Weather School / First Weather · ages 2 to 5
Day and Night
Where does the sun go at night?
The mission: guess first, then go look
Guess: will tonight feel colder or warmer than right now? Say your guess before the sun goes down.
Step outside after dark and check. Was your guess right? The sky runs this experiment every night, free of charge.
When the sun goes down, the air usually gets cooler.
Clear nights get colder than cloudy ones, because clouds act like a blanket.
In the morning you might find dew: little drops on the grass.
Professor Weather Rock says
Clear nights get colder than cloudy ones. Clouds work like a blanket, holding the day's heat near the ground.
Rocktivity Time!
Pick a door. Every door is a good one.
Move like the weather
Be the day and the night. Stretch up tall like the morning sun, arms out in a big warm circle. Now set: sink down slow, curl up small, and snore like the rock does. Now sunrise again.
Ask them
“Where do you think the sun went?”
The Rocktivity
Leave a spoon on the grass overnight. Look at it in the morning. Those drops came out of the air.
On a cloudy night, try this
Step out and feel the air. On the next clear night, do it again. Guess first which night will be colder. Clouds are the sky's blanket, and a clear night lets the day's warmth float away.
Is the rock right?
You looked with your own eyes. The rock is outside looking too. Ask it what it sees, then decide together who read the sky better.
Words we learned
For the grown-up
That spoon is the dew point, which is arguably the most useful number in weather. A five year old just met it, and it came out of the air like a magic trick.
Rocktivity
Take it off the screen
A colouring sheet with the big word to trace, plus the whole lesson in print. Free for any home or classroom.
The trail continues
The morning after a clear, cold night, look down your street before breakfast. If the world has gone soft and white, a cloud came down while you slept.
Foggy Days will introduce you.