Lesson Plan (Grades K-2): Weather Word Weather Vane: Tracking Daily Forecasts Through Poetry, Engineering, and Literacy
Track daily weather with a poem-inspired, student-built weather vane; build K–2 vocabulary, data skills, and simple sentence writing through hands-on STEM and literacy integration.
Lesson Title: Weather Word Weather Vane: Tracking Daily Forecasts Through Poetry, Engineering, and Literacy
Grade Level: Grades K–2
Subject Area: Science & Language Arts
Overview In this integrated STEM and literacy lesson, students will read and discuss a weather-themed poem, then design and build their own mini weather vanes labeled with word cards (e.g., “sun,” “rain,” “wind,” “snow”). Each day over a week, they will observe actual weather conditions, rotate their vane to point at the matching word, record their observations on a daily chart, and compose simple sentences describing the day’s forecast. Through this project, learners strengthen vocabulary, apply engineering design principles, practice fine motor and collaboration skills, and develop an early understanding of data collection and writing to inform.
Objectives and Standards
Learning Objectives By the end of this lesson, students will be able to:
- Identify Weather Vocabulary: Recognize and name common weather conditions (sunny, rainy, windy, snowy) through poem reading and daily observation.
- Engineering Design & Construction: Construct a functioning weather vane that can rotate freely on a mast and label it accurately with weather word cards.
- Data Collection & Graphing: Record daily weather observations on a class chart and individual worksheets, identifying patterns over time.
- Sentence Composition: Use sentence frames to write or dictate simple, accurate sentences about daily weather (e.g., “Today is sunny.”).
- Collaboration & Reflection: Work in pairs to build and use the vane, discuss observations, and reflect on design and data collection processes.
Standards Alignment
- Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS)
- K-ESS2-1: Use and share observations of local weather conditions to describe patterns over time.
- Common Core State Standards (CCSS) for English Language Arts
- CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.K.4: Ask and answer questions about unknown words in a text.
- CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.K.2: Use drawing, dictating, or writing to compose informative/explanatory texts in which they name what they are writing about and supply some information about the topic.
- CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.SL.K.4: Describe familiar people, places, things, and events with prompting and support.