Weather. English grade 4

1. Teach the weather vocab Before class prepare weather flashcard pictures for the vocab sunny, rainy, windy, cloudy, snowy, foggy, hot, cold. Our weather flashcards are great for this. Stick them around the walls of your classroom.

2. Play "Touch the cards" Once the class has started, the teacher walks around the classroom touching the weather cards. As you touch each card do the song gesture while saying the vocab (e.g. it's sunny!). As you do this encourage your students to do the gestures and say the words with you. Next, get all your students to stand up. Teacher shouts out a weather word (e.g. "It’s rainy!") and students have to run over to the correct picture, touch it and do the gesture. If you have a lot of students it is worthwhile having multiple pictures of each card placed around the walls of the room.

3. Talk about the weather outside Motion for your students to come over to the window (or even outside). Say a few times "How’s the weather?", "Look outside". Elicit from the class the weather and if it’s hot or cold (you can also teach "warm" if necessary). E.g. "It’s cloudy and rainy and cold". Then ask each student in turn “How’s the weather?” and encourage them to reply.

4. Sing "The Weather Song" First put the weather flashcards on the board in the order of the song (or use our Weather Song song poster). Have all the students stand up and watch you as you sing along and use the gestures. Encourage them to join in and sing along. Play the song two or three times.

Lyrics for "The Weather Song"

Verse 1: How’s the weather? How’s the weather? Look outside. How’s the weather? How’s the weather? Look outside. It’s sunny, it’s rainy, it’s windy, it’s cloudy. It’s snowy, it’s foggy, it’s hot, it’s cold.

Verse 2: How’s the weather? How’s the weather? Look outside. How’s the weather? How’s the weather? Look outside. It’s sunny, it’s rainy, it’s windy, it’s cloudy. It’s snowy, it’s foggy, it’s hot, it’s cold.

(download MP3 here)

Gestures for "The Weather Song"

There are some easy gestures you can do as you sing along to the song:

1. For the question part "How’s the weather?", sing along and do the 'palms of the hands up' question gesture.
2. For the "Look outside" part, face the window and put your hand over your eyes (like a salute), as if you were looking into the distance.
3. Use hand gestures for the weather words:
   • sunny: slowly spread your arms out
   • rainy: wiggle your fingers downwards like rain
   • windy: gesture wind blowing out of your mouth
   • cloudy: make cloudy shapes with your hands
   • snowy: wiggle your fingers downwards like snow and shiver
   • foggy: close your eyes and put your hand out in front like you are trying to feel for something you can’t see
   • hot: fan your face
   • cold: shiver and wrap your arms around your body