Are you looking for some fresh ideas for teaching about Earth’s atmosphere? These Earth’s atmosphere activities are designed to provide visual, hands-on opportunities to teach and reinforce the importance of Earth’s atmosphere in the science classroom.
1. EARTH’S ATMOPHERE SCALE MODEL
Help students visualize the scale of Earth and it’s atmosphere with this model!
Wrapping an apple in plastic wrap is an easy way to demonstrate how Earth’s atmosphere is similar to a blanket that surrounds Earth.
It also helps students to visualize the scale of the atmosphere and Earth.
2. LAYERS OF EARTH’S ATMOSHERE MNEMONIC
Need an easy way to help students remember the layers of Earth’s atmosphere in order?
Silly mnemonics always help!
In the classroom I use “The Strong Man’s Triceps Explode” to help students remember the layers of Earth’s atmosphere from the ground up.
3. LAYERS OF EARTH’S ATMOSPHERE ACTIVITY & LESSON
Are you ready to get started teaching students about Earth’s atmosphere?
This complete lesson includes EVERYTHING you need to teach your students about the composition and importance of Earth’s atmosphere as well as the different layers!
The work is done for you in this editable presentation and notes that explicitly teach the standard.
The best part – once your students have all the information, there are TONS of Earth’s atmosphere activities to reinforce and practice the concept!
Learn more about this lesson that includes task cards here!
4. EARTH’S ATMOSPHERE TASK CARD FUN!
I love using task cards for student practice! There are so many options for use that I wrote an entire blog post on using task cards in the middle school classroom!
I love to place task cards around the room. My sixth graders love to move around and answer the questions – they forget they’re doing work!
5. EARTH’S ATMOSPHERE SCALE MODEL ACTIVITITY
One of my favorite activities is having students create a scale model of Earth’s atmosphere!
I have them predict how the different layers compare in thickness and revisit their predictions in the end.
What I love about this activity:
- It incorporates measurement skills
- Teamwork is essential!
- It’s amazing to watch students make connections to the “real” size of the atmosphere!
You can learn more about this activity here!
6. What If Earth Suddenly Lost Its Atmosphere?
This video is a favorite of mine every year! I love to show right after we discuss all of the reasons that Earth’s atmosphere is important to life on Earth.
7. Earth’s Atmosphere Activity Color By Number
Big kids love to color too!
There are so many ways to use this EDITABLE color by number activity in the classroom!
Think…. station activities, quick assessments, warm ups, test review, small groups, homework and more!
8. Layers of Earth’s Atmosphere Sort and Crossword Activity
By far, this sort was one of my favorite layers of Earth’s atmosphere activities this year!
This visual activity really helped students to understand the objects in Earth’s atmosphere and there relationship between the different atmosphere layers for temperature trends and air pressure.
Your lessons are planned!
If you’re looking for the entire unit to teach Energy and Earth’s Atmosphere, look no further! All of the above resources and more are included in this NO-PREP bundle!
Teachers like you said:
The PowerPoints were a great resource and really helped us to cover the material on the atmosphere. It was well worth the money spent and made life so much easier for me! ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Angela T.
This was totally worth the price! Lots of good stuff to use with my students.⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Allison R.
Great PowerPoints and activities. Breaks down the concepts so students understand.⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Amy H.
