1. Phrase #1
Assignment: Weather Project
Student name: Yingquan Liang
Student number: 300564966
Course: ECEP-229
Professor: Maria Roberts
Date: 18th,October, 2011

2. IN THIS SECTION:
1. Observations and Analysis
2. Web (completed with children)
3. KWH (L) chart
4. List of Questions to explore with children
5. Web with 6 possible experiences identified
6. Rationale statement for families to aid in their understanding of your
choice of topic for a project

3. Observation #1:
Date: September 22nd
Location: Parkway forest YMCA child care center
Preschooler playroom
Time: 12:00am
Specific Setting information:
Children have finished their and waiting for the ECE teacher to send them to the
public school. It is raining outside. One child was standing by the window.
Children A: 5 years old, Athene (A)
A was standing by the window, she put her two hands on the window and her eyes were
looking outside the window.
A:”Oh, it is raining outside.”
Me:”Yes, you are going to school later and it is still raining.”
A:”It is cool and I will get wet.”
A put her face on the window, her eyes was still looking out of the window. After a while,
she blinked and went to the cabinet. She brought her coat and walked to me.
A:”I want to wear my coat because it is cool outside, can you help me to pull up the
zipper?”
I helped Athene to pull up the zipper, and then she went to school with the ECE teacher.
Analysis:
It appears that children will interest in the activity”match the words and the pictures of
weather”, because they know the form and the pronunciation of weather. According to
“ages and stages”, children in five years old can understands about 13000 words, so this
activity is suitable for them to develop too.

4. Observation #2
Date: September 23rd
Location: Parkway forest YMCA child care center
Preschooler playroom
Time: 3:45pm
Specific Setting information:
It is cloudy outside; children were playing on the outside playground. Two children (both
of them are 5 years old) were running and wanted to catch each other.
Child A: Madeleine (M) 5 years old Child B: Hanna (H) 5 years old
M and H were running on the ground and trying to catch each other. Suddenly, a heavy
wind came.
H:”I am going to be blow away!”
M:”Give me your hand!”
H put her left hand in M’s right hand. They were jumping and laughing.
H:”I think both of us are going to be blow away together!”
M:”OK, give me your right hand.”
At least, H and M clasped each other and jumped.
Analysis:
It appears that children will interest in the activity “how far you can blow the leaves”,
because they know what is going on when the weather come and they are active to
respond the weather. According to the “ages and stages”, five years old children like to
try new things and take risks, so, this activity is meaningful for them.

5. My first web with the children and common experience:
It was outside playing time; I brought out the paper and find a place to sit with two
children. I said, “Can you tell me something about the weather?” the two children
started to tell me what did they know about the weather, such as raining, windy,
sunshine and so on. After a while, more and more children went to our table and gave
me more information and ideas, such as flowers grow up in the sun, windy is cool and so
on. When they are talking and discussing, I wrote down their ideas on the paper.
Then, I asked them what activities we can do with weather, they are all very active to
give me ideas, some of them start to show me how to do.

6. Our KWH Chart (based on the web and observations)
K (know) W (want to know) H (how will L (learn what
children investigate was learned)
to learn)
Flowers grow up How many colors Make your own
in the sun of flowers? flowers and present
it to your
classmates
Plant can grow up How the plants The basic structure
after raining grow up? of plant
We cannot see What is the feeling Game: catch people
things clearly in the fog? in the fog
because of fog Can we still see
things clearly?
Wind can blow Why sometimes Blow the leaves
things away the wind can blow with your mouth
things far away
and sometimes
not?
Cloud looks like How much cloud Count the numbers
cotton in the sky? of “cloud” in the
“sky”
Sunny, windy, How to write the Match the words
rainy, cloudy, words of the and the pictures of
foggy are different weather? weather

7. List of possible questions
1. Why the wind can be heavy and light?
2. Where did the fog come from?
3. Where does the rain go?
4. Why there are different kinds of weather?
5. Why sunshine is warm?
6. Why the tree can grow up without eating?

8. Anticipatory Web

9. Rationale:
According to the observations and talking with children at the outside playing time, id
discovered that they are very interested in weather.
According to the “Ages and stages”, older preschoolers like to try new things and take
risks, understand about 13,000words, know basic colors like red, yellow, blue, green,
orange, speak in fairly complex sentences and so on. They are curious things around
them and want to explore.
They are going to have many opportunities over several weeks to explore weather, and
know more about the weather. This is a funny, meaningful part of preschool
development. I think you will be happy to know what the children know and learn
during the explorations about weather.
During this exploration, the children will:
 Know there are several colors of flowers
 How plants grow up
 How wind blow leaves away
 How to spell the words of weather
 How is the feeling of looking things in the fog
 Know more numbers
 Show their ideas to their classmate
 Do team work with classmate
We will post the samples of our work for you to see and share with your children. We
hope you will like our exploration.
Yingquan Liang (Aegean)

10. Reference:
Preschooler development. Ages and stages: A Brief Overview Birth to 12years

11. Phrase #2
Final web with children (Nov 25th, 2011)
Children’s age: age 4—age 5
I sat with the children in the cubby area, showed them the pictures of the
activities, and viewed what we have done together. Then, I asked them what they
learned during the activities. They are active, they raise their hands up when they
wanted to tell me what they have learned. At last, I gave them markers to show
me their ideas on the paper.

12. Introduction: According to the feedback on phrace#1, I found that the activity
“make your own flowers and present it to your classmate” is not connect the
topic “weather” very well, so I found another time to stay with children again and
asked them some questions about weather. Then, I changed something in my
KWHL chart.
Our KWH Chart (based on the web and observations)
K (know) W (want to know) H (how will L (learn what
children investigate was learned)
to learn)
Sunshine is warm Why sunshine is Video clip: Weather Weather is
warm? and climate different from
climate.
Heat transfer
from the sun and
that is why
sunshine in
warm.
Plants can grow How the plants Observe the basic Plants use the
up after raining grow up? structure of plant root to get the
rain so that they
can grow up.
We cannot see What is the feeling Game: catch people Fog comes from
things clearly of looking in the “fog”. water. We can
because of fog something in the still see things in
fog? the fog, but not
clearly.

13. Wind can blow Why sometimes Blow the leaves The heavier the
things away the wind can blow with your mouth wind blow, the
things far away leaves can go
and sometimes more far. The
not? bigger leaves are
harder to blow.
Cloud looks like How much cloud Make pictures of There are
cotton in the sky? cloudy and count different shapes
the numbers of of cloud in the
“cloud” in the “sky” sky and they
cannot be
counted. When it
is going to rain,
the sky and the
cloud is grey.
Sunny, windy, How to write the Match the words The spelling of
rainy, cloudy, words of the and the pictures of the words of
foggy are different weather? weather weather.
Slugs and worms What are slugs Use magnifying Because of the
come out after and worms look glass to observe wet air after rain,
rain. like? slugs and worms. slugs and worms
Why they come come out and
out after rain? they need to stay
moist.
Worms has blood
in their bodies.

14. Phrase #3