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Sky Watchers Weather Learning Stations - Grades 4, 5 and 6

Station 4: Student Instructions

Welcome to the world of movies! You are now part of a movie making team, working for a director who is producing a movie that needs to be filmed in a few areas of rainy or stormy weather. You (and the team) are responsible for inspecting the weather pages of the paper and finding a map of Canada with weather information on it. Then you need to select three places in Canada where you think the weather is going to change to rain or storms. Let's see what you can find!

  1. Start by opening up the weather section of the newspaper. Find the small map of Canada which has certain weather information on it. The first task of the team is to copy all that information down on the Sky Watchers Weather Map. Use the same labels so that you indicate both warm and cold fronts, temperatures, areas of thunderstorms or rain, snow, freezing rain, and anything else you see in the newspaper's map. Make sure you include the Map Key so you can remember what you have marked down!
  2. Now, have a close look at your new Sky Watchers map. Find the cold fronts and warm fronts. Do you know what they are? Read below to find out!
  3. In your small group, review your map. Then turn to the Student Handout and answer the questions.

Cold Fronts and Warm Fronts: How Are They the Same?

  • Both are fronts, which is the edge where two air masses meet.
  • Both involve cold air and warm air masses.
  • Both can result in rain or stormy weather.
  • Warm air rises in both of them.

Cold Fronts and Warm Fronts: How Are They Different?

Cold FrontWarm Front
  • Heavy cold air pushes into an area.
  • This cold, dense air mass pushes the lighter, warmer air up very quickly.
  • The front is steeper.
  • It creates more extreme weather events like high winds, heavy rains and thunderstorms.
  • A cold air mass moves out of an area (retreats).
  • Warmer air moves in gradually to replace it.
  • The front is not as steep.
  • It can create rain or other forms of precipitation.
 A cross-section through a cold front A cross-section through a warm front
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