Intel® Teach Program

Essentials Course

Come Rain or Shine Unit Plan

Unit Overview
Unit Title
Come Rain or Shine
Unit Summary

Are you prepared? Weather has a profound influence on human activities. Favourable weather is
helpful while severe weather could be harmful and endanger human life. Students form a meteorologist
team to study the weather of their area. They observe and keep track of the weather conditions. The
students predict weather for the upcoming week by analyzing the weather patterns. They present their
forecasts and weather influences through a multimedia presentation. They work together to design a
weather poster to share information on preparing and adapting to different weather conditions with the
local community.

Subject Area
English Language, Local Studies
Year/Form
Year 4
Approximate Time Needed
4 weeks, 3 – 4 periods weekly
Unit Foundation
Targeted Curriculum Specifications and Benchmarks

English Language
Theme: World of knowledge
1.3.3 Listen to all the words in the word list and demonstrate understanding of the meaning by
matching them to pictures and the spoken word
2.2.1 Ask WH-questions to seek information
2.5.2 Talk about the actions of the people in the story read or heard
3.8.4 Read and understand simple factual text by answering comprehensive questions in relations to
main ideas and details
3.9.1 Read simple poems and simple stories
4.5.2 Form simple sentences by matching sentence parts

Local Studies
Topic 4: Local situation (Perihal setempat)
c. Weather
i. weather conditions such as rainy, hot, cloudy and windy
ii. influence of weather on daily activities

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Student Objectives/Learning Outcomes

By the end of the unit, students will be able to:
• Identify, pronounce and write the vocabulary for weather conditions
• Ask and answer questions about weather politely
• Read and interpret simple texts for main ideas
• Construct sentences
• Predict weather by analyzing weather patterns over a short period of time
• Relate weather and its influences to people and nature
• Suggest preparation and adaptation to different weather conditions

Curriculum-Framing Questions
Essential
Are you prepared?
Question
• How do you predict weather?
Unit
• How do people prepare and adapt to different weather conditions?
Questions
• What are the influences of weather on our daily activities?
Content
• What are the key words used by the meteorologist to talk about the weather
Questions
conditions?
Assessment Plan
Assessment Timeline

Before project work begins Students work on projects After project work is
and complete tasks completed

• Discussion • Quiz • Journal • Weather • Weather • Reflection

• Journal presentation presentati
rubric on rubric
• Poster score
sheet

Assessment Summary

The unit begins with a discussion to spark students’ thinking. Journal allows student reflection and this
helps them to become more aware of their learning. Quiz is used to assess students’ knowledge and
understanding on weather. Distribute the weather presentation rubric and poster score sheet to guide
students during their work on presentation and poster.

A reflection is given at the end of the unit to allow students to reflect what they have learned about
weather and how important weather prediction is in their lives.

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Unit Details
Prerequisite Skills

Basic knowledge on weather

Fundamental skills of basic computer operations

Instructional Procedures
Introducing the unit (1 Period)

Present the essential question: Are you prepared? Engage students to give examples of the
preparations that they need for their daily life. Relate the question to the importance of preparation in
different weather conditions. Have students discuss the Essential Question in small groups. Ask
students to share their responses with the class and have them write their responses in their journals.

Introduce the project, Come Rain or Shine. Divide students into groups and tell them that they will
form meteorologist teams to study the weather in their area. Explain the roles and responsibilities of a
meteorologist. Each team’s main task will be to predict the weather for an upcoming week, study on
weather influences and suggest preparation and adaptation to different weather conditions.

Getting to know weather (2 Periods)

Read a poem “Oh my!”. Have student volunteers or the whole class read after you with the correct
intonation and word stress. After the reading, discuss with students the underlying meaning of the
poem.

Post the Content Question: What are the key words used by the meteorologist to talk about the
weather conditions?

Have students identify the vocabulary commonly used by meteorologist from the poem. Guide them to
look for the meaning of the vocabulary by using the online dictionary, for example, wordcentral*. Have
the students fill up the vocabulary list so that they can track the new vocabulary they learn.

In groups, ask students to brainstorm their ideas and thoughts on the following questions:
How do you predict weather?
Why is weather prediction important to us?
What are the important facts in a weather chart?

Have students record their responses in the journal. Explain to students that understanding weather
chart is the initial step before they can predict weather. Show a sample weather chart to students and
have them recognize and analyze what each symbol means according to the weather conditions. Ask
students to choose a symbol that represents the current weather conditions. Give a quiz to students to
determine their understanding about the symbols and weather conditions.

Collecting Data (1 Period + 7 days outside classroom activity)

Demonstrate how to obtain readings from a thermometer and have students practice recording their
readings on a thermometer chart. Instruct students to prepare a weatherproof box and attach a
thermometer to the bottom of the box. Once the weatherproof box is ready, get the students to find a
secure and shadiest location on the north side of the school building and place the box besides the
building. Have the students observe the weather conditions and temperature for the duration of one

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Intel® Teach Program
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week. Share with them the data collection form that could help them to keep track and record their
observations. Remind students that good observations make good forecasts and every meteorologist
has to keep a good weather record.

Optional activity: There are various types of apparatus used for weather measurement, for examples,
weather vane, barometer, rain gauge and so on. Have students make their own weather stations with
the full set of apparatus for more accurate weather prediction.

Researching Weather Influences (2 Periods)

This activity addresses the following questions:

How does weather influence us?
What are the influences of weather on our daily activities?

Put up pictures of different weather conditions (such as sunny, rainy, cloudy, windy and so on) and
human activities (such as kite flying, using umbrella, picnic, eating ice-cream and so on). Ask students
how the pictures relate. Have students match the human activities to the different weather conditions.
Ask students to justify their decisions and record in their journals.

Guide students with the use of conjunctions. Explain to them conjunctions are joiners used for
connecting parts of a sentence. Show some examples using conjunctions to join sentences that relate
to weather conditions and human activities. Let students complete the weather worksheet to enhance
their understanding about the weather influences by using conjunctions. Guide students to gather more
information about weather influences by using the Internet.

Predicting Weather and Creating Multimedia Presentation (1 Period + 3 Lab Periods)

Revisit the Unit Question: How do you predict weather?

Use the sample weather chart again to help students organize their collected data. An example is
shown below:

Date
Time
Temperatu
re
Weather
Condition

Ask students to analyze the weather patterns and predict the weather for the upcoming week. Tell
students that they need to illustrate the importance of their weather prediction. Have students present
their prediction and study on the weather influences by creating a weather multimedia presentation.
Show students how to use the weather presentation rubric as a guide for them to develop a good and
quality presentation. Remind them not to over focus on the design and multimedia effects. Have
students ready with their story board before they start developing the weather multimedia
presentation.

Creating Poster (1 Period + 2 Lab Periods)

Introduce the activity to create a weather poster for increasing the local community’s awareness about

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the preparation and adaptation to different weather conditions. Tell students to consider the Unit
Question: How do people prepare and adapt to different weather conditions? Elicit students’ responses
and have them share their experiences. Provide the poster score sheet to help students create their
posters. Make sure students are ready with their posters design outline before they start creating the
weather poster.

Class Presentation (2 Periods)

Arrange a session for students to present their multimedia presentation and poster to the class. Have
students bear in mind their role as a meteorologist during the presentation. Engage other students to
share their comments on the presentation.

Wrapping up (1 Period)

Conduct a post-unit class discussion to readdress the Essential Question: Are you prepared? Allow
students to discuss their weather prediction as well, and revise if necessary. Ask students to reflect
what they have learned about weather and how important is weather prediction in their lives. Have
students record their reflection in the journal.

Accommodations for Differentiated Instruction

Special • Give more examples in the vocabulary list

Needs • Discuss and check on student progress frequently
Student • Give students extra assistance and time to complete the tasks assigned

Gifted/Tal • Have students to be responsible to make check list for data collection
ented • Allow students to make their own weather station
Student

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Intel® Teach Program
Essentials Course

Materials and Resources Required For Unit

Technology – Hardware (Click boxes of all equipment needed)
Camera Laser Disk VCR
Computer(s) Printer Video Camera
Digital Camera Projection System Video Conferencing Equip.
DVD Player Scanner Other      
Internet Connection Television
Technology – Software (Click boxes of all software needed.)
Database/Spreadsheet Image Processing Web Page Development
Desktop Publishing Internet Web Browser Word Processing
E-mail Software Multimedia Other      
Encyclopedia on CD-ROM

Printed Materials Text book: English Language Year 4, Local Studies Year 4

Supplies Thermometer, Weatherproof Box

http://www.met.gov.my/htdocs3/index.html*
This site is published by the Malaysian Meteorological Department. It
contains weather forecasts and general climate information of Malaysia.

http://teacher.scholastic.com/activities/wwatch/*
Internet Resources This site offers a variety of activities to observe, investigate and forecast
weather.

http://wordcentral.com/*
This site provides online dictionary feature.

Other Resources -

Programs of the Intel® Education Initiative are funded by the Intel Foundation and Intel Corporation.
Copyright © 2007, Intel Corporation. All rights reserved. Intel, the Intel logo, Intel Education Initiative, and Intel Teach Program are
trademarks of Intel Corporation in the U.S. and other countries. *Other names and brands may be claimed as the property of others.

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