1 Mar

Weather – Air

Air/Weather

Objective: Help children understand how air affects the world around us.

Preparation:

Find drawings or pictures books, magazines or old calendars of wind, plants, and animals.
Have a large balloon.
Have crayons, pencils or markers for drawing.
Drawing paper.
Decide on a book to read. Suggested books:
Air Is All Around You by Franklyn M. Branley
If We Could See Air by David T. Suzuki

Lesson:
Read a book then discuss:

Did you know that air is all around you?
Without air there wouldn’t be any life on Earth? (Have everyone breathe in and exhale out.)
Air is the gas that floats all around you and makes up our atmosphere. We can’t see it, since it is made up of colorless gases.
Some of the gases that make up the air around us are oxygen, and carbon dioxide. We like to shorten carbon dioxide and just call it “CO₂”.
All life on Earth depends on air to stay alive. When we breathe, we inhale air. Our bodies use the oxygen.
Humans and animals make CO₂ and exhale it into the air.
Plants use CO₂ and put oxygen back into the air.
Plants clean the air. Let’s give the plants some CO₂. (Breathe in and exhale out again.)
Although we usually can’t feel it, air is always touching us. (Blow up a balloon.)
One of the few times that you can actually feel air is when it is windy. (Make wind by letting the air go in the balloon.)
Air is used for many different things, such as flying planes, sailing on a sail boat, or blows windmills to create electricity.

Activity: Make an air cycle picture.

Give each child a sheet of drawing paper.
Have the child draw a picture of self on one side of the paper and a tree on the other side.
Draw an arrow from the tree to the child. and write “oxygen” by this arrow.
Draw an arrow going from the child to the tree and write “ CO₂” by that arrow.
Have them lightly color some air with the side of a blue or gray crayon.

Optional activities are to make airplanes or kites.