Summary: This book shares a story of a perspective snow day between a family. The point of view is kept secret throughout most of the story. The family watched the news where they  learn about a coming snowstorm and dream up all that they will do on their snow day. But, do they actually get a snow day in the end?

Theme Connection: Weather affects us in many ways, especially if you live in a cold climate during the winter. This book shares a  story that all of us face living where we do. This book also supports readers’ background knowledge and helps them begin to truly see weather’s impact on everyday life. 

Complexity: (Lexile 460L)

This book is just below the third grade reading level which starts at 520. The language/vocabulary used in this book might be similar, but it leaves the students guessing what is going to happen as well as guessing who the narrator is. This book requires students to actively thing about what is happening throughout the story. I also want students to be able to see how weather affects us, or doesn’t affect us in our own lives, so having a “simpler” text will help them focus on what I want them to instead of focusing on the language. 

With this text I recommend an interactive read aloud. Asking questions throughout, having students think-pair-share their own experiences of having snow days or thinking that they might have snow day. 

Summary: 

This is a sweet story of a granddaughter and her babushka as a thunderstorm approaches their farm. As the storm approaches the granddaughter is scared but babushka distracts the granddaughter by collecting materials and baking a cake together. Babushka then shares how brave her granddaughter has been, making her realize that she had been brave the whole time.   

This text helps the reader connect weather events to their own lives and think about how they react to different storms. 

This book is within the third grade reading level. This book is perfectly fitted for the intended grade range. Some vocabulary would need to be scaffolded to help all students participate in the activity. 

Instructional uses: For this book I would do a think aloud, sharing my own storm experiences, modeling how I connect my background knowledge to what we are talking about. A discussion can follow about what they do during a thunderstorm, how they feel, any traditions like the main characters, and how they might feel in the future after reading this book.

Summary:  This story is set during a period of very hot and dry weather. The characters are suffering from the heat and want rain to come. Tessie, the main character, notices a cloud in the distance and hopes for rain to come, repeating the phrase, “Come on, rain!” The story ends with a rainstorm actually coming and rejuvenating the neighborhood. 

Theme Connection: Through this book we see some of the implications of hot dry weather, and how much rain is needed. In the beginning of the story, the characters are hot and warn from the blazing sun, the plants are also suffering from the intense heat. This can help students see the importance of rain and some of the effects of drought.  

Complexity: (Lexile 660L)

This books is right in the middle of the third grade range. This text, with support, is perfect to dig deeper and begin to look at deeper implications of weather on communities. Some ideas will need to be scaffolded with other sources, but this would be good to assist in creating a discussion.

Instructional uses: After reading this book and looking at some of our other resources  a discussion will be held about the importance of rain, both in small and large scale. How weather of all types affects many things, both people and vegetation.

Summary: Wind has wreaked havoc on a community. Within this brief book we see some of what wind can do and a glimpse of the power of wind. The illustrations also helps bring to life this power in a comedic, light hearted way. 

Although we cannot see wind, it is a major factor when looking at weather. Wind (at different elevations) is one of the factors that causes weather to change/ move. 

Complexity: (Lexile 520L)

This book is at the very low end of the third grade reading level. The syntax of the sentences can be a little confusing but the vocabulary is not very difficult. The illustrations are directly associated with the text, helping in any confusion. 

This literary work can help bring the students to look at and discuss various types of weather, and what weather elements they may not have thought of before. This story can also be a launch point to discuss how weather moves. 

Summary: In this book Gail Gibbons describes the job of a weather forecaster. In this book the readers learn about the job of weather forecasting and the different tools used for the job throughout the different seasons. 

Theme Connection: This text helps students see who and what is needed to predict weather day to day. There are explicit descriptions of these peoples jobs and tools as well as images to help in understanding the concepts. 

Complexity: (Lexile 640L)

This is an appropriately complex text and different features within the text make this text not too difficult. There are only a few sentences on every page, and the illustrations are matched with the information presented on each page. Because this is an informational text there are also definition and labeled diagrams of more complex ideas. 

Instructional Uses: This book would be used as a mentor text for how  informational books are written and what text features are used to help present important information. This book will be looked back on throughout the unit to connect back to information we learn, or if we come across tricky vocabulary words or are unsure of what a specific weather instrument is. 

Summary: This book talks about what weather is, different extremes of weather like tornados, hurricanes, droughts, blizzards floods and so on. This book is also filled with detailed maps, charts, and images illustrating different ideas. Weather predicting is also a large part of this book, there is a description of weather prediction throughout history and the tools used to predict weather. There are also sections that talk about storm chasers, activity pages and a list of resources to go to for further research. 

Theme Connection: This text helps give students access to important information relating to weather as well as giving them many fun facts and intriguing images to help capture and keep their interests. 

Complexity: (Lexile 950L)According to the lexile level, this is a pretty difficult text. However, this book will not be used on its own, but used as a support, or continuation of other texts. This text also contains  traditional informational text features which will help students know how to move through this text. The images, captions, charts, and labels help in understanding this text.

Instructional Uses: First, this text can be used as a model to distinguish between important information and interesting information. This text will also be used across the unit to reinforce other sources. This text will also be available to students to read when they have choice reading time or other free time. This book provides important information to help guide understanding but it also filed with ‘fun facts’ and other interesting information.

Summary: This book gives a brief overview of why seasons change and how they change depending on where you are on Earth. After the description each season is then broken down individually, telling the reader what typically happens in the said season. The book also touches on the idea of weather and climate of both the Poles and Equator. 

Theme Connection: This book can help the reader begin to see the difference between weather and climate. This distinction is important and this book can help explain this difference. Certain areas of the planet have different climates depending on where they are or what time of year it is.   

Complexity: Lexile 620L

Although this book is in the midrange of third, the writing itself is not that complex. Students need to be able to use background knowledge in order to fully understand and take in what is being said. The vocabulary can be tricky, but the use of labeled diagrams and comparisons make what is being said easier to take in. Also each season is set up in a similar manner, allowing the reader to focus on the information instead of focusing on new syntax. 

Instructional uses:  An anchor chart can be created for what students know --or think they know-- about the distinctions between weather and climate. After filling in what we can, this book can be read. This book can be used to help students further distinguish between weather and climate and give them language that may not have been available to them before. After reading hold another discussion and add more to the chart. This can also be a jumping off point to look at their AWT project.

Summary: This book addresses the history of climate change research,  what climate change looks like, and how it has and is affecting everything on earth. The reader is introduced to this in the before the first chapter even starts in a section called what is climate change. This prologue gave the reader insights into how a changing climate is affecting polar bears across the arctic. This book goes into detail to explain different aspects of climate change and discusses what is causing the warming of the Earth, provides points of view from multiple perspectives, describes  how this is affecting people's lives not just with changes in weather and overall climate and so on. 

Theme Connection: This book connects with the students’ authentic writing task. Students will be able to use knowledge that they acquired from this book to help guide their thinking and prepare them for their presentations. 

Complexity: Lexile 830L

This book is quite difficult for the third grade, it is just above the the grades top lexile level. However, I do not expect students to read this book in its entirety independently or without supports from their peers. This book needs to be scaffolded with other resources, as well as explicit instruction of key vocabulary.

Instructional uses: Parts of this book will be read aloud to students and other parts students will work in groups to read and discuss the big ideas of what was read in scaffolded activities. While reading, different anchor charts will be filled out with important details that can be referred to later on. An additional use for this book would be to have students use this as an mentor text (on the second reading or later of a given chapter) to distinguish between important and interesting details using the GRR process. 

Summary: This text introduces students to the concept of Earth having an atmosphere as well as different levels within the atmosphere. After giving an overview of of what the atmosphere is, the text moves on to explaining the troposphere, which is a layer of the atmosphere. We learn where the troposphere is and what happens there.  

Theme Connection: Students can use this article to add to their background knowledge when looking at other texts. Specifically when the atmosphere is mentioned, they will have a better understanding of what it is as well as know which sphere (the troposphere) humans live and weather occurs in. 

Complexity: Even though this text is geared towards students, due to the combination of the complexity of the information presented and high academic vocabulary demands, I would say that this is a moderately difficult leveled text. The most difficult words are repeated throughout the short text giving students multiple exposures of the word in context. The use of comparisons also helps the reader understand the complex ideas that are presented.  

Instructional uses: This text can be used to give students more specific details about what the atmosphere is, where and what the troposphere is and what occurs  in this layer. After a discussion about what was learned, important information can be added to our weather and climate anchor chart.

Summary: This website briefly explains what climate is as well as defines major vocabulary words that the reader will encounter. The authors explain the difference between weather and climate by providing definitions for both. Factors that affect both weather and climate are also explored including natural barriers like mountains and the position of the Earth in comparison to the sun. There are a lot of answers to questions that are likely to be asked when discussing this topic. 

Theme Connection: Students ask many questions and need to be able to explore resources to help answer them, they also need to explore resources to come up with and continue questioning. This website provides brief answers to and possible jumping off points for many aspects concerning weather and climate. 

Complexity: This text is slightly to moderately complex. There is some academic language that will be difficult for students, but some words are already defined at the top of the webpage. The webpage is also organized in a way that is not confusing and is user accessible (also readily printable) Background knowledge and connections to other texts would make this text easier to understand. However, the short blurbs make obtaining individual pieces of information/ideas/concepts easier and more digestible. 

Instructional uses:  This text could be used for students to explore, think of questions, answer questions they have, and start conversations about weather and climate as well as be used and referenced multiple times throughout this unit. This webpage can also be used in part of the GRR process of distinguishing between important and interesting facts. 

Summary: This source is split between labeled diagram and text. The image depicts the water cycle, showing and naming the different stages. The written portion of this source explains what clouds are made out of (water), the process of evaporation, and the cause of precipitation.  

Theme Connection: This source pairs both written and visual aids to help understand the process of the water cycle and inturn weather. This source can help answer why does it rain?, why do storms happen?, what happens to water when it rains? And so on. 

Complexity: This text is not that difficult. The use of image and text together help build an overall understanding of the topic. There is academic language used but they are explained both described in words and show in the illustration. 

Instructional uses:  This source can be used to show why precipitation happens. First I would ask students to look at the illustration and read the short text independently. Then I would have them get into their groups and share their thinking about what they see and have read. We would then share as a whole class what was learned, what happened in the water cycle and why. A connection to other texts read and connections to storms talked about can be made to help come full circle.

Summary: (skip section titled “The ‘Lapse Rate’ Explained” This short text explains why snow is able to happen in Hawaii. Although Hawaii has a hot/warm climate year round, portions of the island have high altitudes. The higher you go up into the atmosphere the cooler it gets, so at the peak of mountains, even if the ground (sea level) temperature is 70º, it might be 30º, allowing it to snow if precipitation happens. It can and does snow in Hawaii, and totals can add up to pretty high numbers but it typically does melt fast. 

Theme Connection: There are many misconceptions about climate, like the fact that it can snow in warm climates. Hawaii is known for its warm weather and beaches, but not many people know that snow can be found on the island. This text can help students understand that there are many factors that leads to different weather. In the case of Hawaii, altitude plays a major role in why it is able to snow.

Complexity: This article does contain some academic language that will need to be supported. However, this article is geared more towards kids, so academic language is kept to the most important. Students will also need to make a new definition of weather and climate to understand the ability of snow to happen in such a warm climate. This will be difficult for many to comprehend at first. The overall writing of the text is not overly complex, excluding the section I noted above. 

Instructional uses: This text can be used in many ways. As a class we can read and annotate this text together. Then this text can add the to the conversation of weather versus climate. We know Hawaii as a hot climate, so how can it snow? This question can drive a great discussion. Another way to use this article is to connect it with current events, this was written a year ago, and this year Hawaii had its lowest altitude snow ever, this can aid in our discussion of climate change. 

Summary: Within this playlist there are three separate weather clips. One is a crunching of someone walking over fresh snow, another is rain during a thunderstorm and the last is of a sunny day, you can hear a light wind and birds chirping. 

Theme Connection: Weather takes all of our senses. In many cases we can decipher what the weather is like based on the sounds we hear around us. This will help students hear the difference in weather types. A clarification will be made that the types of weather presented will not always necessarily sound like this but this is a general sense. 

Complexity: The difficulty level for these texts will vary depending on students’ prior experiences and background knowledge of weather. For students who have not experienced snow this activity will be very difficult, while those who have will have an easier time. 

Instructional uses: This text will be used for a visualizing activity. Students will participate in a think-pair-share where each clip will be played, they will picture what is happening in the clip, share with a partner and discuss. The parties will then share what they saw with the whole group.

Summary: In total this resource is just under 30 minutes long (This will be split up by question.) This is a podcast covers many topics from why weather happens, different types of weather and what conditions cause them, as well as other climates are addressed and including why the Earth does not experience the same weather all at once. All the questions are asked by kids of various ages and are answered by a meteorologist. 

Theme Connection: This resource answers many questions children have about precipitation, clouds, and other weather events. The responses from this resource can add to or confirm what students already know about weather and climate. They can also hear questions that they are thinking about being asked by children their age, younger and older, and hear a response by a professional. 

Complexity: This resource is geared to younger students, and definitions and examples are given for aspects presented throughout the podcast. Concepts are broken down into attainable pieces and in terms that are easily understood. Academic language is used but it is thoroughly explained.  

Instructional uses: The resource will be split up over time, and connected to what is currently being explored. Before listening students will come up with various questions, while listening they will see if their question was answered and what questions need further research to fully answer. During each section the audio should be paused periodically to ask questions or think more deeply about the information that was just presented and write down wonderings for future research. 

Summary: (0:24-end) This song talks about different forms of weather. The hook is “Hey! The weather is the state of the atmosphere.”  A description of different weather events is given and the listener is given the opportunity to ‘act like’ different storm types. The most common and popular weather types are mentioned throughout the song. 

Theme Connection: This song has moments where it asks its listeners to act like different storms, like a tornado, it is one thing to see and learn about different storms, but actually moving like a given storm is more concrete. 

Complexity: This resource, without the accompanying lyrics would be hard to grasp all at once. Multiple listens would be needed to get all of the information out of this song. The academic language presented is not that challenging, some vocabulary terms and core ideas would need to be scaffolded but overall this is not an overly complex source.

Instructional uses: After listening to the song a few times and learning what it means to become a storm, the class will participate in various activities of becoming storms and the different experiences they feel. An example would be a hurricane where someone spins and the push and pull their hands away and to the sides of their body. Their body represents the eye of the storm and their outstretched arms represent the wind speeds in the outer bands of the storm.  

Summary: This image is split into four sectors. Each image within the graphic is of the same location, however, the scenery of the images are different. The different sectors represent the different seasons. Spring is filled with bright pink flower blooms and vibrant grass. The summer image displays lush green grass and leaves. In the fall the image displays the leaves changing colors and falling to the ground. Finally, in the winter shot snow covers the ground and there are no leaves on the trees.  

Theme Connection: Climate has many implications. This visual can help students see how climate changes in certain regions throughout a 1 year period. 

Complexity: This visual needs students to use their background knowledge about the different seasons and what happened during this time. The fact that this image cluster focuses in the same spot helps direct the students to look at what is happening in the photos instead of finding other unimportant details. The complexity of the image increases when asking what is happening in each photo and how they relate to each other. 

Instructional use: Students will look at each photo and think about what is happening in each image and how they relate. Students will share what image matches what season and discuss why they think that. Students will discuss until all (or most) students agree and present their arguments and reasoning. 

Summary: There are eleven images provided by National Geographic ranging many areas that are affected by climate change. Shared are images of drought, melting icebergs, rising oceans, forest fires, deforestation, hungry animals and plants, and  red tides (algae bloom). These images are powerful and detailed.

Theme Connection: This resource will help students see real impacts of climate change and why it is important to pay attention to it. It is easy to read about climate change and not really connect with it but when pictures showing its impacts are displayed it becomes more real. 

Complexity: This resource is very complex. There are various images in this collection ranging from melting ice caps, hungry polar bears, more extreme wildfires, deforestation, and so on. Although there are no words, these images make students think a lot, really using their background knowledge and the context clues within the images themselves (and knowing the context through what has been discussed).

Instructional use: Images will be presented to students. Before learning what they are, students will take into consideration their background knowledge, what they have learned throughout this unit, visual cues, and discussion with their peers to try to figure out what is happening. Some of the images are very detailed while others are simple and hard to decipher (making them more complex to understand). After trying to decide what each image is, students will share their ideas and decide as a class.  A description provided by the website will be read aloud for clarification or for any misunderstandings. 

Summary: This map is found on the weather channel's website. The radar map can show both past and future weather as well as has many filters to look at different types of weather and how they move across the country. 

Theme Connection: This interactive visual can show students how weather moves and changes over time as well as show how weather changes depending on the climate in which it is located. 

Complexity: This resource requires students to use many skills, those relating to the concept of weather and climate as well as how to use the weather channel’s website/how to manipulate the different toggles to view aspects of what is available. Extra time for students to explore the website and ask questions is needed in order to get the most out of the activity.  

Instructional use: Students will have time to explore the website and get used to the different options available to them. After they know where to find things and how to use the website the focus will change to look at the weather map itself, seeing how the weather moves and what type of weather is happening where. Students will note their surprises, and wonderings. 

Summary: This Collage contains 4 images of different weather types including windy, rainy, sunny, and foggy. Each image has distinct features to let the viewer know what they are looking at. 

Theme Connection: This visual will help students see a variety of different weather types and notice different elements connected with that specific type of weather. 

Complexity: These images are not that complex if there has been prior experience with each given type of weather. The most complex images are the fog and wind images. Fog does not occur on a consistent basis in all areas, some students may be very familiar with the different elements of fog while others may have never seen it before. The image if wind may be tricky because the only movement able to be seen in the image id the bending of the trees, this is a slight but crucial detail. Prior experience is the key to complexity for these images.

Instructional use: Students will work in groups and write down what they notice about the different images. They will discuss what is happening in the images and what elements help them identify that. 

Summary: This podcasts answers the question why do leaves turn colors in the fall. The listeners learn what causes leaves to be green and what triggers them to start to change color as well as why they change color in the fall each year. Also learned is why and how new growth forms during the spring. 

Theme Connection: Weather and climate affect many things. This podcast helps show students that plants are affected by changing climate.

Complexity: This source does use some academic language that will need to be scaffolded in order to understand what is being said. Background knowledge and access to any anchor charts would be beneficial to students and lessen the overall complexity. The connected activity requires the students to think deeply about the interactions between what was discussed in the podcast as well as what they already know or have learned in this unit so the complexity level would be on the higher end of moderate. 

Instructional uses: Playing this audio track would better help students to understand that weather and in this case climate affect all living things, including plants/trees. While listening to the podcast, students will discuss what they already know is affected by weather/climate, as well as how and why said things are affected. After listening a discussion on how plants/trees are affected by both weather and climate. 

Summary: This source discusses how pollution is affecting weather and climate. 

Theme Connection: This source helps students make the connection between pollution and climate change/bigger more destructive storms. This source pulls in multiple other sources connecting different ideas and showing how they work together. 

Complexity: This is the most complex text of the unit. Academic language is used without scaffolding. Many of the words presented in this video have been discussed and learned throughout the unit, but more support and guidance will be needed for this 2 minute clip. 

Instructional use: As students watch on the first viewing, they will note any vocabulary that they do not know the definition of or that confuses them. This first viewing will also give students a chance to get used to the British accents of this video. On the second viewing students will begin to pull out important or interesting facts, categorizing them in their appropriate places. After a third viewing students will discuss what they learned and add their knowledge to an appropriate anchor chart.

Summary: Ms. Frizzle takes the class on another school field trip, however this time Ralphie aka WeatherMan is in control. The class creates many types of weather before heading back to school. 

Theme Connection: This episode shows its viewers all of the different elements it takes to create weather and how the amount of each cause different weather effects. Students can learn about what makes storms.

Complexity: This resource was created for this general age range. The vocabulary demands are on target, but will need to be explicitly taught. The complex ideas about weather are paired with detailed visuals that help show the viewer what is meant by ‘updraft’ for example.  

Instructional use: This video will be paused periodically to monitor for understanding and discuss key ideas. Clarification will be made if there are any misconceptions. After the video is done students will hold a class discussion. Important details that come out of that discussion will be added to the class’ weather anchor chart. 

Summary: This 22 minute video explains different climates ( warm, cool, dry, wet…) and how different plants, animals, and people have adapted to these climates. Climate change is also touched on in this video.

Theme Connection: This video makes another definition of climate attainable. In this video the viewers are able to see various climates within the United States as well as  around the world. 

Complexity: This video is slightly to moderately complex. Academic vocabulary is used, but it is also scaffolded within this video. Most of the vocabulary talked about has already been discussed, so this will add to the students multiple exposures to the academic language. Students will also need to synthesize the information learned in this video with that of what has already been learned. 

Instructional use: Discussion of what was talked, how does this video relate to what we have already learned about and what information is new (notes taken throughout video to aid in discussion). A recreation of the rain experiment will also be done using this video, students will get to see aspects of the water cycle first hand and help make those ideas/concepts more concrete.

Summary: This video makes a clear distinction between weather and climate. The viewer learns that weather is what happens day to day and climate is the collection of weather data points over a given length of time. Weather can change day to day, but it takes climate a lot longer (even hundreds and thousands of years) to change.

Theme Connection: Making the distinction between weather and climate is crucial to understanding this unit. This resource really helps explicitly explain and show the difference  between weather and climate. 

Complexity: Due to the images, explicit descriptions of the different elements being talked about, and the repetition of terms, this text is not overly complex. Students are learning how to determine important vs. interesting facts so that will make this activity more complex, but it will also be scaffolded. 

Instructional use: Video will be paused periodically to ask questions, students will answer them using what they already know, once answers have been given the video will resume and the answer presented to the class. A discussion of the videos big ideas will be held after the video is over, all important details will be added to the class weather and climate anchor chart.

Summary: This page discusses the importance the ocean has for the world. The reader learns how the ocean absorbs energy, heat, and CO2 from the atmosphere and how the ocean affects climate.

Theme Connection: Many things affect weather and climate and the ocean is one of those things, and one of the largest things since it covers so much of the Earth's surface. This source allows students to gain insights  into one of the major things that is helping the Earth regulate its heat, while also explaining how the current mass consumption of CO2 is causing harm to underwater ecosystems.

Complexity: This source is geared towards students. This webpage’s organization helps break the information down into more understandable parts. There are also pictures and videos to help aid in large ideas. Diagrams are also provided to avoid confusion. This is a source for students to ask and answer questions  

Instructional Use: This source can be used for students to explore, ask questions, and discuss with peers as well as prompt students to want to know more. This will be used as a launching point as well as referenced while talking about climate and climate change. 

Summary:This is a list that describes different reasons that rain is important. 

Theme Connection: Rain is crucial to life. Although there can be extremes, rain is beneficial and needed. This source can helps students see why we need weather and how it is important to our daily lives. 

Complexity:  This is a very uncomplicated text, while there are no images used the language is not very complex. Students will access prior knowledge and experiences to connect with the text. For the words that are difficult for some students, supplemental images and definitions will be presented.

Instructional Use: This source would be used during a class discussion. I would prompt students to think about and discuss with partners why rain is important. After some discussion time we could come back and share what was discussed. This list would then be presented, we would see what was mentioned on the list that we said, what we mentioned that was not on the list, and what was on the list that was not mentioned.