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Big History Project
Course: big history project > unit 10, activity: natural disasters.
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- Homeschool Den / Science: Natural Disasters Unit and Activities / Science: Weather Unit
Natural Disasters Worksheets and Hands-On Activity Ideas
by Liesl - Homeschool Den
Our Natural Disasters Packet has notebook pages and worksheets as well as some hands-on activity ideas covering the following events:
- Hurricane, cyclone, typhoon
In this packet you’ll find one page on each of these events. Often, natural disasters occur because of geologic changes or extreme weather conditions. Students explore the cause of each of these events. They also find out what damage results and examines the effect these disasters have on people, property, and infrastructure. Students fill in their own information about each natural disaster, what causes it, and give an example of a recent event and what effect it had on the community.
A number of years ago, we did some fun hands-on activities to help the kids understand what natural disasters are and why they can be so devastating. These activities are buried deep in our blog, though, and I thought I would share some of them with you again today! They are also in the Natural Disasters Packet above.
These are activities we did when the kids were about PreK and early elementary:
Mudslide: We mixed sand and cornstarch and covered a butter container container. Then we made it “rain” for a period of time to see what happened!
At the time, we watched the National Geographic you-tube video on hurricanes: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H9VpwmtnOZc
Tsunamis are generally caused by an underwater earthquake, landslide, or volcanic eruption.
Natural Disasters Lapbook: You can use the interactive notebook pieces provided in this packet to create your own lapbook.
There are a couple of natural disaster worksheets as well (one is a matching page, the other is blank so the kids can write in the answer):
Here’s Amazon’s description: revealing the speed of a twister , the power of a hurricane , the lethal force of a lightning bolt , the instant devastation of a flood , or the explosive punch of a volcano . Feel what it’s like to be inside a house when a storm rips the roof off, when a cloud of volcanic ash overtakes you, or what a street sign picked up by a tornado would do to your car window. This is Nature at it s wildest and most furious.
Recently, I added in some new interactive notebook pages and blank notebook pages. My kids are actually using these for their foreign language practice (writing sentences to describe the pictures). 🙂 Hope it’s helpful for you too!
This packet now comes with our Clouds, Winds & Weather Packet . See more details about that here .
Don’t forget to check your PayPal email address for the download link!
Feel free to email me if you have any questions! ~Liesl
Floods, mudslides, tsunami, hurricanes, blizzards, drought, wildfires – This packet does not cover earthquakes, volcanoes, plate movement or the ring of fire because we covered that in great detail in our Earth Science Packet. More details of the Natural Disaster Packet here . image 1 , image 2
You may be interested in some of these related packets:
See the Earth Science BUNDLE Options here .
Here is more about our Earth Science Unit!
This 100+ page Earth Science Packet (now well over 100 pages actually because we recently added new materials on plate tectonics and more!) includes worksheets about the solar system, the layers of the Earth, plate tectonics, the ring of fire, earthquake activity and volcanoes. I also included instructions for more than a dozen hands-on activities we did with this unit. This includes activities about plate tectonics, Pangaea, using a compass, earthquakes, volcanoes, instructions on how to make a shake table and more!
You may be interested in some of our related packets:
Earth Science Unit : In this unit, we talked about the layers of the Earth, latitude & longitude, tectonic plate movement (and did a couple of great hands-on activities related to that), earthquakes (we made an earthquake shake table), mountain making, volcanoes (we did a couple of fun hands-on activities) and more
Layers of the Atmosphere Packet & Hands-On Activities
You might also be interested in our Place Value Materials and Pirate Math Packet. This post also has a video that explains how we did our place value activities.
P.S. You might be interested in these free Homeschool Resource Guides:
Creating Your Own Homeschool Curriculum: These are some resources I made that might be helpful as you create your own homeschool plans. These are somewhere between 30 and 50 pages and are FREE to download:
- Creating a Homeschool Curriculum: Kindergarten – Grade 1
- Creating Your Homeschool Curriculum: Grades 2-3, Resource Guide
- Creating Your Homeschool Curriculum Grade 4-5 — Free Resource Guide
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You might also be interested in these resource pages here on the blog :
- Science Units: We absolutely ♥ love hands-on science activities. We do a lot of science experiments as we do our science units. You might find something useful here:
History Units
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Disclosure: Please note that some of the links in this post are affiliate links, and at no additional cost to you, I will earn a commission if you decide to make a purchase.
Tags: hurricane activity mudslide activity Natural disasters tsunami activity
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its good , i got fabulous idea for activity
thank you so much its a good help for teachers
You’re welcome! I’m glad it’s helpful! 🙂 ~Liesl
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Natural Disasters Facts & Worksheets
A natural disaster is a major adverse event resulting from natural processes of the earth, search for worksheets, download the natural disasters facts & worksheets.
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Table of Contents
A natural disaster is the consequence of the combination of a natural hazard (a physical event like a volcanic eruption, typhoon, tropical cyclone, tornado, earthquake, landslide, or tsunami) and human activities.
See the fact file below for more information on Natural Disasters or alternatively, you can download our 31-page Natural Disasters worksheet pack to utilise within the classroom or home environment.
Key Facts & Information
Definition and general information.
- A natural disaster is a major adverse event resulting from natural processes of the Earth; examples include floods , hurricanes , tornadoes , volcanic eruptions, earthquakes , tsunamis , and other geologic processes.
- It can cause loss of life or property damage, and typically leaves some economic damage in its wake, the severity of which depends on the affected population’s resilience or ability to recover and also on the infrastructure available.
- Most natural disasters are caused by weather. Weather disasters can be caused by hurricanes, tornadoes, floods, tsunamis, thunderstorms, wind storms, wildfires , avalanches , and blizzards .
- Some weather disasters can be predicted, such as hurricanes and blizzards. Technology for predicting tornadoes and severe thunderstorms is improving. By getting data early, people can be warned to take shelter or make the necessary preparations.
- However, some natural disasters caused by volcanoes and earthquakes are not always predictable.
- Some disasters are more common in some places than in others. When people are choosing a place to live, they should consider whether they will be living on a fault line for an earthquake or near a river that has a history of flooding.
- There isn’t any way to avoid natural disasters, but if people know what kinds of disasters are most likely where they live, they can learn what to do if a disaster happens in order to stay safe.
GEOLOGICAL DISASTERS
- Geological natural disasters like earthquakes and volcanic eruptions are triggered by activities taking place in the earth’s inner cores.
- Gravity also affects the landscape, resulting in landslides, rock falls, debris flows or avalanches since rock, mud, or snow masses slide down the slope.
- Geological hazards are potential disasters because they affect the foundations of buildings, homes, and structures such as roads and bridges.
- The impacts of geological hazards vary. In areas located above seismic areas such as the Pacific Ring of Fire, geological disasters occur more often: volcanic eruptions and earthquakes often result in tsunamis, land and rockslides, avalanches, and sometimes sinkholes.
- Countries above inactive seismic areas may still suffer geological hazards when massive landforms lose their hold, such as rockslides and landslides.
- While most geological disasters result from natural occurrences, human activity also triggers them. Carving mountains for road building weakens the soil stability held by rocks and trees.
- Mining also results in geologic disaster when mountains and caves cave in after improper use, due to the deployment of mining explosives, and failure to maintain the integrity of the mining shaft.
HYDROLOGICAL DISASTERS
- Hydrological disasters are violent, sharp, and harmful alterations in the quality of the Earth’s water or in the movement of water ashore below the surface or in the atmosphere.
- Hydrological hazards and their impacts are also associated with climate change, demographic trends, land displacement, and other factors, and may have been exasperated by global climate change.
- On land, this kind of disaster happens through floods or slides. Depending on the intensity and duration of rainfall, temperatures, snow cover, geological makeup, and topography, these kinds of disasters happen.
- The place that receives the most rainfall in the world is a village called Mawsynram in the state of Meghalaya, India. This village receives an average of 467 inches of rain per year, resulting in constant flooding and risks of landslides.
- In our vast oceans, hydrological hazards happen most often. Above water, ships and water vessels suffer from huge waves and storms. Below, geological displacements result in tsunamis, devastating the shores they reach.
- The latest Tonga underwater volcano eruption not only resulted in heavy ash fall, release of poisonous gas and radiation, but also a huge series of tsunamis affecting Tonga, Japan, and other neighboring countries.
METEOROLOGICAL DISASTERS
- Meteorological disasters are caused by extreme weather such as heavy rain, severe drought, severe snowfall, extreme heat, or cold, ice, or wind.
- Violent, sudden, and destructive change to the environment often results in disasters out of humans’ control. These phenomena happen everywhere in the world.
- Most common meteorological disasters include tornadoes, hurricanes/typhoons/cyclones, thunderstorms, hailstorms, heatwaves, and droughts.
- The deadliest single tornado in the United States – The Tri-State Tornado – claimed 747 lives as it crossed Missouri, southern Illinois and into southwestern Indiana on March 18, 1925. Tornadoes often develop from severe thunderstorms in warm, moist, unstable air along and ahead of cold fronts.
- Hailstorms are formed when drops of water freeze together in the cold upper regions of thunderstorm clouds and fall on earth. On severe cases, hailstones can be deadly. On April 30, 1988, India suffered its worst hailstorm, killing 246 individuals with hailstones as large as goose eggs and cricket balls.
- Cyclones are wind storms accompanied by heavy rainfall in low-pressure areas caused by a continuous process of rising hot air over the ocean surface. In other areas, cycles are called typhoons or hurricanes. Typhoon Tip (Warling in Philippines), was the largest and most intense tropical cyclone ever recorded.
- Intense heat results in two major disasters, heatwave and drought. Both natural occurrences severely affect all living things as they deplete water resources and cause heat stroke to humans and animals.
Natural Disasters Worksheets
This is a fantastic bundle that includes everything you need to know about Natural Disasters across 31 in-depth pages. These are ready-to-use worksheets that are perfect for teaching about Natural Disasters which are the consequence of the combination of a natural hazard (a physical event like a volcanic eruption, typhoon, tropical cyclone, tornado, earthquake, landslide, or tsunami) and human activities.
Complete List Of Included Worksheets
- Natural Disasters Facts
- Moving Landscape
- Geographical Disasters
- Earthquake Response
- Water Disasters
- Tsunami Alert
- Flood Preparation
- Signs of the Sky
- Sky-high Records
- Situational Analysis
- Always Ready
Frequently Asked Questions
What are the most common natural disasters.
The most common types of natural disasters include tornadoes and hurricanes (tropical storms), floods or drought, and wildfires. Earthquakes, volcanoes and tsunamis are comparatively rarer.
What causes natural disasters?
There are a range of factors that cause natural disasters. For earthquakes and tsunamis, they are caused by movement and pressure in the earth’s crust. For events like hurricanes and tornadoes, weather and pressure systems play a key role. For disasters like floods and drought, climate change and disturbances to rainfall are key factors.
What natural disaster is the most dangerous?
Each kind of natural disaster has its own degree of risk and damage to life and infrastructure. Floods and tornadoes can cause extensive but localized damage. Earthquakes, tsunamis and hurricanes can wreak havoc on large areas. But drought can cause massive damage to economies and the lives of people over many years.
What is the most common natural disaster?
The most frequent form of natural disaster around the world is flooding. This can be caused by snow melting, excessive rainfall, sudden rainfall, a storm surge from a hurricane, or the result of a tsunami.
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The term natural disaster usually refers to a catastrophic event resulting from a natural process, such as a storm or a volcanic eruption. Natural disasters can severely impact human society, causing extensive fatalities and injuries. Destruction of homes and businesses bring both a personal and an economic toll.
In a given year there may be several hundred large-scale disasters worldwide, causing thousands of human deaths and affecting millions of people overall. The likelihood of some types of disasters can be forecast using modern technology to monitor weather and related conditions. However, the precise location and onset of most disasters cannot be predicted.
Some natural disasters may result from long-term changes in environmental conditions. For example, many scientists associate global warming with extreme weather conditions; they predict an increase in prolonged droughts and severe weather events such as hurricanes and large-scale flooding.
In addition to their effects on human life, natural disasters can severely impact ecosystems , causing drastic changes to soil, space, and water, and thus affecting all living things that depend on these resources. Landslides and flooding can drastically change environmental conditions, leading to increased rates of erosion and causing other dramatic changes to land and water. Earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, and wildfires can literally change landscapes, causing long-term changes to habitats with cascading effects on wildlife. Species that cannot adapt to sudden changes may need to migrate to other areas or face extinction . In some cases, natural areas affected by a disaster can rebound in time; the natural process of succession occurs in areas that have been rendered effectively barren by lava flows and similar events.
Although natural disasters cannot be eliminated, in many cases there are steps that can be taken to lessen their impact. Some natural hazards are preceded by conditions that can be used to predict an imminent event. For example, improvements in storm detection and tracking allow for prediction of impending storms and hurricanes. With enough advanced warning, people can prepare for these types of events by stocking up on supplies, securing windows, taking shelter, or even evacuating the area. Most communities offer guidelines on preparing for disasters that are likely to occur in their local or regional areas. However, some events, such as earthquakes, cannot be predicted reliably, though steps can be taken to minimize their impact should they occur.
To learn more about specific types of natural disasters, see avalanche ; drought ; earthquake ; flood ; hurricane ; landslide ; storm ; tornado ; tropical cyclone ; tsunami ; typhoon ; and volcano .
The following articles provide information about several historic natural disasters: Galveston hurricane of 1900 ; Huang He floods ; Hurricane Katrina ; Indian Ocean tsunami of 2004 ; Japan earthquake and tsunami of 2011 ; Mississippi River flood of 1927 ; Pakistan Floods of 2010 ; Super Outbreak of 2011 ; Superstorm Sandy ; Super Typhoon Haiyan ; and Tri-State Tornado of 1925 .
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Natural Disasters
Hurricanes. Tornadoes. Earthquakes. Volcanoes. These reading comprehension passages, science projects, worksheets, maps, and mini-books teach kids about extreme weather and natural disasters. Add these educational tools to your teaching resources.
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Natural Disasters
Natural Disasters explores different kinds of severe storms and their causes and effects. Students will be able to define what a natural disaster is and list the traits of several types.
The “Options for Lesson” section lists several extra ideas to add to the lesson if you have time or want additional material. One idea is to assign students a natural disaster to write about in a story. You can then make a booklet with all the stories in it. Students can read their story to the rest of the class. You could also have students create skits about a specific storm.
Description
Additional information, what our natural disasters lesson plan includes.
Lesson Objectives and Overview: Natural Disasters teaches students about several types of common dangerous storms. Students will learn what causes these storms and what their effects are. By the end of the lesson, they will be able to identify each type and list their traits. This lesson is for students in 4th grade, 5th grade, and 6th grade.
Classroom Procedure
Every lesson plan provides you with a classroom procedure page that outlines a step-by-step guide to follow. You do not have to follow the guide exactly. The guide helps you organize the lesson and details when to hand out worksheets. It also lists information in the yellow box that you might find useful. You will find the lesson objectives, state standards, and number of class sessions the lesson should take to complete in this area. In addition, it describes the supplies you will need as well as what and how you need to prepare beforehand. For this lesson, make sure you have writing paper and access to some kind of word processing software. You will also need access to the internet.
Options for Lesson
This lesson contains quite a few suggestions in the “Options for Lesson” section that you can take advantage of for your students. One idea is to assign students a single natural disaster to write about for their story or diary for the activity. They can expound on the details of that one storm rather than writing about all 10 of them. Students can then read their stories to the class. You could also collect all the students’ stories and create a booklet. Another suggestion is to divide students into groups and have each one create a skit that relates to one of the natural disasters. If any students have parents who have experienced one of these storms, you could also invite them to the class to talk about what happened.
Teacher Notes
The paragraph on the teacher notes page provides a few extra guidelines to consider while planning the lesson. You will definitely want to ensure you are sensitive to students’ feelings if any have been affected by a natural disaster in some way. You should stress that these events happen throughout the world and that students do not need to live in fear of them if they prepare. The lesson does not describe ways to prepare for each one, but you could do your own research and provide it as supplemental material. You can also use the blank lines on this page to write down any other ideas or thoughts you have for the lesson.
NATURAL DISASTERS LESSON PLAN CONTENT PAGES
Introduction.
The Natural Disasters lesson plan contains five pages of content. Students will learn that while disasters can include any number of events, natural disasters are very specific. These catastrophes can only happen by natural processes. Such events occur in populated areas of the world and often cause loss of life, property damage, and economic issues.
Included in this list are tornados, hurricanes, droughts, landslides, blizzards, and hail storms. The interesting thing about these events is that we don’t consider them disasters if they don’t cause damage or loss of life. If a tsunami washes over an unpopulated island, we don’t consider it a natural disaster. To be a disaster, it must cause loss or damage of some kind.
Students will then learn that it is entirely possible for more than one natural disaster to occur at the same time. They happen all over the world, and people can sometimes prepare for them. Other times, however, there is no warning. The lesson also explains that some places are more prone to certain types of storms than others. For instance, if someone lives in the middle of the United States, they don’t need to worry about tsunamis, which would only occur along the coasts. However, they might have to prepare for tornados, which happen far more often in that region than on the coasts.
Types of Natural Disasters
The lesson introduces several types of storms, including the following. These are 10 of the most common types that happen throughout the world. Students will also discover how important it is to understand these storms even if they don’t live in a place where they happen often. It is always important to respect and be sensitive to those who have been through such experiences either directly or indirectly.
Blizzard, Drought, Earthquake, Flood, Heat Wave
Blizzard: These are extremely intense snowstorms with winds that reach up to 35 miles an hour. During a blizzard, it is very difficult to see, making it incredibly dangerous to travel.
Drought: One of the worst natural disasters, droughts happen when there is no rainfall for a long period of time. Human activities like deforestation can also cause droughts. Effects include water shortages, dust bowls and storms, famines, hunger, malnutrition, starvation, and wildfires.
Earthquake: These sudden and violent movements of the earth can be minor, but major earthquakes can topple buildings and bridges. They can cause a lot of property damage and loss of life. They can also cause other disasters, such as tsunamis, fires, avalanches, and floods.
Flood: Floods occur when heavy rain, melting ice and snow, or overflowing bodies of water cover the land where water should not be. These can cause tremendous property damage, sometimes destroying homes or cars completely. They can also contaminate water supplies and destroy farmlands.
Heat wave: A heat wave involves temperatures that are much higher than normal. High pressure in the atmosphere builds up, holding in hot air on the surface of the earth. As a result, it’s less likely to rain. Heat waves often affect people’s health and cause heat exhaustion and other illnesses. They can also cause roads to buckle and plants to die.
Hurricane, Thunderstorm, Tornado, Tsunami, Wildfire
Hurricane: With wind speeds up to 160 miles per hour, these giant swirling water storms can cause a great amount of damage. Hurricanes, or typhoons, occur at specific times of the year, which is helpful in regards to preparation.
Thunderstorm: These storms include lightning, high winds, and usually heavy rain. They can also send hail, sleet, and snow to the earth’s surface. They occur when there is a surge of moist, warm air. They can even turn into tornados.
Tornado: Another of the most dangerous and destructive natural disasters, tornados have wind speeds from 100 to 300 miles per hour. They occur over land and sea. The destructive column of rotating air can come in many shapes and sizes, but they always appear as some kind of funnel.
Tsunami: These giant water waves that surge onto land reach heights of up to 100 feet. They usually happen in oceans but can also occur on lakes. Underwater quakes cause tsunamis.
Wildfire: These major fires mostly happen because of human error, but sometimes happen naturally. They are dangerous and unpredictable and often spread very easily, causing major damage to forests and animal habitats.
Other natural disasters include landslides, avalanches, and volcanoes. The lesson provides some information on these events as well. Students will learn which of these events are predictable and which are not.
How to Prepare for a Natural Disaster
Meteorologists, or people who study and predict the weather, know when the weather conditions are right for thunderstorms. However, one result of violent thunderstorms is a tornado. There is no accurate way to predict if, when, or where a tornado will touch down. Thunderstorm lightning can cause wildfires and knock out power even if no tornado exists.
The winds can blow down trees and rip rooftops from houses. The hard rain causes flooding, which creates landslides and sinkholes. Thunderstorms can produce large hail stones that pound on the ground and anything else in the area. Even in storms that don’t seem as dangerous as a hurricane, there is still a lot of potential damage. All natural disasters are harmful and destructive. And while we can’t always predict them, we can prepare.
Regardless of the potential disaster, we need to have a plan. For example, if the electricity goes off, what do we need to ensure we an see and remain warm? Do we have enough water and food to last for a few days?Next, we need to prepare. Flashlights, batteries, matches, and bottled water are all necessities. How much we need depends on how long we think the disaster will last. For example, people who suffer from hurricanes sometimes go ten or more days without electricity and running water.
Finally, we need to practice. If we are in school, we practice fire drills. Similarly, we should practice going through the plans we made so that everyone knows what to do, where to go, and how to contact other family members.
Natural Disasters and Climate Change
For several decades, scientists have been monitoring the weather. Remember, the scientific definition for weather is “the state of the atmosphere, including temperature, atmospheric pressure, wind, humidity, precipitation, and cloud cover.” So how we think about weather is how cold or hot, wet or dry, and sunny or cloudy it is outside daily.
Climate is the “long-term pattern of weather in a particular area. Weather can change from hour-to-hour, day-to-day, month-to-month, or even year-to-year.” Climate change is the long-term change in weather patterns and climate. Scientists have noted an alarming trend in studying climate—the earth is warming.
Over thousands of years, the climate has gone through many changes, from colder to warmer or the opposite. However, in the last 200 years, the earth has gotten much warmer much faster. What does this have to do with natural disasters? Well, weather is caused by heat generated by the sun and air movement. Therefore, the weather doesn’t stay the same in the same place. For example, millions of years ago, what is now the Sahara Desert teemed with plant life. Now it is a dry, arid desert. Because the earth is rapidly warming and heat is trapped in our atmosphere by carbon dioxide gases, the heat in the atmosphere has devastating effects on the surface.
Increased natural disasters such as hurricanes, tornadoes, violent thunderstorms, and winter blizzards may result from climate change. Scientists believe there are more natural disasters today than a few short centuries ago due to global warming. As a result, natural disasters will be more common, intense, and devastating to life today and in the future. Therefore, you must be prepared in the future for more and more intense natural disasters.
NATURAL DISASTERS LESSON PLAN WORKSHEETS
The Natural Disasters lesson plan includes three worksheets. Each one will help students solidify their grasp of the concepts in different ways. You can look at the classroom procedure guidelines to know when to hand them out.
FLOOD ZONE PREP ACTIVITY WORKSHEET
For the activity, students will read the paragraph about natural disasters at the top of the worksheet. A table below shows five questions about the area in which the students live. In the right column, they will explain what they would do if they were to answer yes to these questions.
CHECKLIST PRACTICE WORKSHEET
The practice worksheet continues on from the activity. Students will use the information they provided in the activity to create an emergency bag. They will gather various items according to what they would need. Such items will be based on where the students actually live and the natural disasters common to the area.
NATURAL DISASTERS HOMEWORK ASSIGNMENT
Students will again reference the previous two worksheets to develop a disaster plan. They will first fill out the chart at the top of the page. Then they will write in the information on the paragraph at the bottom.
Worksheet Answer Keys
There is an answer key for the activity page that provides sample responses for the assignment. You could choose to show these answers to help guide students’ work if you prefer. If you choose to administer the lesson pages to your students via PDF, you will need to save a new file that omits this page. Otherwise, you can simply print out the applicable pages and keep this as reference for yourself when grading assignments.
| grade-level | 5th Grade, 6th Grade |
|---|---|
| subject | Science |
| State Educational Standards | NGSS.3-ESS3-1, NGSS.4-ESS3-2, NGSS.3-ESS2-1 Lessons are aligned to meet the education objectives and goals of most states. For more information on your state objectives, contact your local Board of Education or Department of Education in your state. |
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I used the article with a 5th grade class. The content was on level and the students enjoyed learning about natural disasters. We had a great agree/disagree discussion about the topic.
I found the LP to be great, very detailed.
The packets followed our curriculum and provided relevant, meaningful lessons and activities that helped greatly with the surprise distant learning situation.
The resource was great
Great engaging lessons and activities that align with the standards. I also liked how the videos add to the lessons.
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Natural disasters homework
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6 interesting natural disasters worksheets
Natural disasters worksheets.
A collection of free natural disasters worksheets for ESL, science, and general English classes.
The first worksheet above is a picture and word vocabulary matching exercise with 16 natural disasters.
The answers to this handout are -1 Hailstorm, 2 Asteroids, 3 Sinkhole, 4 Flood, 5 Earthquake, 6 Forest fire, 7 Tsunami, 8 Thunderstorm, 9 Drought, 10 Tornado, 11 Hurricane, 12 Avalanche, 13 Volcanic eruption, 14 Sandstorm, 16 Snowstorm, and 17 High winds.
To help students complete the worksheet you can give them clues such as – “An asteroid is a large rock that comes from space into our sky” or “An avalanche is snow falling down a mountain”.
Many of the disasters are self-explanatory, just give assistance where you feel the class needs it.
There is also a related natural disasters conversation questions worksheet for discussion classes.
Natural disasters writing worksheet
This is the first of 3 natural disasters worksheets for writing.
In this task students are to identify and write about 3 natural disasters – floods, droughts, and wildfires or forest fires.
Students are to write the disaster’s name, what happens during the disaster, how it is caused, and how we can survive or prepare for the events.
Natural disasters writing 2
This worksheet is the same as the one above except that it has 3 different natural disasters – earthquakes, floods, and tornadoes.
You can use both sheets together or individually depending on how much time you have. It is also a good idea to do one in class and set the other as homework.
Natural disasters writing prompt
A simple creative writing task with a picture prompt of a flood (it could also be a tsunami).
Depending on your class’s level, you might want to provide them with any vocabulary in the picture that they are not familiar with.
You can also introduce other flood vocabularies to help them such as – flow, wave, deluge, downpour, stream, torrential, float, sink, and rise.
Easy natural disasters word search
The next 2 natural disasters worksheets are word search puzzles.
This first one is easier because the 15 words to find have been given. The words can be found horizontally, vertically, and diagonally but noy backwards.
Hard natural disasters word search
You can use this fun puzzle worksheet if you really want to challenge your class!
The clues here are pictures which they must identify. The words can also be found in all directions and even written backwards. From left to right the pictures represent these events –
forest fire, volcanic eruption, hurricane, snowstorm, hailstorm
earthquake, flood, drought, sinkhole, sandstorm
tsunami, tornado, thunderstorm, meteors, and avalanche.
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Chloe Campbell Education
Resources for your classroom
4 Exciting And Engaging Natural Disasters Activities for the Classroom
by Chloe Campbell Leave a Comment
Being able to study a natural disaster is one of my student’s favorites, and it is definitely one of my favorite lesson plans as well. Looking into earth science topics such as volcanoes or earthquakes can get even the most relucent learners engaged. Over the years, I have searched, created resources for, and taught many different natural disasters activities for the classroom.
Tips For Natural Disasters Activities for the Classroom
After many different versions, I decided I wanted to make sure my students were learning enough information about natural disasters to be able to give an engaging presentation, write a killer informational essay, or create a masterpiece of their choosing. However, after many different versions of worksheets, I realized many more fun and exciting ways to get students excited. After teaching my natural disaster unit for some time, here are some of the things I decided I totally needed to be included in the perfect unit plan.
#1: Complete an introductory activity
I love using mind maps to get students started and help them start thinking about natural disasters. Depending on where you live, some of your students may never have experienced some natural disasters they are about to study. Students in the southwest experience tornados, while the northeast experiences blizzards.
The differences are enormous, and getting an idea of what your students know or don’t know about natural disasters is a great starting point.
Plus, mind maps are super fun for students. They can draw, write, and make connections to their own life/experiences while “dumping” all the information they know on the paper. Creating mind map posters is also an awesome way to allow students to work together in groups and work their way around the room to fill in all they know about the natural disaster.
#2 Use the Cross-Curricular Connections
A natural disaster unit is a perfect time to bring in multiple subjects. You can easily incorporate many learning standards from social studies, language arts, and science. You can even bring in some math!
I have my students read about each natural disaster, take notes, and color code the passage in my classroom. (Read more about this fantastic note-taking technique here .) Students will learn about plate tectonics in studying earthquakes, chemical reactions when it comes to volcanos, and many causes/effects and measurement systems used.
Natural disasters have happened many times throughout history. However, these disasters were awful times. These historical natural disasters are jumping-off points for research papers, projects, or multi-media projects. Teachers are always looking for a way to bring multiple subjects into a lesson or unit, perfect!
#3 Connect to Student’s Lifes
Many students in all grades and ages live in areas where natural disasters happen yearly. Use these connections to help students learn. In addition, having them complete an emergency procedure card for a natural disaster near their home or create one for a disaster they choose to study is a great way to get students to connect to their research and the topic.
Teachers are always trying to relate to their students’ lives and show interest in them. However, this is often a challenging task (we all know that!) The dance crazes, snacks, and slang can feel very out of reach of many of us. But, using events students go through to help them learn makes learning more enjoyable for the students and teachers!
#4 Natural disasters experiments
This is one of my absolute favorite natural disaster activities for the classroom. Students love any opportunity to get hands-on and sometimes even a little dirty. Having paper towels or sponges around may not be bad for some of these experiments. Everyone loves the volcano experiment at the science fair. But why not bring those types of experiments into the classroom to help students learn even more about natural disasters.
A tornado in a bottle can easily show the tornado’s movement, or making students’ hair stand up with static electricity can help them understand lightning. Weather Wiz has some excellent investigations which teachers can easily bring into the classroom for their students to enjoy. Sometimes messy learning is the best learning of all!
Natural Disaster Activities for the Classroom
Natural disasters make an exciting unit or lesson plan, and every child enjoys them each year. Students can dive deep into a natural disaster close to home or across the country. Natural disasters are a fantastic way to incorporate science, history, language arts, and other subjects into your lesson plans, making your teacher heart smile.
Before you go, don’t forget to check out some of my other blog posts are about science:
4 Strategies to Keep Your Energy Lesson Plans Relatable & Engaging
3 Activities for States of Matter Your Students Will Love
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Natural disasters are violent events that are outside the control of humans. They are caused by the forces of nature and may result in loss of life, injury, and damage to property. There are many types of natural disaster, including avalanche , drought , earthquake , flooding , hurricane , tornado , tsunami , volcanic eruption , and wildfire .
The worksheets found in this section will help students explore the natural disasters that cause an average of over sixty-thousand deaths per year globally. We will look at the most common forms of disasters, their nature, and some of statistics involved. Over the last decade there has been the formation of over a dozen different organizations ...
Natural disasters are unpreventable occurrences that take place, ranging from mild to absolutely destructive. Scientists have concluded that the surges in climatic disasters is due to both man-made and natural elements. Contrary to popular belief, the sole cause of the increase is not attributed to global warming.
Our Natural Disasters Packet has notebook pages and worksheets as well as some hands-on activity ideas covering the following events: Flooding Mudslides Tsunami Tornado Hurricane, cyclone, typhoon Blizzard Heat Wave Drought Wildfire Sinkholes In this packet you'll find one page on each of these events. Often, natural disasters occur because of geologic changes or extreme weather conditions ...
Most natural disasters are caused by weather. Weather disasters can be caused by hurricanes, tornadoes, floods, tsunamis, thunderstorms, wind storms, wildfires, avalanches, and blizzards. Some weather disasters can be predicted, such as hurricanes and blizzards. Technology for predicting tornadoes and severe thunderstorms is improving.
natural disaster. The term natural disaster usually refers to a catastrophic event resulting from a natural process, such as a storm or a volcanic eruption. Natural disasters can severely impact human society, causing extensive fatalities and injuries. Destruction of homes and businesses bring both a personal and an economic toll.
Extension/homework Share your resources: Have students make a plan for sharing their disaster preparedness or disaster response project with their intended audience or the general community. Schedule a time for groups to report back about what they did. Consider partnering with organizations, such as the Red Cross, local
Here's a great idea for a distance learning/online lesson about natural disasters such as floods, hurricanes, earthquakes, and wildfires.It's based on an educational online simulation game developed by the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction.. The game called Stop Disasters! has multiple options and resources to choose from but here are student instructions for a sample ...
Hurricanes. Tornadoes. Earthquakes. Volcanoes. These reading comprehension passages, science projects, worksheets, maps, and mini-books teach kids about extreme weather and natural disasters. Add these educational tools to your teaching resources. Explore engaging natural disasters worksheets to teach students about earthquakes, hurricanes, and ...
png, 746.02 KB. zip, 5.32 MB. Let's learn about Natural Disasters! This worksheet includes 34 pages with a large variety of activities and exercises about natural disasters. Crosswords, word searches, puzzles and other kinds of activities are included to make it a fun and interesting class. The answers and an answer sheet are included.
NATURAL DISASTER VOCABULARY PUZZLES & ARTICLEEMERGENCY SUB PLANS: YESsubjects: SCIENCE, LANGUAGE ARTS, EARTH SCIENCEGRADES: 6-9PRODUCT OVERVIEWThis purchase is for two vocabulary puzzles and one article focusing on Types of Natural Disasters with additional writing papers included.A great assignment for early finishers, extra credit, homework ...
Natural Disasters. $1.95. Natural Disasters explores different kinds of severe storms and their causes and effects. Students will be able to define what a natural disaster is and list the traits of several types. The "Options for Lesson" section lists several extra ideas to add to the lesson if you have time or want additional material.
This Natural Disasters Science Assessment will help to support important science content while offering an effective summative assessment for your students. This resource comes with a fully editable pre-made 33 question assessment (with Google Form) and 2 versions of the answer key - complete and quick check formats.
Natural Disasters Homework Grid. During our unit on natural disasters your homework will be to complete at least one activity each week. You may present your information in any creative way that you choose. These tasks need to be completed to the best of your ability. If you have any questions please ask your teacher for assistance well before ...
The first worksheet above is a picture and word vocabulary matching exercise with 16 natural disasters. The answers to this handout are -1 Hailstorm, 2 Asteroids, 3 Sinkhole, 4 Flood, 5 Earthquake, 6 Forest fire, 7 Tsunami, 8 Thunderstorm, 9 Drought, 10 Tornado, 11 Hurricane, 12 Avalanche, 13 Volcanic eruption, 14 Sandstorm, 16 Snowstorm, and ...
Explore more than 618 "Natural Disasters" resources for teachers, parents and pupils as well as related resources on "Natural Disaster". Check out our interactive series of lesson plans, worksheets, PowerPoints and assessment tools today! All teacher-made, aligned with the Australian Curriculum.
Age range: 7-11. Resource type: Worksheet/Activity. File previews. doc, 132.5 KB. A ten comprehension pack designed to support work on Natural Disasters. Each comprehension consists of glossary work on words in text, sequencing words within sentences, word recognition sentences, comprehension questions tied to each text. Comprehensions cover:
#4 Natural disasters experiments . This is one of my absolute favorite natural disaster activities for the classroom. Students love any opportunity to get hands-on and sometimes even a little dirty. Having paper towels or sponges around may not be bad for some of these experiments. Everyone loves the volcano experiment at the science fair.
A natural disaster is a major event caused by natural processes of the Earth; examples include floods, hurricanes,tornadoes, volcanic eruptions, earthquakes, tsunamis, and other geologic processes.A natural disaster causes loss of life or property damage, and leaves some economic damage after it has been completed. It is the damage to humans and their property which counts most.
Subject: Geography. Age range: 7-11. Resource type: Lesson (complete) File previews. docx, 361.17 KB. doc, 143.5 KB. notebook, 3.34 MB. Slides and pictures to support a geography lesson on natural disasters. Children are to research famous natural disasters and record the impacts of such on humans.
Recall that the research reading that students complete for homework helps to build both their vocabulary and knowledge pertaining to natural disasters. How this lesson builds on previous work: In Lesson 1, students were introduced to the module topic and performance task by looking at pictures and texts using the Infer the Topic protocol.
Homework/In-class. Big Assignments: Disaster Reporter Assignment (75 pts) Historical Disaster Book Review Assignment (150 pts) RimSim Disaster Simulation (50 pts.) . During 4 class periods, we will play a disaster simulation game. In this exercise, each member of the class will play the role of a stakeholder or facilitator to determine how and ...
Natural Disasters Year 6 Homework Grid. Subject: Geography. Age range: 7-11. Resource type: Worksheet/Activity. File previews. docx, 255.63 KB. A creative topic homework grid based on the unit of Natural Disasters. Plenty of ideas and tasks for the children to complete at home. Tes paid licence How can I reuse this?