(From Clouds to Consequences: Cause & Effect)
Watch your students transform oral language into confident reading and writing while learning how extreme weather forms, impacts communities, and how people prepare to stay safe.
Designed for K–5 Project GLAD classrooms, with intentional differentiation for K–1, Grades 2–3, and Grades 4–5.
This ready-to-print extension pack helps you teach NGSS-aligned weather science through stories, chants, visuals, and writing without starting from scratch. Everything is connected, purposeful, and easy to use with your GLAD strategies.
Just print, teach, and trust the process.
Built for Standards + Real Student Writing
✔️ Clear alignment to NGSS Earth & Space Science and Common Core reading & writing
✔️ A cohesive 4-week scope & sequence (with an optional Week 5 writing/publishing week)
✔️ True grade-level differentiation (K–1 / 2–3 / 4–5)
✔️ Cause-and-effect writing embedded throughout the unit
This extension pack provides a complete learning experience where science content, oral language, reading, and writing are intentionally connected print-and-go resources that plug into your GLAD routines so it’s easy to teach now and extend when you’re ready.
• Learning Targets
– Grade-band targets for K–1, 2–3, 4–5
– Includes both content and language objectives
• Picture File Cards
– Ready to use across Shared Reading, chants, charts, and writing routines
Teacher-Made Big Books
– Warm Ocean, What Do You Do? (Hurricanes cause & effect)
– About Tornadoes: A Book About Cause and Effect (K–1, 2–3, 4–5 versions)
– The Important Book About Blizzards (Primary + Intermediate)
– If the Rain Won’t Stop… (Flooding cause & effect; Primary + Intermediate)
• Narrative Input Chart Story
– Three Meteorologists and the Weather Bridge
A memorable narrative that supports oral retell and cause/effect writing.
• Graphic Organizers + Process Grids
– Hurricane Pattern (K–1)
– Tornado Pattern (K–1; optional for 2–3)
– Extreme Weather Phenomena in America Map (Grades 2–5)
– Process Grids (K–1, 2–3, 4–5)
Chants for Shared Reading
– Vocabulary-rich chants that plug directly into 5-day Shared Reading routines
– Includes leveled I Can Spell (Flood/Flooding/Phenomenon)
• Writing Prompts & Learning Logs
– Narrative retell + expository cause/effect options by grade band
– Aligned to the Cooperative Strip Paragraph (Week 5 recommended)
Weather Phenomena Studied
Students explore four major weather phenomena and learn to compare them using consistent categories (cause, effect, patterns, location, safety):
🌀 Hurricanes
🌪️ Tornadoes
❄️ Blizzards
🌊 Flooding
The enduring understanding stays consistent across grade levels:
Weather has causes. Weather has effects. We can prepare and reduce the impact.
Use this pack as a 4-week extension unit (with an optional Week 5 writing/publishing week), or integrate individual resources into your existing instruction.
These materials plug directly into GLAD strategies and routines you already use, including:
Shared Reading
Interactive Read Aloud (Teacher-Made Big Books)
Pictorial & Narrative Input Charts
Sentence Patterning Chart
Talking Tree Map
Cooperative Strip Paragraph
Extreme Weather Extension Pack
Print it. Teach it. Trust it.
If you want someone in your corner while you teach this unit, the VIP Spring Implementation Group is for you. You’ll get implementation coaching, curriculum modifications, and daily guidance so you can stay consistent without overthinking. VIP also includes exclusive add-ons (like Graffiti Walls + ABC Chant/Book resources) that help students synthesize vocabulary and write stronger cause-and-effect responses.