Eric Sloane Weather curriculum

F3-4 Weather

In this Form 3-4 study guide, students will learn about the atmosphere and how processes in the atmosphere determine the weather and climate.

Spine Text:

This study guide accompanies the living book Look at the Sky and Tell the Weather by Eric Sloane (Dover, 2004). It is available on Amazon, but for more extensive used copy search, try used.addall.com.

  • 89 pages, 14 chapters
  • Reading Level: 7 grade and up
  • Prerequisites: none
  • Please Note. The study guide includes religious content. If you require a secular version, please see this page.

Author Bio:

Eric Sloane (1905-1985) grew up in New York City, New York. His neighbor, Frederick Goudy, an eminent font type designer, taught Eric to hand paint letters and make signs. (This biography is typed in the Goudy Old Style Font)

During the “Golden Age of Aviation” Eric found himself illustrating flight manuals for the Army Air Corps. He also began lettering and painting airplanes for pilots. In exchange for his art, he took flying lessons with Wiley Post, the first man to fly solo around the world. They had many discussions about flight, air patterns, and clouds. It was then that Eric began to paint what he called “cloudscapes’, paintings of clouds from a perspective that no one but pilots had ever seen before. Amelia Earhart bought the first cloudscape he put up for sale.

Eric became captivated with meteorology, the branch of science which explores the weather and how to forecast it. Sloane took classes at MIT and scoured old farm journals for knowledge of the weather, being fascinated by early farmers’ ability to interpret weather signs. Mr. Sloane is credited with being the first meteorologist or “weatherman” on TV. (source)

Other Necessary Items to Complement This Course

Schedule:

This study guide includes 33 lessons, each requiring approximately 30-40 minutes. You can either schedule it:

  • Three times a week for 11 weeks allowing for exams during the 12th week, or
  • Once a week for an entire year, allowing time for exams at the end of each term, and including other science subjects on the other days of the week.

This guide uses the tools and prompts: 

  • Reading assignments
  • Narration and discussion prompts
  • Activities and experiments related to the reading
  • Supplemental current events, books, videos, and article suggestions
  • Leisure reading options
  • Exam questions

Sample Lessons:

A digital version can be purchased below, but the paperback copies of this study guide must be purchased on Amazon.