weather Archives - Look! We're Learning!

Simple Elementary Hurricane Unit for Kids

July 13, 2021 by Selena Robinson 2 Comments

It’s the beginning of summer and that’s usually the time that the Atlantic Hurricane Season kicks into high gear.

We’ve been learning about hurricanes for a few weeks, so I thought I’d share a simple hurricane unit for kids that helps students learn about these weather phenomena.

If you like using unit studies, this is a perfect way to talk about wild summer weather!

Read on to see the list of videos, activities, and resources you can use to teach early elementary students about hurricanes and cyclones. Plus, grab two free printable activities for studying hurricanes too!

For more weather learning, take a look at our list of 15 Weather STEM Activities for kids to try!

This hurricane unit for kids is a perfect way to talk about extreme weather over summer!

How to Use a Hurricane Unit for Kids

I’ve always been fascinated by hurricanes. They’re basically cyclones over water, which is amazing in itself.

They’re incredibly destructive, but the weather phenomena they produce is breathtaking, especially in satellite images.

We had to evacuate a couple of times when I was a kid and I thought it was exciting. As a child, you don’t understand that the possibility of your house being destroyed is not a fun thing.

But I still find the Atlantic Hurricane Season, which runs from June 1 to November 30, to be an interesting time of year for studying extreme weather.

What is a Hurricane for Kids

Watch the video below to learn about hurricanes form. Have your students answer the questions that follow and record their answers on paper.

(The note taking pages at the bottom of this page are perfect for this!)

Where do hurricanes form? (Answer: They form in the warm ocean waters near the Equator.)
How do hurricanes form? (Answer: Warm air above the ocean rises, creating low pressure under the water. Surrounding air rushes into the low pressure area, forming an area of warm, moist low pressure that rises above the water. As air continues to rush in, clouds form. The ocean’s warmth and water vapor causes the clouds and wind to spin.)
How large can hurricanes become? (Answer: Up to 300 miles wide.)
What is the eye of a hurricane? (Answer: The calm center of the storm.)
What is the eye wall of a hurricane? (Answer: The wall of winds that surround the eye. These winds are the most damaging. The eye wall can be up to 30 miles in width.)
What are the rainbands? (Answer: The rain clouds that surround the eye wall. These can be up to 300 miles in width.)
Which hurricane categories are the most dangerous? (Answer: Category 3, Category 4, and Category 5)
How powerful is the energy released by a large hurricane? (Answer: Energy equal to the blast of 10 atomic bombs per second.)
What are hurricanes that form in the Pacific Ocean called? (Answer: Typhoons)

Hurricane Activities for Kids

These are plenty of ways to learn about summer storms! Try some of these elementary hurricane learning activities in your hurricane unit for kids.

Label the Hurricane Activity – A printable diagram that displays the parts of a hurricane
Hurricane In a Jar – An easy science experiment that demonstrates how hurricanes form
Hurricane Comprehension Worksheet – Printable summary of facts about hurricanes
Free Printable Hurricane Booklet – A great tool for tracking hurricanes that develop during the season
Ridiculous Weather Report – Fun activity for kids who want to create their own weather forecast
Hurricane Fill-In-the-Blank Worksheet – A printable report that helps kids understand more about hurricanes
Hurricane Tracking Activity – Printable tracking map for hurricanes
Hurricane Printable Mini Unit – 16-page printable pack with facts and activities about hurricanes
5th Grade Hurricane Worksheets – Excellent hurricane printables for upper elementary kids with answer key

Hurricane Note Taking Pages

Round out your hurricane unit study with these printable note taking pages! They’re super handy for writing down some of the facts students will learn in this unit.

Just click the image or the link below to get your set free!

>>>> Tropical Storm Notebooking Pages <<<<

Hurricane Facts Matching Activity

Ready to learn more about different kinds of hurricanes?

This printable hurricane categories matching activity is perfect for introducing students to the Saffir-Simpson scale of hurricane strength.

Along with a brief summary of hurricanes, this activity shows students how to classify each storm’s strength based on its sustained wind speed per hour.

An answer key is also included for easy grading!

To get your copy of this Hurricane Categories Matching Activity, click the image or the link below to have it sent directly to your inbox!

You’ll also get our weekly newsletter – coming this Sunday!

>>> Hurricane Categories Matching Activity <<<

Want to learn more about weather with kids? Don’t miss these other ideas!

Printable Spanish Flashcards: Spanish Weather Flashcards

March 22, 2018 by Selena Robinson 3 Comments

Learning about how to talk about the weather is a great way to build a foreign language vocabulary. Just think about it: How many times a week do you mention the weather in English? A lot, right? I think I must tell my kids “It’s windy!” a dozen times a day. Especially when I need them to remember their hats.

So for our newest set of printable Spanish flashcards, we’re sharing a Spanish Weather Flashcards pack! These cards are great for learning how to use common Spanish weather expressions! Read on to get yours!

Ready to try more Spanish vocabulary practice for kids? Be sure to check out our Spanish Clothing Flashcards and our Spanish Parts of the Body flashcards while you’re here!

Printable Spanish Flashcards: Spanish Weather Flashcards

To use these flashcards, you’ll need the following: (This post contains affiliate links. For details, see our Disclosure Policy.)

Printer (with ink)

Printer paper

Scissors

Laminator (good for reusing the cards)

In this flashcard pack, you’ll find Spanish expressions for the following phrases:

It’s sunny

It’s cloudy

It’s hot

It’s cold

It’s windy

It’s snowing

It’s raining

It’s hailing

In addition, the pack contains a set of flashcards featuring the English expressions and a set with just the pictures for easy quizzing!

You’ll also find a Spanish pronunciation guide to help you learn how to say each phrase correctly. That way, you won’t have to guess at how to say each phrase. 🙂

Scroll down to grab your Printable Spanish Weather Flashcards!

Don’t miss some of our other Spanish learning posts!

Love learning Spanish? Follow my Foreign Language for Homeschoolers board on Pinterest for more resources!

To get your copy of our Printable Spanish Flashcards: Spanish Weather Flashcards, click the image or the link below to visit our Store!

>>> Printable Spanish Flashcards: Spanish Weather Flashcards <<<

Hurricane Lapbook Review

July 22, 2015 by Selena Robinson 1 Comment

Having lived in the southern U.S. for all of my life, summer is just not summer until you talk about hurricanes. 🙂

When I was a child, I lived closer to the coast and we evacuated a couple of times during the 80s and 90s. Hurricanes Hugo, Andrew, and Floyd are the ones I remember the most. As a kid, those experiences are exciting. As an adult? Not so much.

Now that we live farther inland, we don’t worry about hurricanes to the extent people on the coast do, but they’re still fascinating weather patterns to study. So I was excited when I got the chance to try a hurricane lapbook from Knowledge Box Central!

Take a look at how you can use this lapbook in your homeschool! And, for more hurricane learning, don’t miss our Hurricane Unit Study!

Disclosure: I received a copy of this resource in exchange for this post. All opinions are my own and I was not required to post a positive review.

Hurricane Lapbook Review

After getting the hang of the Math Mini Office Lapbook, this one wasn’t much more work. It’s more involved, but I thought it was pretty fun to assemble. Maybe I’m just a nerd. 🙂

I added a hurricane graphic that I got from Wikimedia Commons to the front. Otherwise, I’ll probably forget what it is…lol.

Look at that beauty!

When you get a lapbook from Knowledge Box Central, the assembly instructions show you a completed picture of the inside so you can see where everything goes.

Plus, the instructions explain how to put each book together and even suggest when to use colored paper. A huge help for people who tend to get overwhelmed easily (like yours truly).

Here’s the inside of the first folder. There are three in all.

And the inside of the second folder…

And the third!

Two of the books in the last folder fold down – including the Pet Plan…

…and the Hurricane History book.

I usually start a lapbook activity by just giving the kids a chance to explore all of the minibooks. These are all blank inside, so if they want to use them, they’ve got to learn something to write inside!

What makes this lapbook even better is that the PDF includes most of the information you’ll need to teach about hurricanes. So it’s not just a hurricane lapbook – it’s really a mini hurricane unit study.

I just sent the file to my Kindle Fire and let Tigger read from certain sections. Then we’d discuss them together.

After learning about some of the most destructive hurricanes in U.S. history, Tigger started filling in the “Hurricane History” minibook at the back of the lapbook. She made notes of the year, the name of the storm, the location it affected, and the level of damage. Some of those storms that struck before the invention of modern radar were truly terrible.

Then we flipped back to the beginning of the book and started discussing how meteorologists determine when a storm qualifies to be called a hurricane. We learned about the wind speed requirements for tropical depressions, tropical storms, and hurricanes. Tigger used the information to fill in a minibook.

And, of course, she wanted to learn about tornadoes. What child doesn’t? 🙂

The “Tornadoes” minibook is a flip book that has space for kids to record what they learn about each aspect of these destructive storms. One of the supposed “positive” aspects about hurricanes when I was young was that you generally had plenty of time to evacuate. But tornadoes are, of course, another story. Just another reason to take those hurricane watches seriously.

The Fujita scale has been revised and it is now called the EF scale. We looked up the wind speed classifications online and Tigger filled in her Tornadoes minibook with what we learned. She couldn’t believe that tornadoes could ever have winds of 200 mph or higher. I think we may do a unit study about tornadoes this year as well. 😉

We loved the Hurricane Lapbook from Knowledge Box Central! We’ll be using it throughout the school year and we’re excited about all the things we’ll be learning!

To get a look at the Hurricane Lapbook and all of the other lapbooks available, visit Knowledge Box Central today!

Want to learn more about weather with kids? Try these other learning ideas!

And see more ideas for homeschool units on my Unit Studies Pinterest board!