The Jacket I Wear in the SnowDressing for the

Weather

study design by

Karin Wangberg Rogers

Abstract1st grade students will observe and record

weather characteristics, collect and record temperature data, and photograph and count numbers of their peers who are wearing jackets outside.

Students already understand that when it’s cold outside, they should wear a jacket.

They will learn how the words “cold” and “hot” can be represented numerically in temperature readings.

hot?warm?cool?cold?

HypothesisBased on a growing understanding of

numbers, they will predict that that fewer students will wear jackets on days with higher temperature numbers.

They will begin to understand the connection between temperature and the clothing that students wear when at recess.

Background Students are English Language Learners in

1st grade in Loveland, Colorado Many are recent immigrants to the state from

two-season climates and are unfamiliar with the North American 4-season cycle

These students learn quickly to communicate their feelings (including “hot” and “cold”), but lack higher-level vocabulary to describe the weather and discuss temperature in numerical terms

Standards English Language Acquistion standards in

Colorado are quite general: students need to learn to listen, speak, read, and write in English for a variety of purposes

First grade standards include Math – number sense (which number is bigger)

and basic operations (how to subtract) Reading – understanding rhyme Writing – reproducing print seen in the

environment

Materials & Methods:

Daily Reading Use shared reading,

choral reading, or child-as-teacher read-aloud using a rhyming book such as Shirley Neitzel’s The Jacket I Wear in the Snow

Materials & Methods:

Creating a Calendar

Date keeper writes number of today’s date

Weather reporter moves word thermometer (choosing Hot, Warm, Cool, or Cold) and weather wheel and chooses icons to paste onto calendar Choose sunny,

windy, cloudy, rainy, snowy

Materials & Methods:

Measuring Temperature Temperature Taker leads children outside to

check current temperature using GLOBE protocol

Materials & Methods:

Creating a Calendar Then, Temp. Taker

records temperature on calendar

After some experience, children predict how many students will be wearing jackets when outside at recess

Materials & Methods:

Data Collection using Photography Photo-

grapher takes picture of children lined up to go out to recess

Materials & Methods:

Data Collection using Photography Photo-

grapher takes picture of children lined up to come in from recess

Materials & Methods:

Using Math Operations Calculator compares pictures and subtracts

to determine how many students wore jackets at recess

minus equals

_______

Materials & Methods:

Creating a Calendar Jacket-

counter records number of students observed wearing jackets at recess

Data Transformation

Students make graph of date vs. number of children wearing jackets at recess

0

1

2

3

4

5

6

7/4/

2006

7/5/

2006

7/6/

2006

7/7/

2006

7/8/

2006

number of students wearing jacketsor coats

Data Transformation

Students make similar graph of date vs. temperature

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

7/4

/20

06

7/5

/20

06

7/6

/20

06

7/7

/20

06

7/8

/20

06

temperature in degreesCelcius

Data Transformation

Jacket graph and temperature graph are posted, one directly above the other

Students watch graphs grow as they daily add data, and gradually begin to notice patterns when they look at the two graphs together