Inside This Blog: "Discover fun ways to teaching weather fronts! Engage students with interactive lessons on atmospheric dynamics. Explore this engaging blog."
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I love being a Science teacher. But sometimes certain topics can seem a bit dull. When teaching about weather fronts, I was looking to make this topic a little more interesting.
It’s difficult to teach about air since you can’t really see it. The students really should be able to manipulate something in order to make the fronts. This is how the idea came about.
Teaching Weather Fronts Digitally as an Introduction or Review?
During the pandemic, we had to adjust to new norms and including the restriction of sharing items. It was a challenging time for educators like me, who had to find ways to continue providing quality education to our kids while adapting to the new safety measures.
As a science teacher, I found that teaching weather fronts was particularly tricky, as it involved hands-on activities with shared materials. To overcome this obstacle, I came up with an idea to create a digital interactive activity that would enable my students to manipulate different air masses and clouds, and create their own air masses.
I spent hours researching and designing this activity to ensure that it would be engaging, interactive, and educational. I tested it on my sixth grade classes and received feedback from each of them. Overall, it was a huge success, and my students were able to learn a challenging topic in a fun, safe, and practical way.
I typically have begun teaching weather fronts with a different lesson than this digital resource. I then have used this one for a review of the four weather fronts. During the last revision of this resource, I thought it would benefit from the addition of teaching slides. These were added for the following reasons:
- Now this resource can be used as an introductory lesson as well as a review lesson.
- It is now incredibly easy to assign as a no-prep substitute plan.
- Students can use the new slides to check and review their work.
- Parents helping their children with homework would appreciate the additional help.
As you can see, the addition of teaching slides is a great enhancement to this weather fronts digital resource.
Teaching Weather Fronts by Introducing the Clipart
One thing I noticed while using the original product is that the students struggled with the clipart. I needed to acknowledge they weren’t as coordinated as I was at manipulating the clipart.
I added a slide that introduced the clipart the students were about to use in the moveable clipart slides. I did NOT make this clipart moveable because I wanted my students to pay attention to me at this point.
We spent some time discussing what every piece means first. THEN we discussed how to move everything. First tap and wait for the squares to appear. Then, tap and hold in the middle – NOT on the squares – because that will resize it. Now, it it time to practice moving the clipart!
This is What Teaching Weather Fronts Looks Like
This is an example of a successfully completed cold front made by my students. They were provided with a range of cloud, precipitation, front symbols, and arrows and had to choose the appropriate ones for the type of front they were demonstrating. Their task was to illustrate how a cold air mass overtook and pushed a warm air mass up, resulting in cumulus clouds and they placed the appropriate clouds, front symbols, and air masses to accomplish this.
It’s worth mentioning that we took a slow and guided approach, starting with a class demonstration before allowing the students to work on their own. While some students initially struggled with manipulating the clipart, they were able to complete the task with some guidance and help from fellow students, particularly those more technologically adept. Overall, the exercise proved to be an engaging and educational way to assist students in understanding cold fronts and the associated weather patterns.
The New Weather Fronts Lesson
The final four slides look a lot like the original, but enhanced. I got rid of the blue background (it is supposed to be bad weather, after all), and added lightning clipart. I figured just about any middle schooler would like to add some lightning to their cold front!
The rest of these slides I pretty much kept the same. I didn’t see any need to make changes. If there is something you would like me to add, I would love to hear about it! Just leave me a comment!
What Lesson Do I Use Before This Lesson? Great Question!
What if you need a more formal weather fronts lesson? Well, I’ve got that too! This is the exact lesson I use with my class to teach air masses and fronts. I use this before I use this digital interactive activity.
I love to start with this because of the colorful pictures of each front along with the air masses that help to create them. I assign the digital version to their Learning Management System. I then print the black and white copy for us to take notes on.
It is a great way to introduce the vocabulary and get your students fired up and ready to make their own weather fronts! And this bundle comes with the digital interactive activity!
Air Masses & Fronts Bundle
Like the Digital Interactive Lesson? Then you will LOVE this lesson to introduce the concept! There is so much more to this resource than just a lesson, make sure to check it out!
I hope you enjoyed checking out a fun way of teaching weather fronts. If you would like to get this activity for yourself, just click the button to the right. And be sure to leave a comment below and let me know what you think!
Need Help Learning About Weather Fronts?
If you are a new teacher or just new to this subject, this topic can be a tricky one to learn. I understand! Look at these two tips:
- Check out the Center for Science Education‘s website. This page can help you brush up on your skills.
- Watch the video to the right. It can also be used to supplement your lesson or assign to your virtual students.
Types of Clouds Activity
$7.00
Layers of the Atmosphere Review Board Game for Middle School
$4.75
Air Masses & Weather Fronts Lesson Bundle
$8.32
Air Masses and Fronts Lesson
$5.25
Conduction Convection Radiation BOOM Cards
$2.50
Digital Air Masses and Fronts Lesson
$4.00
And Finally, A HUGE Freebie!
Do you want science freebies, tips and survival techniques? We all do! If you click here, you can check out the HUGE freebie you can get! Worksheets, task cards and Boom Cards included – delivered right to your inbox!
