Montana has the Rocky Mountains on its west side and the great plains on its east side. It’s highest elevation is more than 12,000 ft, and its lowest elevations is 1,800 ft. The continental divide goes down the western side, and its climate is different on the two sides. Learn more from the Montana State Almanac and its climate data. Compare the climate of its western cities (Missoula, Superior, Whitefish, Kalispell) to the climate of its eastern cities (Glendive, Ekalaka, Sidney, Medicine Lake). Here’s a map of cities.
My family visited the Bar W Ranch in Whitefish, MT on the western side. Lots of mountains, nice cool summers, not a ton of rain. In fact a drought that required careful fire management followed our visit. Read more about Montana droughts. Because of its incredible skies, the first lesson on Montana is about clouds. Take a look at these guys:
Scientist You Should Know
Introduction to the topic
Here are the cloud types in a verbal format:
https://www.thoughtco.com/types-of-clouds-recognize-in-the-sky-4025569
And here’s some more information
Check out this website:
Experiencing the Science
Try out your own cloud-making demonstration with a big glass container and a lid (like a pie pan) as shown in this demo on the NASA Jet Propulsion Lab education website:
https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/edu/learn/project/make-a-cloud-in-a-bottle/
Use your nature journal to keep track of the clouds in your sky for a few days.
https://www.naturejournalingweek.com/program/skies
Respond/analyze
Multisensory
Lay on the grass, look up, and talk about the clouds. Sing about the clouds. Try this on different types of cloud days. Use cotton balls to make the clouds you see.
Creative
Another way to use cotton balls is to use them with paint to make clouds.
What about drawing clouds with pencil? Can you try different cloud types? What kind of weather do you expect in drawings with different types of clouds?
Verbal
I am nuts about this cloud book I found at the library. If your library doesn’t have this one, check out the call number (551.576) and see what’s nearby. You can try the children’s section, the young adult section and/or the adult section and see what you can find about clouds.
Write an informative paragraph about clouds using the library resources you found and/or the videos above. Consider making an infographic. Who needs to know about clouds? Why is it important to tell someone? Now write a persuasive paragraph. Maybe you want to share what you’ve learned. What’s the best way to tell the story/convey the information? Who do you want to tell? Can you think of a way to publish (i.e., to get your writing out to whomever may need it)?
Another question you can answer is this one (Why is Montana known as the big sky state?)
https://www.mtpr.org/montana-news/2022-08-17/why-is-montana-known-as-the-big-sky-state
Analytical
How about some climate comparisons using those climate data from the beginning of the lesson? Montana is mostly dry, but western Montana in the Rocky Mountains is temperate and continental, according to these maps. Can you think of any comparisons you’d like to try? Look at this map that I found! Neat, right? It’s mostly based on average temperature and rainfall, also the ranges of those things. Here, I found some more data we can play with together:
https://www.worldatlas.com/climate/the-climate-zones-of-the-world.html
https://www.worlddata.info/climate-comparison.php