Summary

If frogs made weather, it would rain all the time and ponds would stay full to the brim.  If polar bears made weather, winter would never end and the ground would always be covered with snow.  This picture book encourages children to speculate on what it would be like if animals made weather.

Holiday House    

Reading Strategies ~ Strategies That Work by Stephanie Harvey

Questioning
Have students respond in writing, orally or creatively artistically to the following questions:

1. “If Frogs Made Weather?”
2. Why does each animal describe or choose the weather it chooses?
3. What do we already know about weather?

Inferencing
Have students list each character as it is read about.  Record describing words that infer what season the character would choose. 

Visualization
As the teacher reads about one of the animals have students visualize the setting being described and create a picture of what they “see.”  Students can use colored pencils, crayons, torn paper or paint.  Have students work independently and then compare pictures and explain how they decided what to create. Explain how the words in a story help a reader create a “picture” in his or her mind.
 

Writing Strategies ~ 6+1 Traits of Writing by Ruth Culham

• Use the Enchanted Learning website to complete an Animal Fact chart.  You can change the column headings to fit your grade level or curriculum making sure to include the diet.  This would be a good cooperative group project or a whole class project.  Have each student or group complete their animal and then share the information with the entire class.  Each student should complete their own Me row!

• Share the book Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs.  Using the animal diet facts from the activity above, have the students rewrite the book using the diet of the animals as the weather type!  For example, "if weasels made weather, frogs would shower down from the sky."  Use Kid Pix software to create an electronic storybook!

• Younger students will enjoy coloring the animals from the Enchanted Learning site.  Directions are included on the website with each picture.

• Let your students play the Wild Weather Adventure game!  Students can play alone or in groups of up to 4.  Directions are given online.