Instead of just graphing daily temperatures, try this activity. They soon see that weather forecasting is not exact.

Materials:

• daily weather forecast from newspaper
• several copies of a blank thermometer
• strips of paper in three colors
• happy/sad faces (optional)

Plan:

1. Bring in daily paper so students can see temp forecast for that day. Using first colored strip, paste strip on thermometer to show what the weatherman predicts that days temp will be.
2. Have students predict what they think today's temp will be. Depending on age level, you can also have them defend their reasoning. Paste second color on same thermometer to show what class prediction is.
3. Next day, bring in paper again and have students see what the temp actually was. Paste third color in first thermometer. Stick happy/sad face on thermometer to show if weatherman was right or wrong. I usually allow 3 degree variance before putting on a sad face.
4. On same day, repeat steps 1 & 2 on new thermometer.
5. Repeat sequence for desired time.
6. At end, discuss and/or graph the number of times the weatherman was correct/incorrect in temp forecast. Also can discuss why he was wrong so many times--weather factors that may have caused him to be incorrect.

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