Natural Disasters Activities

Review natural disasters using these graphic organizers to reinforce and review wild weather concepts relating to earthquakes, hurricanes, tornadoes, tsunamis, and volcanoes. Students will demonstrate their knowledge of a natural disaster, how natural disasters form, where and when they occur, and warning and safety measures in each activity.

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Students will learn:

• what each natural disaster is
• how disasters form
• where and when they happen
• warning systems
• safety measures

Each natural disaster activity includes:

• "How to Use" sheet for your classroom
• Student instruction sheet
• Graphic organizer note sheet
• Answer key
• Model example

Earthquakes:

This natural disaster activity reviews:

• What an earthquake is
• How earthquakes happen
• Essential vocabulary terms: epicenter, fault lines, focus, and plate tectonics
• What they look like
• When and where they occur - Ring of Fire
• Frequency
• Plate boundaries: convergent, divergent, and transform
• How they are measured: seismograph, Richter scale
• Warning systems
• Safety measures

Hurricanes:

This extreme weather activity reviews:

• What is a hurricane, and what makes it so destructive
• The four stages: Tropical disturbance, tropical depression, tropical storm, and hurricane.
• The parts: eye, eyewall, and rain bands.
• Explain how one forms.
• Hurricanes frequency
• When and where they occur.
• Safety measures
• Measurement system
• Fun facts

Tornado:

This wild weather phenomenon reviews:

• What a tornado is
• How tornadoes form
• What they look like
• When and where they occur
• Frequency
• How they are measured
• Warning systems

Tsunami

This natural disaster activity reviews:

• What a tsunami is
• Causes and triggers
• What tsunamis look like
• When and where they occur - Ring of Fire
• Frequency
• Warning systems

Volcano:

This natural disaster activity reviews:

• What a volcano is
• How it forms
• What volcanoes look like
• Four types: cinder cone, composite, shield, and lava
• Where they occur - Ring of Fire
• Hazards created from an eruption; flowing lava, tephra, pyroclastic flow, and lahars
• Tectonic plates
• Other natural disasters they trigger such as mudslides, avalanches, tsunamis, and flash floods.
• Warning systems
• Safety precautions

Avalanche:

This extreme weather phenomenon reviews:

• What is an avalanche
• Types of avalanches; slab and loose snow
• How often do they happen
• Causes
• Where they happen
• Risk and measurement scales
• Precautions and ways to stay safe

Ways to use these natural disaster activities in your classroom:

• As a cumulative review of natural disasters
• To summarize student knowledge of natural disasters
• Students can complete the sheet to present to the class as a natural disaster project

Teacher feedback:

• My students loved using this resource to learn about natural disasters. It helps them to remember what they have learned.
• These are a great structure to guide notetaking for students. If you hand them a blank page, some try to either copy down the entire book/internet article ... or they write down nothing at all. There's space enough for some differentiation and individuality with these as well.
• My students loved working with this resource to help them when we were working on our unit of study about natural disasters. I love the layout of this resource it made the students feel comfortable to use, and parents liked the design, layout, and how easy it was to use.
• Sent this home as part of a packet with scaffolded notes students and I completed together over zoom. It supports the Natural Hazards section in my NGSS curriculum, which discusses volcanoes, earthquakes, and severe weather hazards. We had just finished ESS standards, and this dovetailed nicely with the tectonics lesson we had just done.

NGSS MS - ESS3

NGSS 4 - ESS3

Other lessons and activities to support your unit on natural disasters:

• Earthquakes
• Hurricanes
• Tornadoes
• Tsunamis
• Volcanoes
• Avalanches

Kindly Note: If you have questions, do not hesitate to email me at Teaching Muse Email

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