We are currently spending the year virtually traveling through the different regions of the United States. (Here are our trips to the Northeast and Midwest.) The past couple of weeks we spent in Florida, which led to a hurricane unit study! Here is everything we did to learn about hurricanes!
First, we filled out the K and W parts of a KWL chart to access prior knowledge and curiosity about hurricanes. (K=Know; W=Want to know; L=Learned)
Then we watched this SciShow Kids’ video about hurricanes and then watched some news footage of real hurricanes from the past.
Next, we read the Magic School Bus: Inside a Hurricane to learn more and had a few more books on our shelf for reference. Can’t go wrong with Ms. Frizzle! This packet from Super Teacher Worksheets was also an excellent resource to help fill in some of the gaps. Afterwards, we filled in the L portion of the KWL with what we learned.
Finally, this fun STEM challenge by Carly and Adam was a great addition to our unit and really got those problem solving gears turning! My son had to come up with a house that would would not flood and that had a roof that stayed put in the wind (AKA fan)! He had popsicle sticks, play-doh, masking tape, a pan, and construction paper to use. I thought he came up with a great design! He realized some things as he was making it as well, and kept revising his design as we moved along. Sometimes it is SO hard to keep my mouth shut during these activities, but it’s all about testing and learning from those tests, so I made sure to let him do what he thought would work!
Unfortunately, his posts fell as soon as that “wind” hit it! BUT his roof stayed on the entire time and so did the floor of his house! We talked about what he would do differently based on the outcome of his test and he recorded his answer in his STEM journal that is part of the resource.
After doing the STEM challenge we watched this video about how one house withstood the incredible winds of Hurricane Michael in 2018, which was pretty fascinating! My son asked why all buildings built on the coasts of the southeast aren’t built that way, and I told him that was a very good question!
I hope this post on our hurricane unit study was helpful! Be sure to pin it to save!
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