This guest post was contributed by Illiana Moses at the Alexandria Redevelopment and Housing Authority’s (ARHA) Ruby Tucker Center. The Center adopted Start with a Book’s Weather Wonders toolkit for their youth program this summer. ARHA provides affordable housing for low-income families in Alexandria, VA.
August 25, 2023
The Ruby Tucker students spent their summer exploring extreme weather and analyzing weather characteristics and the effects of weather. Students observed how clouds produce rain with the Cloud in a Jar activity, and even turned it into a competition to see which cup and color would create rain first based on the amount of shaving cream (cloud) that was present.
Students also completed their weather journals weekly to analyze the current weather and learn various weather terms.
The books that SWAB provided to our Ruby Tucker students helped to introduce weather topics and engage students in fulfilling discussions such as how extreme weather affects families and communities, the relation of climate justice and racial justice, and what we can do to positively impact our planet. These books included To Change a Planet, Weather Words and What They Mean, I Am The Storm, and The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind.
The kids at the Ruby Tucker Center doing a leaf printing art activity:
The kids receiving their summer Weather Wonders certificates!
