Introduce Kids to Weather with These Coloring Pages

Introduce Kids to Weather with These Coloring Pages One of the earliest ways kids begin learning about the weather is by drawing and coloring weather symbols like suns, clouds, snowflakes, and the seasons. Teaching children about the weather with art and pictures not only makes it easier for them to understand, it also makes learning about severe and more serious kinds of weather less scary. Weve rounded up a collection of  family-friendly  weather coloring books offered by  the National Weather Service that help keep families informed and safe during severe weather events. Kids are encouraged to read about each severe storm type and then color in the pictures.   Meet Billy Maria Created by NOAAs National Severe Storms Laboratory,  Billy and Maria are two young friends who learn about severe weather through their adventures in  thunderstorms, tornadoes, and winter storms. Young students can accompany them by reading each story page and then coloring in the pictures.   Best for ages: 3 to 5 years The smaller coloring spaces, large text, and  simple sentences make these books appropriate for younger children.  Ã‚   Severe Weather with Owlie Skywarn NOAA also aims to capture the attention of kids with Owlie Skywarn, their official weather mascot.  Owlie is known for being wise about the weather and can help your children and students to do the same.  Booklets are 5-10 pages long and include fact boxes with illustrations that can be colored in. A  quiz (true/false, fill in the blank) is included at the end of every book to test what kids have learned.  Ã‚   In addition to the Owlie Skywarn coloring books, kids can also follow Owlies weather adventures  on Twitter (NWSOwlieSkywarn) and Facebook (nwsowlie). Some of Owlies Activity books  talk about: TornadoesHurricanesFloodsLightningWinter Storms Best for ages:  8 and up The coloring books are expertly designed and very informative, but almost too informative. The font type is quite  small and the information is a little above the coloring book stage of student interest.   Teachers: Weave Coloring Into Your Weather Science Lesson Plans Teachers can  implement these weather coloring books into the classroom as part of a daily plan over the course of five days. Using a severe storms theme, we suggest teachers present all of the materials one day at a time. Print out all of the booklets in the list, but don’t pass out the quiz. Present the material to students and then give them the quiz to take home and complete with their families. Tell students their assignment is to â€Å"teach† their families about severe storm preparation. Parents: Make Weather Coloring An Anytime Activity Just because these coloring books are educational, doesnt mean they dont make a good anytime coloring activity! Parents and guardians should use them at home, too, to begin to teach kids about weather safety from  a very young age.  Each of the coloring books actually shows kids how to react in the event of severe weather so that whenever storms do hit home, your kids will feel more  relaxed and ready for them.   Follow this family plan to implement these booklets in your family nights. We suggest parents plan one night per week to review the written information in the booklets. Since there are five booklets, you can complete this small course of study in just five weeks. Since storm preparation is so vital, you have to remember to practice the safety information over and over. Here are the steps: Assign one night for reading and reviewing the information together.Give your kids supplies to color the pages. Make sure you tell your kids to think about the safety information as they color.Check with your kids periodically to see what they remember. Put the details into practice at  home with random questions about the material. Since storms can happen suddenly, knowing what to do quickly and â€Å"on the spot† is vital to learning and preparation.At the end of the week, go over the information together again. Present the Owlie Skywarn quiz and see how many of the answers your kids can guess.Design a weather drill poster or paper so that you and the rest of your family will know what to do during a storm. Post it to a central spot, like the refrigerator.  Periodically, practice the weather drills so that your family stays refreshed.