Summer Series #3Summer Weather Observations
Train Your Senses
- Sight: Observe where the sun rises and sets on the horizon, making visual points of reference. (see challenge)
- Smell: Does the air have a certain smell when it is hot?
- Touch: Can you feel the hot sun on your skin? Make sure to cover up or put on sunblock when you are outdoors in the afternoon to protect your skin from the sun’s strong rays.
- Hearing: Observe the sounds of weather: wind, rain, thunder.
Inside Preparation Work:
Read pages 851-854 in the Handbook of Nature Study (The Relations of the Sun to the Moon, Lesson 231). This time we are going to pay attention to two different things that are talked about in this section of the Handbook.
1. “At sunrise this heat which the sun sends out equally at all times of day and night is tempered when it reaches us, because it passes obliquely through our atmosphere-blanket, and thus traverses a greater distance in the cooling air. The same is true at sunset, but at noon, when the sun is most directly over our heads, its rays pass through the least possible distance of the atmosphere-blanket and therefore loses less heat on the way.”
2. “The movement of the sun north and south is an interesting subject for personal investigation, as suggested in the lesson…..I have become so accustomed to the arc traversed by the points of sunrise as seen from my home, that I can tell what month of the year it is by simply noting the place where the sun rises.”
Outdoor Hour Time:
1. Use some of your outdoor time to take temperature readings on your thermometer at sunrise (or early morning), noon, and then again at sunset. Record these temperatures, making comparisons. You can also use your outdoor time to use the suggested observations using your senses as noted in the box above.
2. Get up early and watch the sunrise. Note the place where the sunrises by observing something on the horizon such as a tree, a building, a mountain, or something else that can serve as a landmark for the sunrise. Do the same thing at sundown, finding a landmark to note.
Follow-Up Activity:
Record your temperature observations and sketch your sunset landmark on notebook page from the Summer Series ebook or into your own blank nature journal. You can also use the Seasonal Weather notebook page from my sidebar to write your observations and make a sketch. You can do this activity several times over the summer months and compare any changes you observe. Make the study fit your family’s interests.
Please make sure to come back and post your link on Mr. Linky after completing this challenge and writing your blog entry.
If you would like all the Summer Series Challenges in one place, I have an ebook gathered for you to purchase for your convenience. Here is a link to a complete description:
Summer Series of Outdoor Hour Challenges
