WAYS IN WHICH CHILDREN LEARN SCIENCE 61

B. Approach
 There are many everyday happenings and experiences in
the daily lives of children that give a natural approach to the
study of weather. The daily weather reports on the radio, or
the predictions listed in the newspapers are part of the child's
living, especially so when they refer to the possibility of a hurri-
cane. Often children are familiar with flags that are displayed
as storm or hurricane warnings and these may provide a good
approach.
 Children are naturally curious and their questions cover a
wide area. They may involve such problems as, "Why don't we
see the sun today? Is it going to rain? What do birds do when
it rains? What picture can we use on our weather chart today ?"
These natural approaches that come from informal discussion
periods give the child the opportunity to fit his study into his
living. When they are given an opportunity to find answers to
their questions, the children become enthusiastic about their
learning.
 If the children are reticent about telling their weather ex-
periences, the teacher might start the discussion by asking
questions, such as, "Are you doing anything different today
from yesterday because of the weather?" "Are your father
and mother doing anything different?" "How does the weather
make a difference in the lives of farmers, fishermen, pilots, and
other community workers ?"
 Much of the discussion may be a review of some of the chil-
 dren's experiences in the first grade. They may refer to dif-
 ferent kinds of weather and they may recall experiments dealing
 with evaporation.
 The group may think together about, "What do we want to
 know? Can we answer any of our own questions? Is there any
 way by which we can check our answers? Where can we find
 the information that we need?"
 Here's an opportunity to develop an important phase of the
 scientific attitude through the rejection of guessing and the
 seeking of evidence.
 The alert teacher will direct these new learning although
 discussion has served as an approach to the study. She will
 undoubtedly now include some experiments, reading, and pos-
 sibly field trips.
 C. Activities
 In studying weather as it affects our ways of living, there
 are activities which children, individually or in groups, find in-
 teresting, and which bring out in a special way how weather