Unit Map

Topic/Theme: Severe Weather: Hurricanes and Tornados Texts: Twisters on Tuedsday (Magic Tree House, No. 23) Mary Pope Osborne Essential Questions supporting Topic/Theme: What are different types of severe weather? How do hurricanes form? Where do they occur most often? How do tornadoes form? Where do they occur most often? How can people stay safe in the event of a hurricane or tornado? What is global climate change? How does it affect severe storms?

How They Support Topic/Theme: Jack and Annie are whisked away to the prairie in this installment of the Magic Tree House series. Out on the Great Plains they experience life as a citizen of Tornado Alley. The children learn about tornados, how they form, and why they occur so often in this area of the United States. Magic Tree House Fact Tracker #8: Twisters This is a companion book that follows along and Other Terrible Storms: A Nonfiction with Twisters on Tuesday. This nonfiction Companion to Magic Tree House #23: Twister book helps answer some of the questions on Tuesday that students might answer about severe Will Osborne storms, tornados and more, after finishing the story. This book includes information on not only twisters, but hurricanes and blizzards as well. Hurricanes The Smithsonian sponsored this nonfiction Seymour Simon book about hurricanes. With up-to-date information on the formation and history of these storms, students will learn about how hurricanes and cyclones form, where they form, how long they last and more. Super Storms This book, also by Seymour Simon is more of Seymour Simon a broad overview of severe storms. This nonfiction book covers everything from lightening to storm surge. Time for Kids: Storms! This time for kids article is from March 1st, Leslie Dickenson 2006. Time for kids is a great way to introduce new information to students.

Tornado!: The Story Behind These Twisting, Turning, Spinning and Spiraling Storms NatGeo Kids (Judy Fradin and Dennis Fradin) Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs Judi Barrett

How We Know What We Know About Our Changing Climate, Scientists and Kids Explore Global Warming Lynne Cherry and Gary Braasch

Formatted like its parent magazine, Time, these articles are written to inform students about a specific subject: the topic of this article is severe storms. This is another nonfiction book about the formation of tornados. This book gives a more in-depth look at how they form and the different tools we use to locate and track the storms that might produce a twister. This all-time favorite is a great way to talk about the severity of storms and how humans can impact the weather. As an introduction to global climate change, this book can be read to show that when humans impact their environment, it sometimes causes a lot of damage. This is an elementary-age introduction to human impact on the Earth and how our actions are creating global climate change. In the book, students will read about experiments done by students and scientists alike that prove that our actions affect the world around us. Knowledge They Are Intended to Measure: The KWL chart is used to measure three things: what the students already know about severe weather, what they want to know, and what they have learned after completion of the unit. These can assess reading comprehension by assuring that the items in the L column are correctly listed and can be found in available texts. It is also motivation because students will strive to find the answers to their W column. Vocabulary logs are used to measure students vocabulary improvement throughout the unit. As they learn new weather words,

Activities and Assessments KWL Charts:

Skill they are intended to measure. Reading Comprehension and Motivation

Vocabulary Logs:

Vocabulary

Venn Diagram:

Developing and integrating knowledge

Guided Writing via Science Journal:

Developing Expressive Writing

News Article:

Comprehension, motivation and content knowledge.

students will add these words to their logs alongside a definition, and a drawing if possible. By the end of the unit, students should be able to use these words fluently. The Venn diagram will be used to assess how well the students have grasped the knowledge of the formation of hurricanes and tornados. By comparing and contrasting the storms, the teacher will be able to determine if the students knowledge is accurate and based on nonfiction reading done in class. Students will be writing about storms and logging daily weather patterns in their science notebooks. This will help them develop their expressive writing skills by making sure the students write thoughtout, detailed journal entries. The news article written by the students will assess comprehension, content knowledge and also be a form of motivation. Students will be writing newspaper articles about a hurricane or tornado that had a big impact on our country. Their article will contain content knowledge about the storm they chose, and also be a way of assessing the students writing skills. Listening Students will be given the opportunity to hear their peers speak about their Venn diagrams and also their news Viewing Students will be viewing presentations by their peers. They will also be viewing a slideshow on the damage

Reading Throughout the unit, students will be reading a lot of nonfiction books and texts about hurricanes and

Writing Students will be writing daily during this unit. In their science journals, students will continue to track daily

Speaking Students will be presenting their work to the class throughout the unit. In groups, students will work on Venn

tornados. They will also be reading fiction books to help keep them motivated to learn about severe weather.

weather patterns and make predictions about what the next days weather will be. They will also be writing news articles and filling out Venn diagrams.

diagrams, and present their work to their peers. They will also be presenting their news articles to their fellow students.

articles on historical tornados and hurricanes.

done by hurricanes and tornados. The class will also be given the chance to view a video clip on the formation of tornados, and the formation of hurricanes.