It too reviewed some of the key weather tools we use and their purpose (a third grade standard).

SCHEDULING WEATHER WEEK

Kids find learning about the weather pretty fascinating. It seemed natural to make weather week part of our summer reading camp. From thunderstorms to hurricanes to tornadoes, there is no shortage of books and resources teachers can use to tap into their students' interest. This post offers a review of all that was included.

One of the best things with our summer program is a flexible schedule. I loved having the smaller group and the ability to pick and choose the activities, but most of all, I loved the relaxed atmosphere. We had time for one-on-one work and independent reading in a cozy atmosphere. We had time to work on writing along with crafty activities, and we had time to build upon student interests. Here are a few pictures of my group in action.  They were so excited to break in my room for the year too.  🙂 Love this reading time shot.

I loved doing this weather week project with the kids.  On one side…Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs craftivity, and on the other side??  Weather Wonders….all the interesting things they learned for the week.

Kids find learning about the weather pretty fascinating. It seemed natural to make weather week part of our summer reading camp. From thunderstorms to hurricanes to tornadoes, there is no shortage of books and resources teachers can use to tap into their students' interest. This post offers a review of all that was included.

Many schools require some to attend summer school in the summer, but I have to say Patriot Summer Camp is much more appealing.  If you have a local college in your community, build a partnership.  Seek out the program coordinator and see if you might be able to join forces to provide an enrichment opportunity like this.  We had so much fun and so did the children.

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Carla

Carla is a licensed reading specialist with 27 years of experience in the regular classroom (grades 1, 4, and 5), in Title 1 reading, as a tech specialists, and a literacy coach. She has a passion for literacy instruction and meeting the needs of the individual learner.

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