Science- Cloudy With a Chance of Precipitation

A huge concept in first grade is getting students to understand what precipitation is (rain, sleet, snow, hail- all made of water) and where it comes from (clouds).  After we sang The Precipitation Song.  I showed a YouTube video of another classroom singing a version of this song and showing their work.  I can't seem to find it now that I'm at home.  But, I'd be happy to e-mail it to you if you'd like to use it.  firstgradecircle@gmail.com

Once we understood that precipitation comes in different forms but is always made of water we read the silly classic Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs.  

We talked over and over about how this was fiction and true precipitation must be made of only water.  While I read the story to them the students worked in their science notebooks on the carpet.  I have them a sentence stem, " I wish it would"  to glue into their notebooks to get them started.  The students completed the sentence with a form of precipitation: rain, sleet, snow, hail and the type of food they wish would fall from clouds. 

Here's one of my kiddo's wonderful work.  He said I wish it would rain burgers and a chicken noodle soup tornado.  How creative!

This little lady said, "I wish it would hail Popsicles."  For my higher babies I challenged them to use a form of precipitation that would match the temperature and shape of their food.  She totally got it!

So, there we have it a fun day of science incorporating vocabulary, total physical response learning for ELL's, and differentiated instruction for those higher darlings.  Hope you like it.  Let me know if you use it :)