ELEMENTARY EDUCATION PROGRAM

LESSON PLAN FORMAT

Intern: James Thompson
Title: Geo Weather Map Lesson Plan

Grade Level: Second Grade

Date: 12/08/2015

Objectives: Students will see how non-geographical symbols such as

weather related symbols can be used on a geographic map to describe
daily weather conditions of geographical areas in local communities
and continents.
I.

K: Students know how to make observations of weather and

create maps.
U: Students will understand how to describe weather using
symbols on a daily weather geography map.
D: Students will transcribe a description of daily weather onto
a geographic map using illustrated symbols.
Essential Question: How do we use non-geographic weather symbols
on geographical maps to describe a short period of change over time in
weather conditions that may effect peoples movement in navigation in
communities?
Standard Science: 2.6 The student will investigate and understand
basic types, changes, and patterns of weather. Key concepts include a)
temperature, wind, precipitation, drought, flood, and storms; and
Standard History 2.6 The student will demonstrate map skills by
constructing simple maps, using title, map legend, and compass rose.

II.
III.
Time

On the side of this lesson and unit on geography in social

studies, students have completed a lesson on weather and cloud
vocabulary and regularly do morning meeting calendar math
which includes a brief observation of describing daily weather
looking out the window.
Materials for Learning Activities
PowerPoint presentation, Weather map
Weather and Geography state map cut and paste activity
Procedures for Learning Activities
Steps
Introduction:
Many different types of maps reveal important information

Materials

15
minutes

that we need to know in order to live our lives day by day.

We have a community maps and street maps, global
topography maps and political boundary maps. Today we
will learn about weather forecasting maps. Some students
earlier thought that the weather we have covered so far in
science is not represented on continental or state maps like
roads, cities, buildings, and mountains. Today we will see
how these non-physical weather symbols like sun and clouds
can be used. Knowing where weather is occurring or will
occur can effect how people travel or whether they will
travel somewhere during a particular day. Weather maps,
where changing conditions are shown on a physical nonchanging continental or state map, help us know what the
weather is expected to be like during the day and patterns
we see in these weather maps can also help us to predict
what the weather will be like tomorrow and the rest of the
week.
Earlier today during morning meeting activities we looked
out the window and decided what the weather currently
looks like and said it was either sunny or cloudy. We can
show this in a weather map. Show basic weather map
example. Locate local school county.
Who can tell me, from our other science subject lessons on
weather earlier, what a one or two different types of clouds
are? Is it significant whether the cloud is white or gray?
We need to decide, if it is not a rain cloud can we have a
common symbol for any cloud not raining? Do we need a
separate symbol for a cloud that is raining?
Critical thinking questions
What is different about this weather map and the former
street level community map? Students should observe a
difference with the legend symbols in color and shape
based differences.
What if we combined both types of maps together? What
can we learn?
Have students turn and talk and share.
What are ways we use knowledge of weather to plan our
days?
Turn and talk and share

Instructional Strategies:

30
minutes

Students will draw a picture of todays weather and a picture

of yesterdays weather on a state map. Using this
information, students will discuss and answer with a partner
whether they can show on the map what tomorrows weather
will be.
Cut and paste weather symbols on state map of yesterday
and a state map of tomorrow showing change over time in
geographic map.
Teacher should call a few selected students of special needs
and ESOL needs to work in a small group. They may need
supervision for the cut and paste activity.
The teacher can provide them a primer communicating
through picture to ask them to label what it is and decide
where it can go on the map.
Extended activity: When students finish, they can create
a continent map and do the same on a larger scale by
creating their own symbols in a drawing.

15
minutes

Summary/Closure:
Understanding weather, by where the described weather
currently is, can help us decide how we might navigate over
an area using maps as conditions change day by day. Roads
in different areas may be denser than others or more
slippery with traffic on days with different weather.
Ask a few students to share how they made their maps.
We have now looked at continental and ocean maps as well
as designed local community maps and applied weather to
them bringing these maps to life allowing us to see not only
what a map is but to think about how we experience
conditions in affected geographic settings as weather
changes. In our next lesson we will bring everything
together to do a role play scenario where two people discuss
how to navigate through a map to get to a destination and
what the geographic weather conditions might be as one
tries to decide weather to travel or not through a city and for
how long he or she will stay.

IV.
Assessment
Informal assessment. Students are free to create their own weather
symbol drawings for clouds, precipitation, clear sun, heat or cold on a
self creative continent map.
Teacher will ask students during extended activity to think about
whether they can create symbols or illustrations that show too much

precipitation or too little and no precipitation? Teacher will also discuss

with students whether a road can represent a changing condition like
weather on a map. Students are encouraged to expand thinking to
incorporate their knowledge of community maps onto a larger
continent and state map to show changing conditions that they think
of.
V.

Differentiation

Special needs and other ESOL students can work in a small group with
the teacher. The teacher may need to supervise these students during
the cut and paste activity.
Additionally, the teacher can give them a primer such as suggesting to
label a given symbol to to draw a small picture for a given label if they
have trouble thinking through the assignment. These steps can help
with guidance scaffolding for the students from foreign backgrounds so
that the teacher can communicate through the pictures with them.
Multiple intelligences
visual and spatial intelligence Students visualize and draw a state
map using a larger continent map in the classroom for guidance.
Students draw their interpretations of weather symbols to represent
descriptions of weather forecast sentences for each step in the lesson
activity.
Naturalistic intelligence in describing weather outside the classroom
during an earlier daily activity of calendar math, students re-apply
calendar morning activities on describing daily weather to this activity
by drawing what they see outside as a symbol of daily weather for the
days lesson as applied to geographic and temperature description of
where are on the map are we that is currently the temperature and
weather condition outside showing how the natural condition of
weather environment is depicted on a map of community or continent.
VI.
Technology Integration
Interactive slide presentation of weather graphics and temperature on
a geographic continental map.
VI.

Reflection