Appy-Picking Month: The Weather Channel

As Hurricane Sandy approaches our region, and I wonder how much it is going to mess up my work week, I am reminded of the utility of the (free) Weather Channel app. The iPad version of the app provides a nice animated opening visualizing the weather in your selected location (e.g. a sunny field, a puddle with raindrops). I found this useful to build descriptive skills with certain students, particularly in conjunction with the weather component of Kid's Journal, which I wrote about earlier this month. For higher level goals, the app provides video that could be used to align with weather as a curriculum topic, as it is repeatedly used throughout the grades. These are great to review with the schema-building question: what do all weather forecasts have in common? The maps feature of the app can be used as a visual to generate language about weather characteristics and geography, as well as predictions, as different features of weather can be highlighted: temperature, precipitation, etc.  Weather also can be used as part of a greater project, such as this webquest on weather.

Common Core Connection:

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RI.5.7 Draw on information from multiple print or digital sources, demonstrating the ability to locate an answer to a question quickly or to solve a problem efficiently.