The Nature Of Weather

by John Riggio/Teresa Jennings

"The nature of weather affects us all. One planet, together. The skies will call." Of all the unifying elements of life on Earth, none is more powerful than weather. It can support and sustain us, or it can devastate us. It's fascinating, awe-inspiring, and (despite our best efforts) mostly unpredictable.

This song about weather gives you the opportunity to once again bring your music class across the curriculum. As always, we suggest you make the classroom teacher(s) aware of your intention to use it. They may be most interested in consolidating the learning efforts.

We feel this song is easy enough to use with young students, but sophisticated enough to work with the older ones, too. We do recommend that you use the recording with it, as it is very synthesizer and effects based.

At measure 9, the weather-based words are spoken, one at a time, on beats 1 and 3 of each measure. Use a different student to say each word. Give every student a chance to participate, or alternate using the same students over and over.

Text is taken from Music K-8 magazine.