Zixth Grade

This week we review our unit on Earth’s weather and prepare for the unit assessment. Along with the paper assessment, we will express our knowledge of weather concepts through an online video game and a movie-making project.

Objectives:

• Express knowledge of Earth’s weather patterns.
• Demonstrate how to use a sling psychrometer to measure relative humidity
• Use a digital camera to capture video. Use a computer to arrange the captured clips into a presentation.

Assignments:

• Relative Humidity Documentary (Tuesday)
• Chapter 6 Assessment (Thursday)

Thanks for all your thoughts and well-wishes as Mrs. Zehring and I welcomed home our new son, Nathan. Both mother and baby are very healthy and happy to be home. Special thanks to our guest teacher Mrs. Hardy and our Arizona Youth Partnership instructor Mr. Short.

Play the game Manic Miner to prepare for the Chapter 6 Assessment.

Click here for full screen version

Important Announcements:

• Abstinence Training parents meeting 8 AM, Wednesday, October 8. A representative from Arizona Youth Partnership will speak with parents about their program and answer any questions. Students will participate in the program October 20-24.
• We’re bumping the Chapter 6 test! We will continue with the test the week of October 27. With all the work we did with sling psychrometers last week, we didn’t have time to read through all of the weather chapters.
• Sorry for the downtime. Edublogs.org upgraded their service, and we lost access this weekend. Everything should be up and running even faster than before.

And now…

This week, we answer the question How can you track severe storms? We’ll put together our understanding of high and low pressure, warm and cold fronts, and data analysis to find out how meteorologists and scientists track and predict severe storm movement.

Objectives:

• Understand how to track the path of a hurricane.
  
• Understand how weather is forecast.
  
• Describe different types of severe storms.

Vocabulary:

• thunderstorm
• tornado
• hurricane
• blizzard

Assignments:

• Hurricane Tracking map and conclusions
• Worksheet RS 52-53

Use the interactive site below to learn more about different types of clouds.

Types of Clouds

In the comments section, describe which clouds bring precipitation and severe weather.

As we investigate the question What is weather? We are learning about warm fronts and cold fronts.

When a warm air mass moves into a cold air mass, the result is a warm front.

When a cold air mass moves into a warm air mass, a cold front occurs.

In both warm and cold fronts, the warm air rises above the cold air mass, as illustrated in the image below.

The red water baloon represents a warm air mass. The blue water baloon represents a cold air mass. The cold air mass sinks, because it is much colder and more dense than the air around it. The warm air mass floats because the air inside it is warmer and less dense.