Log Cabin in a Thunderstorm

Draw and write about stormy settings, incorporating details about weather safety and how storms occur.

• 1.

  Create a whole-class K-W-L chart (what you Know and Wonder) about electrical storms. Share ideas about how lightning and thunder occur. Pose questions about how meteorologists forecast stormy weather. Work together to search for answers to your questions, then share information with the group. Add this information to the K-W-L chart (what you Learned).

• 2.

  Use Crayola® Crayons to draw a safe cabin, house, or other dwelling in a stormy setting. For example, show storm clouds, bright bolts of lightning, and pelting raindrops all around the structure. Leave a wide border around the outside of the paper.

• 3.

  With a craft stick, notch the side of an unwrapped crayon in several places. Rub the side of the crayon around the border of the paper to create several wide stripes. Add patterned symbols such as clouds, raindrops, and lightning in each stripe by pressing hard with crayons.

• 4.

  Write as though you were comforting a younger person safe inside the cabin with you during the storm. Find comforting ways to explain the lightning, thunder, wind, and rain. Tell the younger person how the two of you are staying safe from the storm.

Benefits

• Students investigate how stormy weather conditions and phenomena occur and can be predicted.
• Children draw safe dwellings in stormy scenes.
• Students write about the setting, creatively incorporating details about electrical storms and how to remain safe.

Adaptations

• Teachers provide feedback to writers in the form of questions an imaginary younger person might ask. If the writer included no information on wind, for example, write a question about the wind on a self-stick note and attach to the draft.
• Younger students and those with special needs may need assistance writing descriptions. Arrange helper partners or classroom volunteers to transcribe students' ideas for them.
• Conduct a survey of places that are safest during a thunderstorm. Find out what procedures you should follow at school during a storm. Practice safety precautions for the types of storms that are common in your area.