Season Records at the Playground Play Ship

Weather Beside the Pretend Ship

Cedar School has a pretend ship on its playground. Children climb aboard to imagine ocean trips. Before making a seasonal play schedule, the school weather club studied weather records from beside the ship. The records covered three years at the same playground.

During each year, club members checked the weather on 30 days in winter, 30 in spring, 30 in summer, and 30 in fall. They measured air temperature in the shade at the same afternoon time. They also recorded whether rain fell during each checked day. A rainy day meant that some rain fell, but the club did not measure how much water fell.

The table gives the average afternoon temperature for each season in each year. An average summarizes a group of readings; individual days can be warmer or cooler. Students do not need to calculate these averages. The graph combines the rainy-day counts from the three years. That gives 90 checked days for each season. The club will use both displays to write weather descriptions for families visiting the play ship.