This article from Beyond Weather and the Water Cycle provides ideas on how school librarians can work with elementary teachers to teach about the Sun's impact on weather and climate. The author introduces the Standards for the 21st Century Learner, developed by the American Association of School Librarians. The author focuses on Standard 1, which calls for students to inquire, think critically, and gain knowledge through developing and refining questions, investigating answers, seeking divergent perspectives in information, and assessing whether the information found answers the questions posed. The free, online magazine draws its themes from the Seven Essential Principles of Climate Literacy, with each issue focusing on one of the seven principles.

School librarian Marcia Mardis describes what the library can offer to teachers and students who want to produce a focused, engaging, and effective science fair. This article appears in the free online magazine Beyond Weather and the Water Cycle, which explores the seven essential principles of the climate sciences for K-grade 5 classrooms.

Science and education experts caution that climate-change topics can overwhelm and frighten young children. Science lessons chosen for this article focus on general environmental issues, such as the effects of litter, air pollution, and water pollution. The lessons also include actions and solutions to environmental issues. The free, online magazine Beyond Weather and the Water Cycle focuses on integrating age-appropriate science learning with literacy experiences.

This issue of the free online magazine, Beyond Penguins and Polar Bears, examines how elementary teachers can introduce the Arctic and Antarctica and use science, geography, literacy, and technology to help students compare and contrast these two dramatically different areas as well as their own home.

For teachers in K-Grade 5 classrooms, the author of this article reviews the reading comprehension strategies known as Summarizing and Synthesizing. She provides links to web sites and to a book that will provide more background information and lessons. The article appears in the free, online magazine Beyond Weather and the Water Cycle, which focuses on the seven essential principles of climate science.

The Take Action column provides resources that help teachers engage students in activities that connect their science learning to their lives. In this article, students are introduced to household appliances and devices, called energy vampires, that continue to draw electrical current even when turned off. The article offers a few simple activities that students can take to reduce the impact of energy vampires. The Take Action column regularly appears in the free, online magazine Beyond Weather and the Water Cycle, which focuses on the essential principles of climate literacy.

In this regular column of the free, online magazine Beyond Weather and the Water Cycle, the author looks at the importance of conserving water and practicing good conservation habits daily. The column is designed for teachers in K-Grade 5 classrooms and presents concepts of climate literacy that are appropriate for young children. Identified online resources provide data collection activities, lessons, and games.

This article describes a tool developed by educators of the University of Minnesota Extension and University of Wisconsin Cooperative Extension to assist professionals as they plan financial education for participants. In today's changing economy, financial education is essential throughout one's life cycle. By understanding learner attributes, educators can create motivating learning environments and seek appropriate teaching methods to capture participant attention. Multi-generational complications may arise as people view and communicate about money differently. The financial literacy grid was developed to examine generational characteristics, life cycle tasks, financial concepts, and appropriate teaching techniques to meet learner needs.

Now more than ever, it’s essential that young people know how to use credit cards wisely and manage their debt, before they learn the hard way. This video features Lauren Popkoff, a teacher at Brooklyn College Academy in Brooklyn, New York. As Lauren lifts the veil off of credit, she outlines a lesson she teaches her high school students to arm them with the knowledge they need to make wise financial decisions. In this lesson, Lauren presents the advantages and disadvantages of credit, compares credit card offers with her students, discusses ways to establish credit, and highlights the credit card act of 2009.

This article introduces ARKive, a digital library of photographs and videos of the world's wildlife. The library gives special priority to at-risk species. The author notes how this interactive resource can be used by K-5 teachers to support other activities connected to the theme of this issue of the free, online magazine Beyond Weather and the Water Cycle -- We Depend on Earth's Climate.

Understanding saving, investments and retirement can sometimes be a challenge to young people when their immediate needs and wants easily outweigh long-term financial planning. Riza Laudin, an economics teacher at Herricks High School in Long Island, New York, helps students make personal connections to the benefits of saving early through a lesson on the time value of money. In this lesson, Ana begins saving at age 22 for twelve years, while Shawn saves from ages 34 to 65. Students are challenged to predict who was the better saver. Understanding and applying the principles of compound interest, students learn a new strategy for saving and begin to contemplate their own financial futures.

Suggestions are made on how to use the resources featured in the issue of Beyond Weather and the Water Cyle in a unit on the greenhouse effect. Hands-on experiences and nonfiction text are provided to help students answer the question "How is Earth like a greenhouse?" Suggestions are also made for formative and summative assessments.

Unit plans for Grades K-2 and 3-5 are a regular feature of the magazine Beyond Weather and the Water Cycle. The plans draw on articles and resources in a themed issue and are aligned with national science and language arts standards. This unit is designed to provide elementary students with the opportunity to investigate how the annual rings in trees help scientists learn about past climates. It uses hands-on experiences and nonfiction text to answer the unit question: How do trees help scientists learn about the past?

Four unit plans provide opportunities for in-depth explorations of important foundational climate concepts -- weather, water as a solid, liquid and gas, and the water cycle -- that are appropriate for K-2 and 3-5 learners. These unit plans incorporate many of the lessons highlighted in other articles in this issue of the online magazine Beyond Weather and the Water Cycle. The magazine is structured around the essential principles of the climate sciences.

In this article, teachers find two unit plans (grades K-2 and 3-5) that use resources featured in the science and literacy articles in the magazine. The unit plans are modeled after the five key steps in the learning cycle: engage, explore, explain, expand, and assess, or evaluate. The plans are aligned with the science content standards of the National Science Education Standards and the English language arts standards of the National Council of Teachers of English and the International Reading Association. The plans appear in the free, online magazine Beyond Weather and the Water Cycle.

Visualizing is a reading comprehension strategy that can be applied to science-themed texts, according to this article from Beyond Weather and the Water Cycle, a magazine that integrates literacy and science skills instruction. The author identifies six online resources that have activities, lesson plans, and more information.

In this issue of the free online magazine, Beyond Penguins and Polar Bears, explore what the polar regions can teach us about the water cycle and the states and changes of matter. Find lesson plans about the many forms of water, ice, and snow found in the polar regions and how to use science notebooks to integrate literacy and science.

This issue of the free online magazine, Beyond Penguins and Polar Bears, explores how elementary teachers can move from a study of the weather at home to the weather of the polar regions through hands-on activity, reading, and discussion.