Weather 1 lesson plan

“How’s the weather?”

Lesson 25 Level 1 Age 3-5

Lesson plans for ESL kids teachers

Lesson 25

Weather 1

In this lesson students ask about and describe weather conditions. They play fun weather themed games and make a decorative weather craft.

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Age: 3-5 years
Time: 40 mins – 1 hour
Objectives: Asking about and describing the weather, saying 4 weather adjectives.
Structures: “How’s the weather (today)?”, “Look outside”, “It’s [ sunny / cloudy / rainy / windy ]”.
New vocabulary: sunny, cloudy, rainy, windy.
Review vocabulary: sun, cloud, rainbow, moon, stars, land, mountain, sea, river, lake, field, forest, [hide_on_uk]colors[/hide_on_uk][hide_on_us]colours[/hide_on_us], numbers 1-10.

Lesson materials

Flashcards:

Weather: sunny, cloudy, rainy, windy

Printables:

Weather [hide_on_uk]color[/hide_on_uk][hide_on_us]colour[/hide_on_us] worksheet
Weather paper plate craft sheet
Weather match and draw worksheet

Songs:

Hello song
Goodbye song
The nature song

Supplies:

name tags for each student
a glove puppet
[hide_on_uk]colored[/hide_on_uk][hide_on_us]coloured[/hide_on_us] crayons / pencils
a large cloth bag
paper / plastic picnic plates (one per student)
glue
split pins (one per student)
cushions (1 per student)
device to play the songs on

Notes:

In this lesson students learn to ask and answer about weather using four simple adjectives for weather conditions. They play fun weather themed games and make a decorative weather craft.

Lesson procedure:

Warm up and maintenance:

1. Greetings
Greet the students by name as they enter the classroom and gesture for them to sit down (on cushions if you have them) in a fan-shape around you.

2. Name tags
Before class, prepare some blank name tags (stickers or pin-on tags) and some cards, each with a student’s name written on clearly – students will use them to copy their names onto their name tags. Sit down with your students and lay out the name cards in front of you. Pick up each card and encourage the student to recognize his/her name. Do this for everyone.

Finally, have everyone take out a crayon or pencil and copy their name on their tags and stick them on.

Introduce glove puppet - greetings and introductions activity

3. Glove puppet greetings
Bring out your glove puppet bag and have everyone shout “Hello!“ into the bag until he wakes up and jumps out of the bag. Then model talking to the glove puppet …

Teacher: “Hello”, What’s your name?”
Puppet: “My name is…”.
Puppet: “How are you?”
Teacher: “I’m fine, thank you”.
Puppet: “How old are you?”
Teacher: “I’m …”.

… and then have the puppet say hello to each student and ask them the same questions, including their age. Finally, go around saying “Goodbye” and “See you” before going back into the bag and back to sleep.

4. Sing the “Hello song”
Sit in a circle and sing the song (clap along or pat knees).

Lyrics for the “Hello song”

Hello, hello,
How are you today?
Hello, hello,
How are you today?

I’m fine, thank you,
I’m fine, thank you,
I’m fine, thank you,
And how about you?

Hello, hello,
How are you today?
I’m fine, thank you,
And how about you?

Gestures for the “Hello song”

These are quite straight forward. First time you play the song do the gestures and encourage everyone to do them with you.

Wave as you sing the “Hello, hello” parts.
Gesture to others as you sing, “How are you today?”
Point to yourself as you sing, “I’m fine, thank you”
Hand gesture towards another student as you sing, “And how about you?”.

[hide_on_uk]Short sample (members get full-length song):
 [/hide_on_uk]

[hide_on_us]Short sample (members get full-length song):
 [/hide_on_us]

5. Homework check
Check each student’s homework that you set in the last lesson. Ask each student some questions about their homework worksheet (e.g. “What’s this?”, “What [hide_on_uk]color[/hide_on_uk][hide_on_us]colour[/hide_on_us] are the trees?”, etc.), give lots of praise, and then put some kind of mark on the homework sheet (e.g. a sticker, a stamp or draw a smiley face).

Finally, tell your students to put their homework back into their bags.

6. Do “Exercise routine” activity
Say the following and have the students follow your lead:

“Stand up” (Teacher stands and so does everyone else)
“Hands up / hands down” (do 4 or 5 times)
“Jump” (4 or 5 times)
“Kick” (4 or 5 times)
“Run! / Stop!” (4 or 5 times)
“Turn around! / Stop!” (4 or 5 times)
“Wiggle” (a few seconds)
finally “Sit down”.

7. Do the “What’s in the bag?” activity
Time for the bag again. Before class, put a couple of new objects (e.g. a crayon, a plastic bottle, a sock, a paper cup, a leaf, a ball, a teddy, etc. – anything lying around (and safe!)) into the bag.

Show the bag to your students, shake it to rattle the objects inside, and ask, “What’s in the bag?”.

Randomly pull out different objects and teach/elicit the words – in each case, have students hold and pass the objects around. You can even have students pull the objects out of the bag instead of you taking them out – with eyes closed to make it fun!

Finally, place/throw the objects around the classroom and have each student retrieve an object as you call out its name and put it back in the bag.

8. Sing “The nature song”
Let’s review this song from last lesson. Have everyone sing along and do the “sky” and “land” gestures, as described above in Gestures and activities for “The Nature Song” below. Play 2 or 3 times.

Lyrics for “The nature song”

Verse 1:
Sun, moon, stars, Sun, moon, stars,
Sun, moon, stars, In the sky.

Sky, sky, sky, sky.

Verse 2:
Mountain, sea, river, Mountain, sea, river,
Mountain, sea, river, On the land.

Land, land, land, land.

Verse 3:
Cloud, rainbow, sun, Cloud, rainbow, sun,
Cloud, rainbow, sun, In the sky.

Sky, sky, sky, sky.

Verse 4:
Lakes, fields, forest, Lakes, fields, forest
Lakes, fields, forest, On the land.

Land, land, land, land.

Gestures for “The nature song”

The gestures in this song are very simple – even very little ones will be able to join in.

For verses 1 and 3: these verses are about the sky, so have everyone sway their arms in the air in time with the music as they sing.
For verses 2 and 4: these verses are about the land, so have everyone sway their arms low down near the ground in time with the music as they sing.

[hide_on_uk]Short sample (members get full-length song):
 [/hide_on_uk]

[hide_on_us]Short sample (members get full-length song):
 [/hide_on_us]

9. Play “Shout when you see it!”
Let’s play a fun game to review the sky and land objects from last lesson which will test your drawing skills. You are going to draw the sky and land objects from last lesson onto the board: sun, cloud, rainbow, moon, stars, land, mountain, sea, river, lake, field, forest. For each one, draw slowly and pause often – encourage everyone to shout out what it is.

This can also be played as a team game with points for the first to shout out the correct answer.

If you feel that your students are able, have some volunteers come up and draw one of the objects on the board for everyone to guess – you’ll be surprised how much they love drawing on the board!

New learning and practice:

1. Talk about the weather outside
Motion for your students to come over to the window (or even outside). Say a few times, “How’s the weather? Look outside”. Look up and gesture to the sky and do some other gestures, such as shiver if it’s cold or wipe your forehead if hot.

Your students already know the nouns “sun” and “cloud” – at this point introduce them to the adjectives by saying, “Look at the sun, it’s sunny” or “Look at the clouds, it’s cloudy”.

2. Teach the weather vocabulary
We are going to learn 4 weather words today. Before class prepare weather flashcards for sunny, cloudy, rainy and windy and stick them around the walls of your classroom.

At this point of the class, walk around the classroom touching the weather cards – say the words and do the following gestures:

sunny: spread arms out
cloudy: make cloudy shapes with your hands
rainy: wiggle your fingers downwards like rain
windy: blow out of your mouth

As you do this encourage your students to do the gestures and say the words with you.

Next, get all your students to stand up. Teacher shouts out a weather word (e.g. “It’s rainy!”) and students run over to the correct picture, touch it and do the gesture.

If you have a lot of students, it is worthwhile having multiple pictures of each card placed around the walls of the room.

3. Do the “Weather [hide_on_uk]color[/hide_on_uk][hide_on_us]colour[/hide_on_us]” worksheet activity
This is a listening activity for today’s weather vocabulary as well as [hide_on_uk]colors[/hide_on_uk][hide_on_us]colours[/hide_on_us] and numbers. Give a worksheet to each student and tell them to take out their [hide_on_uk]colored[/hide_on_uk][hide_on_us]coloured[/hide_on_us] crayons / pencils. Start by modeling: say, “[hide_on_uk]Color[/hide_on_uk][hide_on_us]Colour[/hide_on_us] in sunny – 3 – yellow”. Show taking out your yellow crayon / pencil and [hide_on_uk]coloring[/hide_on_uk][hide_on_us]colouring[/hide_on_us] in 3 suns with yellow. Then have everyone copy you. Then give more instructions for [hide_on_uk]coloring[/hide_on_uk][hide_on_us]colouring[/hide_on_us] in other numerous weather pictures with different colors (e.g. [hide_on_uk]Color[/hide_on_uk][hide_on_us]Colour[/hide_on_us] in rainy – 5 – green).

When finished, have everyone hold up their worksheets and give lots of praise for a job done well!

4. 5-minute play time
This is an optional segment that can be part of all your lessons at this level. Allow your students to play with any games or toys you have. If possible, use large tubs or boxes to hold the toys and bring them out for a few minutes each lesson. Tubs filled with animals, plastic fruit, building blocks, kitchen sets, plastic food, cars & vehicles, Mr. Potato Head dolls and so on.

Encourage your students to ask you for the toy they want to play with, circulate during the play time and ask students about their toys. It’s also a good opportunity for a quick rest room break!

5. Do the “Weather paper plate craft”
Let’s make a fun craft to show the weather today. Before class, cut out the weather shapes and arrows from the “Weather paper plate craft” sheets – enough for each student and yourself.

Have everyone color the objects and glue them onto the plate. You’ll also need split pins to pin the arrow to the center of the plate – you’ll need to help with this part. When finished, have everyone hold up their plates. Ask, “How’s the weather today?” and move the arrow to the weather of today, with everyone follow you. You can also pin the plates to the wall.

Keep all the plates to use in the next class.

Wrap up:

1. Assign homework: “Weather match and draw” worksheet
Hold up the homework worksheet – this is a drawing activity. Model following the dotted lines and then drawing the same picture in the box. Give out the worksheets and say, “Put your homework in your bags” and help them to do so – this is important as they will probably want to start [hide_on_uk]coloring[/hide_on_uk][hide_on_us]colouring[/hide_on_us] them right away.

2. Say goodbye to the glove puppet
Take out the bag again and get everyone to wake up the glove puppet by shouting its name into the bag (e.g. “Cookie Monster!”). Bring out the puppet and go through the same routine – go to each student and say hello, ask their name and the say goodbye / see you. Then put the puppet back in the bag (back to sleep).

3. Sing the “Goodbye song”
Sit together in a circle and sing and clap along.

Lyrics for the “Goodbye song”

Goodbye, goodbye,
See you again.
Goodbye, goodbye,
See you again.

It’s time to go,
It’s time to go,
It’s time to go,
See you next time.

Goodbye, goodbye,
See you again.
It’s time to go,
See you next time.

Gestures for the “Goodbye song”

These are quite straight forward. First time you play the song do the gestures and encourage everyone to do them with you.

Wave as you sing the “Goodbye, goodbye” parts.
Hold your hand above your eyes (as you would when you are looking into the distance and keeping the sun out of your eyes) and look at another student as you sing, “See you again”.
Tap watch (or imaginary watch) and then point to the door as you sing, “It’s time to go”.
Point towards another student as you sing, “See you next time”.

[hide_on_uk]Short sample (members get full-length song):
 [/hide_on_uk]

[hide_on_us]Short sample (members get full-length song):
 [/hide_on_us]

4. Do “Quick check” and say goodbye
Time to leave the class. Make sure everything is put away and the students have gathered their belongings. Have them line up at the door and place yourself between the door and the students.

For each student hold up a flashcard from today’s lesson and ask, “How’s the weather?”.

When they say the words correctly say goodbye and let them leave. If they make a mistake, have them go back to the end of the line – they will have to try again once they reach the front!