Home Geography for Primary Grades · Lesson V · Unit 1: Finding direction
5. Questions on direction: shadows, birds and wind
Goal: Your child answers questions about direction by watching shadows, smoke and the sky, and knows that a north wind is one that blows from the north.
You'll need
- A sunny day
- Chalk or a few stones to mark shadows on the ground
- A ribbon or strip of tissue paper on a stick for watching the wind
- A geography notebook (any notebook kept just for these lessons) and a pencil
What's in the book
A page of questions for the child to find out for themselves: how to find north by day, night, rain or shine; which way birds fly in winter; where your shadow falls at sunrise, noon and sunset; what smoke and a weather vane tell us; and what weather each wind brings.
The lesson, step by step
Find it out yourself
Read the opening aloud:
She could tell you, but it is better to find them out for yourself.
SayToday you are the explorer. Let's answer these questions by going and looking.
Quick review
Ask the first questions: How can I find north on a sunny day? On a starlit night? On a rainy day? How does a sailor find north? Your child answers from Lessons II to IV.
Shadow watch
Go outside in the morning. Your child stands still while you trace around their feet with chalk and mark the end of their shadow. Which way does it point? Come back around the middle of the day and again in the late afternoon, standing in the same chalk feet. When is the shadow shortest? Which way does it point then?
Never look straight at the sun.
Birds and snow
Ask: When winter comes, many birds fly to a warmer country. Which way will they fly? Point to where ice and snow have their home. What direction is that?
Which way is the wind blowing?
Hold up your ribbon on a stick, or watch smoke from a chimney, a flag or tree tops.
SayA north wind is a wind that comes FROM the north. Which way is today's wind coming from?
If there is a weather vane nearby, look at it: the arrow points into the wind.
Moss on trees
The book suggests checking for moss on the north side of trees. Look at a few trees together and see what you find.
What we know now: moss grows wherever bark stays shady and damp, which is often but not always the north side. It is fun to check but not safe to trust if lost; the sun, the North Star or a compass is better.
Talk it over
Ask what weather each wind brings where you live. Keep a little chart this week: the wind's direction each day and whether it was warm, cold, wet or fair.
Afterwards
Keep the wind-and-weather chart for a week. At the end, ask: which wind brought the coldest day? The rainiest?
Tip
In summer, the shortest shadow often comes closer to 1 o'clock than 12, because clocks are set forward for daylight saving time. That is a good surprise to discover.
Answers to the book's problems
By day, find north with the sun (sunrise is east, so north is to your left as you face the sunrise); at night, with the North Star; on rainy or cloudy days, with a compass. Sailors use the compass and the North Star. If lost and home is north, walk toward the North Star, or keep the morning sun on your right. In winter birds fly south, toward warm lands; ice and snow have their home in the north. Your shadow falls toward the west at sunrise, toward the east at sunset, and toward the north at noon (in the United States); it is shortest at noon, when the sun is highest in the sky. Smoke and a vane show which way the wind blows. A north wind blows from the north. Across most of the United States north winds bring cold weather and south winds warm weather; the book's poem in the next lesson says east winds bring chilly rain and west winds bring pleasant weather.
Worked out for this site from the scan. If a number in your copy differs, trust the book.