Weather Awareness Is Important for Any Age: Weather Lessons and Safety
Teaching students about the weather around them is a very vital part of any science lesson. It’s important that children are aware of the types of weather they may experience so they can make a plan with parents or teachers on what precautions to take. Knowing about the weather is just as important for your children as it is for you when it comes to being weather prepared. How can you make sure your children are prepared for severe weather? Here are a few ideas to keep in mind.
MODIS satellite image of Tropical Cyclone Phailin, taken at approximately 07:30 UTC on October 13, 2013. At the time, Phailin was a tropical storm with winds 70 mph. Image credit: NASA.
Discuss Different Weather Strategies
Make sure that you’ve discussed different strategies of what they should do when severe weather hits. They should know it’s okay to be frightened but that they also have to get to their designated safe place when they are at home or at school. Having stem lessons elementary age in the daily or weekly schedule can help them to understand weather and how it works. Sometimes understanding what they are hearing and seeing can help to relieve a bit of fear in younger children when severe weather strikes.
Monitor Weather
Teach them how to monitor the changing conditions in the weather and how they can use a weather station to see what is going on around them. You can even consider having weather display screens installed in schools to keep everyone aware and safe. You can make it a fun part of the day where one of the students gets to be the meteorologist for the day and give the weather report.
Knowing what the weather is doing around you is important to not only adults but children. They need to have a safety plan in place and understand what to do should they hear the weather alarm go off. Keep everyone safe and prepared by practicing weather drills and keeping them informed and taught what to expect.
Author: Zainab Sheikh
