1st Grade · Science · 1-ESS1-2, K-ESS2-1
Weather and Seasons Lesson Plan for 1st Grade
A ready-to-teach weather and seasons lesson for 1st Grade. Everything below is classroom-tested structure: an objective, a 45-minute sequence, a way to check who got it, and 6 printable practice pages.
Approximately 45 minutes
Learning objective
- Describe and record at least four types of weather with accurate science vocabulary
- Explain what causes different types of weather in simple terms
- Observe and record weather over one week and describe any patterns noticed
Materials
- Drawing the Four Seasons
- Seasons and Months
- Severe Weather and Natural Events
- Weather Names
- Weather and Clothes
- Weather Graph
- Pencils, and whiteboard space for the modeled examples
Lesson steps
1. Ask the question (5 min)
Open with a question about weather and seasons that students cannot answer yet. Take predictions and record them without correcting anything. Wrong predictions are the point: you will come back to them.
2. Explore (12 min)
Students investigate weather and seasons through a hands-on activity, a demonstration, or a set of images. Their job is to notice and describe, not to be right yet.
3. Explain (10 min)
Now give the vocabulary and the explanation for weather and seasons. Tie it directly back to what students just observed and to the predictions on the board. Name which predictions held up.
4. Independent practice (you do) (13 min)
Hand out "Drawing the Four Seasons". Students record what they learned and answer the questions independently. Circulate and press for "how do you know?"
5. Extend the thinking (5 min)
Ask where else weather and seasons shows up outside the classroom. Collect two or three examples and leave the question open for tomorrow.
Check for understanding
Ask students to explain weather and seasons to a partner in one sentence, then write that sentence down. Collect the sentences: they show you exactly which part of the idea did not land.
Differentiation
Extra support. Students who stall: pull them into a small group and rebuild weather and seasons with concrete materials or a simpler text before asking for the written work again. Do not send the page home as homework, it will just rehearse the misunderstanding.
Extension. Students who finish early: ask them to write their own weather and seasons problem for a partner to solve, then check the partner's work. Creating a problem is harder than solving one and it surfaces whether they really understand weather and seasons.
Skills covered in this lesson
Types of weather · Seasons · Weather patterns · Measuring weather · Severe weather · Weather and clothing · Seasons and months · Weather graph
