We began our weather study today. 

The following two books are what I've been using to plan the unit. The first one, Weather!, was written by a fellow homeschooling mother. It is wonderfully written; very engaging and super informative. Even I, the self-proclaimed weather girl, learned a few things! It also has wonderful experiments. The second is chock full of just that, experiments.              

  We created weather journals. Here is Jayda's first page.

Then we started by learning what the atmosphere is and it's layers.

A couple things we learned:

we live in the troposphere

jet planes fly in the next layer, the stratosphere, it's also home to the 'ozone layer'

meteors or 'falling stars,' burn up in the mesosphere

the Northern & Southern Lights are in the ionosphere

outer space is in the furthest layer, the exosphere

Here is Jayda's journal page with the atmosphere's layers

 Then we included a couple experiments from the books:

1. The first proves air takes up space and has weight.

We suspended a ruler from a hanger with two empty balloons, the ruler was level.

Then we blew one of the balloons up, that made it tip to one side, proving that the air has weight.

2. How much oxygen is in the air?

We poked one end of a pencil into a clean soapless piece of steel wool. Moistened it and proped ip the pencil -- with the wool on top -- in a dish of water. We covered it with a measuring cup.

Now we are to let it sit for 2 or 3 days and see what happens.

We'll keep you posted!