With the number of tornado warnings in our region this summer, students’ curiosity might be ripe to learn about these formidable forces of nature when they return to school.  Here are a few of the PBS LearningMedia resources on tornadoes to engage children of all ages:

Home-grown Self Esteem (Grades PreK-2)  With Clifford the Big Red Dog, preschoolers can develop self esteem and a feeling of accomplishment with activities they can do at home, such as plant and care for an indoor plant and practice fire/tornado drills for emergencies.

Air is Matter  (Grades K-5) This collection of still images assembled for Teachers’ Domain illustrates some of the many ways that air, which can be quite powerful, affects our lives.

Tornado Model (Grades 4-6) In this video segment from DragonflyTV, Sullivan and Alexa engineer their own tornado model to explore the forces that produce a tornado.

How Do Tornadoes Form? (Grades 6-12) This video segment adapted from NOVA describes the challenges of studying tornadoes and shows how computer simulations are helping researchers observe what they can’t possibly see in a real storm.