The Kids' Book of Weather Forecasting

by Mark Breen, Kathleen Friestad, Michael Kline (Illustrator)

Imagine how proud any kid would be advising parents to bring an umbrella because it's going to rain! Kids will be doing that -- and much more -- as they construct and use their own weather equipment. Under the friendly guidance of meteorologist Mark Breen, they analyze increasingly complex information and sharpen their forecasting skills.

Genres: Science, Education

144 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2000

Reviews

[Becky · Rating 4 out of 5]

Previewing books to build a science unit for next school year. This book is jam packed with both information, presented in an engaging way, and hands on projects. Speaking as a homeschool mom, it looks like a great potential core book to build a whole unit study around. I appreciate that it also has questions in each chapter to get kids thinking about what they’ve learned, and how to apply it to real life situations that weather is a factor in determining. And even on my quick read through, it clarified terms like barometric pressure very well for me.

[Brianna Jensen]

This book is a great blend of informational text and graphic novel! It is chock-full of scientific information that can help kids learn how to make weather predictions, observations, and analysis. However, every single page has some sort of graphic, picture, comic, etc. to make it more visually appealing to kids.

Reading level: Ages 7-13

Presentation would definitely be a mentor writing trait for this book. The visuals, tables, charts, pop-outs, pictures, etc. make students and adults alike want to read it!

Possible ways to incorporate this into the classroom: Definitely with a science unit. At the lower elementary levels, a lot of time is spent studying weather, weather patterns, and what we see outside in the world around us. This would also tie into social studies and geography. As we get into upper elementary, more time is spent diving into forecasting and more specifics, such as types of clouds and etc. This book is great because you can use bits and pieces of it for all of the above--multiple grade levels.
Possible weather related activities are also listed in this book, like building your own weather equipment, building a weather stations, "reading the sky" and more.

[Maleigha · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book teaches students how to do things such as record the weather, keep a weather log, and use instruments to measure weather. It contains charts, diagrams, and plenty of hands-on activities to practice. This book also digs into wind and humidity explorations. You may also use this for vocabulary purposes, there are many rich words that you will see throughout the unit incorporated throughout this piece of writing.