Forces of Nature: Weather primary resource

Learn about the diversity of different types of weather and the impact it can have on the environment

This primary resource helps children to think about the diversity of different types of weather and the impact it can have on the environment. What was the fastest wind speed ever recorded during a tornado? Why does it rain frogs in some parts of the world? How hot is a volcano’s pyroclastic flow?

Pupils will learn about extreme weather, such as tornadoes, ball lightning and giant hail stones in our National Geographic Kids’ weather primary resource sheet.

The teaching resource can be used in study group tasks for learning about and comparing the impacts of different forces of nature; as a printed handout for each pupil to review and annotate; or for display on the interactive whiteboard using the images included in the resource for class discussion.

Activity: Ask children to read the facts from their handout and, in small groups, map where these types of extreme weather occur in the world. Pupils could use a map of the world and coloured-pencils to help them. Children could each be assigned one of the numbers between 1 – 10 and working in groups, turn the weather type associated with their number into a flash card, or ‘Top Trump’ card, rating the strength or ‘special powers’ of the weather type, and the damage it can do.

N.B. The following information for mapping the resource documents to the school curriculum is specifically tailored to the English National Curriculum and Scottish Curriculum for Excellence. We are currently working to bring specifically tailored curriculum resource links for our other territories; including South Africa, Australia and New Zealand. If you have any queries about our upcoming curriculum resource links, please email: schools@ngkids.co.uk

This Geography primary resource assists with teaching the following Geography objectives from the National Curriculum:

The national curriculum for geography aims to ensure that all pupils: understand the processes that give rise to key physical and human geographical features of the world, how these are interdependent and how they bring about spatial variation and change over time

National Curriculum Key Stage 1 Geography objective:

Pupils should be taught to:

use basic geographical vocabulary to refer to: key physical features, including: beach, cliff, coast, forest, hill, mountain, sea, ocean, river, soil, valley, vegetation, season and weather

National Curriculum Key Stage 2 Geography objective:

Pupils should be taught to: describe and understand key aspects of:

physical geography, including: climate zones, biomes and vegetation belts, rivers, mountains, volcanoes and earthquakes, and the water cycle

This Geography primary resource assists with teaching the following Social Studies Early level objective from the Scottish Curriculum for Excellence:

While learning outdoors in differing weathers, I have described and recorded the weather, its effects and how it makes me feel and can relate my recordings to the seasons.

Scottish Curriculum for Excellence First level Social Studies objective:

By using a range of instruments, I can measure and record the weather and can discuss how weather affects my life.

By exploring climate zones around the world, I can compare and describe how climate affects living things.

Scottish Curriculum for Excellence Second level Social Studies objective:

By comparing my local area with a contrasting area outwith Britain, I can investigate the main features of weather and climate, discussing the impact on living things.

Scottish Curriculum for Excellence Third level Social Studies objective:

I can investigate the relationship between climate and weather to be able to understand the causes of weather patterns within a selected climate zone.

Scottish Curriculum for Excellence Fourth level Social Studies objective: