Measuring Rainfall – 3rd Class

Theme

Measuring rainfall in the school yard

Strand

Environmental Awareness and Care

Strand Unit

Environmental Awareness

Objectives

That the children in Third Class will be enabled to –

• investigate and discuss how rainfall is measured
• design an apparatus to measure the amount of rainfall over time
• observe and measure the amount of rainfall over time
• draw a graph of the results

Skills Development

• Investigating
• Observing
• Discussing
• Predicting
• Estimating and Measuring
• Recording and Communicating

Initial Discussion

The children discussed the reasons why it is important to measure rainfall. These included the important reasons why fishermen, farmers, pilots and holidaymakers would need to know the amount of rain that is predicted to fall.

Integration with Maths and Technology

The children observed and investigated how rainfall is measured at a meteorological station by viewing a video from metoffice.gov.uk. It recommended using a container that has a diameter of 5 inches. A container with these dimensions was sourced and was placed in an open area of the school garden. Rainfall was collected during 24 hour periods and the amount of rain collected was observed and measured.