This guest blog post was contributed by Nevaeh Pittman, Early Start Program Associate at Jubilee Youth Services in Washington, DC.
Jubilee Youth Services is part of Jubilee Housing, a faith-based nonprofit organization founded in 1973 that provides affordable housing and supportive services to some 800 economically vulnerable residents of the Adams Morgan neighborhood of Washington, DC.
August 21, 2023
Jubilee Housing’s Early Start program chose to use Start with a Book’s Weather Wonders toolkit this summer.
This summer had to be one of the best summers to really dissect the topic of weather! Before we were able to present any SWAB materials to Early Start, we received questions about air quality, how tornadoes are formed, and my personal favorite “why is rain ... rain?” The amount of knowledge the children already had about the science behind weather was amazing. They even taught us a few things.
Zap! Clap! BOOM! assisted one of the most entertaining reading circles I’ve ever experienced. Early Start took it upon themselves to make it very interactive and ended up taking turns reading the book. Afterward, we did the thunderstorm activity which began with snaps, claps, and lead to gusts of wind and trees falling in little human form.
Early Start also took part in a nature walk around the community. They each grabbed a pair of binoculars or a magnifying glass to take a closure look into natural movement. We discussed how the clouds moved, what the wind sounds and feels like and much more. At the conclusion of our walk, they wrote in their journals about what they heard, felt and seen.
Throughout the duration of the summer they made their own weather predictions daily. Although their mission was to declare clear skies for free play, I believe they truly enjoyed experiencing weather on a deeper level.
