Learning More About Tornadoes
It’s Spring! Which means crazy weather as the warmth and cold mix and mingle. Here in Oklahoma that means tornado season starts picking up. I thought I would put together a few links and ideas about tornadoes if anyone was interested in doing a unit study on them. Tornadoes really are amazing, hypnotic acts of nature. That is, when you’re not in the line of sight of one.
- Tornado guide from the U.S. DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration National Weather Service A great guide on what tornadoes are, what causes them, and some safety guidelines.
- The Tornado Project - A little bit of everything, worth check out for images and videos.
- National Geographic has Tornado lesson plans for kinds in K-2, 3-5, 6-8, and 9-12 grades.
- Make A Tornado - A fun project for younger children (K-5) to make their own little tornado in a bottle.
- Tornado! - Lesson plans for older kids (grades 6-8) from Discovery.
- Tornadoes Lesson plan - Short lesson for Junior High and High School aged kids, teaches them to predict tornadoes and includes an online quiz at the end.
- The Fujita Scale of Tornado Intensity - Explains how tornadoes are rated and what puts the “F” in an F4.
A few good tornado books to look for would be
- Under the Whirlwind: Everything You Need to Know About Tornadoes But Didn’t Know Who to Ask - Jerrine Verkaik
- Tornadoes - H. Michael Mogil
- Storm Chaser: In Pursuit of Untamed Skies - Warren Faidley
- Do Tornadoes Really Twist? - Melvin Berger, Gilda Berger
- Tornadoes - Jean Allen
- The Weather Book: An Easy-to-Understand Guide to the USA’s Weather - Jack Williams
If you don’t live somewhere that tornadoes are a hazard, or just want to check them out from the safety of your couch, just search for tornado footage on YouTube. There are several videos online of real tornadoes in action, such as this video that will put your heart in your chest a couple times as they record a tornado ripping right next to them. You can also watch live footage of the recent tornado that ripped through Atlanta.
tornado, tornadoes, weather, lesson plans

March 24th, 2008 at 10:59 am
Thanks for those links! I have been curious about tornadoes since I found out that we were moving to Kansas. I vaguely remember them from my time in Oklahoma when I was a kid, so I need a refresher.