Middle School Monday - Springtime Weather-Watching

This post may contain affiliate links - using affiliate links from Homeschool Coffee Break helps fuel this blog and our homeschool - thank you!

Welcome to Middle School Monday! I'm late with it today... technical difficulties and all that. Even now, some of the pictures look funky so I might have to fix those later. Technology is great when it works, right?!

We're keeping an eye on the weather today as the forecast says we might get storms and heavy rain, and possibly even flooding starting this afternoon. Right now it's not raining, but but there are a lot of clouds that look like they might open up on us at any moment. I'm getting Kennady to check the conditions and updated forecasts as well as make her own observations of the conditions. I can't lie - we're kind of hoping for some wild weather today, because weather is what we're focusing on in Science this year!

Last week I shared a couple of hands-on projects we'd done, and they are perfect for springtime nature studies. Especially the pinecone experiment - you want to do that outside so that you don't bring the little bugs that might be in the pinecones into your house!


Visit Middle School Monday - A Little Hands-On Science for the details on this one!




So... yeah, we're studying meteorology this year, and this is our main text: Our Weather and Water.


We're also revisiting some of the projects in a study we did almost a year ago from Moving Beyond the Page, and we're finding some cool new things to learn and do in a Once-A-Week Unit Study on weather from Homeschool Legacy. Between all of these resources, and some stuff I find around the internet (see my Pinterest board: Weather and Water), we are finding that spring is a great time to do some of these hands-on project, and enjoy a little nature study in the process.

Last year we built an anemometer (which measures wind speed) and we kept it, so it is being put to use again.




You can find more details on that project and a couple of others at W is for Weather.

This week we're going to finish making a weather vane, and I'm going to get Kennady to start sketching and taking photographs of the weather conditions. Photos of dew and rain can be very cool, and would make a great addition to her art study. She's already done some artwork with pastels showing changing weather and lightning.

Usually when we think of nature study, it's the plants and animals that first come to mind. Sunshine, dewdrops, thunderstorms, and rainbows are part of nature study too! Keep a weather journal, make some homemade weather instruments, and include some sketches or photos of clouds in your nature notebook. Speaking of thunderstorms... Did I just hear distant thunder? Maybe not. But just to be safe, I want to make sure this is posted before we're at risk of the power going out, and I should make sure our windows are closed! Okay... maybe not... it seems to be clearing again...

How are you studying nature this spring? Leave a comment and let me know!

Each week I invite bloggers to share their posts about middle school here on Middle School Monday. The link is open through Friday, and I will do my best to visit, comment, and share your posts. Please grab the Middle School Monday button to add to your post or to your sidebar when you leave your link below, and please visit the other links and comment or share. I look forward to seeing what you and your middle schoolers are doing!

<div align="center">
<a href="http://kympossibleblog.blogspot.com/search/label/Middle%20School%20Monday" title="Middle School Monday at Homeschool Coffee Break"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj4Hag_A0g9FCUadECTISu0Ri2BJ3f396tvXOUG8uB1tAixhSIUtp6MGFrvZOi1FADZI0EJ_wLbqBWyfUZbO2IMbhc_Wt8EsNp3koxMWD-3aZtU72GTu1bA7BMIusipa8CkWyfHfEJngRyK/w125-h149-no/middle+school+button.JPG" alt="Middle School Monday at Homeschool Coffee Break" style="border:none;" /></a></div>

Please visit your neighbors, leave comments, and share!

Be sure to visit the Nature Study for Your Homeschool Round-up at the Schoolhouse Review Crew blog (starting Wednesday, April 22nd) for other Crew members' ideas on springtime nature studies!
 

Don't miss a coffee break! Subscribe to Homeschool Coffee Break by Email! 

 ©2006-2015 Homeschool Coffee Break. All rights reserved. All text, photographs, artwork, and other content may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form without the written consent of the author. http://kympossibleblog.blogspot.com/