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https://my.pblworks.org/system/files/documents/PBLWorks-K-2-Creativity-Innovation-Rubric_0.pdf

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Your gateway to the very best in Project Based Learning, no matter where you are in your PBL journey. Here, you will find a growing set of resources to help you design and implement powerful learning in your classroom.

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Students will work together to create an online weather guide that includes data from their weather journals and clothing, activities, and best practices options for different types of weather

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How long is this project going to take?

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What does a weather journal or a weather guide look like?

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https://www.theaverageteacher.com/weather-journals-for-students/
https://superstarworksheets.com/science-worksheets/weather-printables/?utm_campaign=coschedule&utm_source=pinterest&utm_medium=The+Crafty+Classroom&utm_content=Free+Weather+Journal+Printables+and+Worksheets

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One of the best ideas I've ever had as a teacher (in my personal opinion) was to record our weather everyday in weather journals for students. Why was this my best idea ever?

As a student, I often wondered why I was learning something. When I am I ever going to use this in the real world? As an adult, I now see the value of many of the things I learned, and wish I knew more about those things!

The problem we run into when kids don't see the why behind what they're learning is they never buy into it. They don't , because they don't think it's important. Any time we can bring a real world application into our teaching is SO valuable! Our students will immediately understand why this is important to know, and that's all it will take for some students to be all in!

We recently started our meteorology/weather unit in , and - having been an awful science teacher last year who rarely did anything hands-on - I really wanted to get my students involved in seeing the importance of what we are learning and make it more interactive for them.

Of course, we talked about why it can be helpful to know what the weather is - to know what to wear, to help us make plans, and to keep us safe. But, I also wanted to get them involved in figuring out the weather for themselves, instead of their parents telling them or checking an app on their mom's phone.

My Weather Journals for Students - A Look Inside

So, I created these weather journals for students to track weather patterns and make educated predictions on what the weather will be like tomorrow. These journals are now in my TpT store for just $2!

Each journal includes up to 10 days of daily logs to track temperature, type of weather, cloud formations, and make a prediction for tomorrow.

Journals include a beautiful cover page, of course you can just use the individual logs instead if you don't want to turn it into a journal!

Each day includes four sections for students to fill out.

Temperature: I don't have thermometer and didn't want to get too complicated for my 2nd graders, but I did want them to understand how thermometers work and how to read them. So, I divided the thermometer in 4 sections for them to color up to the line describing the temperature each day. I did give them guidelines for how to determine which line to color up to so that they would all be coloring to the same place.

Weather: Students will circle the picture that best describes the weather for the day: sunny, rainy, cloudy/partly cloudy, and snowy/icy.

Clouds: To keep things simple, only the 3 main types of clouds are included (cumulus, cirrus, and stratus). Students will circle the picture that BEST illustrates what the clouds look like that day.

Predictions: Students will use their observations of weather patterns and cloud formations to make an educated guess on what they think the weather will be like tomorrow. They will also explain why they think that, so that they are not just putting whatever they want and actually thinking about what it could be.

There are two days included per page, and 10 days are included. Of course, you certainly do not have to use all the days! Do it for two days, a week, or all ten - whatever your class needs!

Also included in the journal is a cloud reference sheet. It features the same cloud pictures as the daily log, but they are bigger and include names and descriptions. This can be helpful to students as they are determining what clouds they are seeing and what weather changes that could possibly mean. Blow it up and hang it as a poster in your room, or include it in the back of the journals for easy reference.

How to Use Weather Journals for Students

I don't have windows in my room, so I start my science block by going outside for about 5 minutes so students can fill out their journals. It also helps to break up the day and gives a nice change of environment! It's great to get out of the classroom for a few minutes while still doing something meaningful and educational.

Whatever lesson you're teaching, remember the why behind it, and get creative! How can you incorporate a real-world application into this lesson? What activities can you do that will really get students to buy in to what they're learning? The more it applies to them, the better!

If you have any questions about my weather journals, drop them below! You can download this resource here.

How do you teach your students the why behind the lesson?

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How to Use Weather Journals for Students

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Why Use Weather Journals for Students? One of the best ideas I've ever had as a teacher (in my personal opinion) was to record our weather everyday in weather journals for students. Why was this my best idea ever? As a student, I often wondered why I was learning something.

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students will make a two week long weather journal where they record weather data for each day for 14 days

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Be a Weather Watcher | Weather Science | SciShow Kids

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In this project, students engage in investigations and observations of the weather to create a local weather guide. They work together as a class to count and graph information such as temperature, observations of rain/snow/sun, and feelings of heat or cold. Students reflect on the data they gather and draw conclusions about patterns over time. Students also reflect on and engage in discussions about how weather affects their daily lives, considering factors such as what they wear in different kinds of weather, how the weather affects their daily activities and forms of transportation, and how they feel in different kinds of weather.

Note that this project may be completed in a few weeks with a focus on weather during a particular time period or it may be spread out across a greater span of time in order to capture more variability in weather conditions.

Log in to learn more about this project

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In this project, students engage in investigations and observations of the weather to create a local weather guide. They work together as a class to count and graph information such as temperature, observations of rain/snow/sun, and feelings of heat or cold. Students reflect on the data they gather and draw conclusions about patterns over time.

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How can we teach people about the weather in our community?

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-Individual Weather Journal
-Whole class weather Guide

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Key Standards:
K-ESS2-1 Use and share observations of local weather conditions to describe patterns over time.
SL.K.3 Ask and answer questions in order to seek help, get information, or clarify something that is not understood.
ISTE 1.6 Students communicate clearly and express themselves creatively for a variety of purposes using the platforms, tools, styles, formats and digital media appropriate to their goals.

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Students can use google classroom to find recourses for the project along with assignments

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Classroom Management Tools & Resources - Google for Education

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Get started with Google Classroom, a central hub for tools and resources designed to help educators manage classrooms and enrich learning experiences.

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Pinterest is full of resources for every topic! We accumulated some resources to pull from when creating this unit.

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15 Rain or Shine Project ideas in 2022 | weather unit, teaching weather, weather activities

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Feb 20, 2022 - Explore Charlie Finstrom’s board “Rain or Shine Project” on Pinterest. See more ideas about weather unit, teaching weather, weather activities.

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Students generate a list of need to knows. What do learners need to know to successfully answer the driving question?

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Students generate a list of need to knows. What do learners need to know to successfully answer the driving question?

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"The important thing is not to stop questioning. Curiosity has its own reason for existing." - Albert Einstein

Engaging in inquiry means being comfortable living in uncertainty. Of course, asking questions and finding answers is not only productive in a PBL project, but just living in general. That being said, inquiry ( the act of questioning) is not just about gathering information. In fact, I would argue that inquiry in its truest form should serve the purpose of asking more questions.

I have found it difficult for students to fully invest in their learning when a teacher guides them through a path that was decided before they even got into the room.

In our 4th-grade classroom, we are consistently asking each other questions such as "What do you think?" "What do you wonder?" "How do you know?" "What more do you want to know?" These questions provoke, challenge, and stimulate us, while at the same time valuing original thoughts and voices.

High-quality projects always start by valuing the student's voice, when we engage students with an entry event/fieldwork experience, and let them ask powerful questions they want to pursue the answers to. In our most recent project, students engaged in fieldwork and created a film festival around the big idea, "Stories have the power to influence change." Being a large school, we identified the authentic problem of a lack of connection between parts of our student body. We then framed our driving question: "How can we share our stories with the school community, through the mediums of poetry and art?"

We use the QFT (Question Formulation Technique), a structured, step by step process created by The Right Question Institute, to stimulate inquiry during the launch of a project. This process for generating student questions can take time, but I've found that it provides my students (and me) a way to make meaning and organization of the messy, exciting beginnings of projects. These questions arise from the need and urgency our driving question provides. We call the questions our "Need to Knows."

"Need to Knows" guide our work.

The QFT process helps make sure they are meaningful and productive questions-ones we can frame our project around. After a flurry of questions were raised by the students after the entry event, we went to prioritizing and improving our questions. "Which questions get us to the heart of our project? Which questions are fixed? Open-ended?"

After improving and prioritizing our first lines of inquiry, we are ready to jump in. This process is intentionally guided for two reasons: 1) to ensure the lines of inquiry students pursue are serving the authentic problem at the center of our project, and 2) they have a framework to come back to as we move through the phases of our project.

Our project wall helps organize the sustained inquiry that will be central to student learning during our project.

"Need to Knows" are not simply posted on the wall and never referred back to. These questions authentically guide the path of the project.

In our current project, adapted from EL Education's open-source ELA curriculum, questions such as "What inspires people to write poetry?" and "Why do people share stories?" require further unpacking. We cannot find the answers to these questions without asking more questions. For example, from the guiding question of "Why do people share stories?" more questions were elicited such as:

How do we learn more about ourselves?

How can we learn more about each other?"

What is the value of multiple perspectives?"

How can we entertain others with our writing?

Students are the drivers of where and how we pursue the answers to these questions, and what other questions we ask. The project wall is an interactive tool that students use to manage the project, and keep track of what "Need to Knows" have been answered, and what questions require further exploration.

Mini-lessons, workshops, and independent research are the main levers in how we find the answers to these questions.

My role as an educator is to step in at the just-right time when my students are pushing the boundaries of the learning pit. When we are struggling to answer a question as a class, or independently, these levers provide the most meaningful instruction. What are our next steps when the answers to these questions have been found?

Just as my students might be struggling to find answers to questions, they can also get into an "inquiry slump." They may feel lost or overwhelmed with the next questions to ask. Big, open-ended questions can cause this frustration. We know as a team that when this happens, we need to take a break and ask some fixed and more low-level questions that are more manageable. Identifying these questions with different color post-its or markers is critical in helping my students understand the inquiry process.

When used intentionally, and often, sustained inquiry can ensure students are active, engaged participants in their learning.

Our learners are entering a world where they can decide what they want to learn, when they want to learn, and how they want to learn. One of my roles as a facilitator of learning is to help them navigate the complexity of inquiry, so they are prepared to enter the modern world.

Student voice is beginning to become a buzz-word in education. If I want to truly value my learner's voices, they need to be a critical part of robust inquiry. Re-directing my students back to our "Need to Know's" in a project lets them know that their questions are at the heart of our learning process.

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How We Use "Need to Know" Questions to Guide Sustained Inquiry

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A 4th grade teacher explains how he generates student questions and uses them in a project to let students know their voices are valued.