Tornadoes

We have recently developed an interest in tornadoes.  We saw a picture of some bad weather which started the discussion about tornadoes.  Some students grew increasingly interested so we wrote down what we knew about tornadoes and developed some questions.  We then did some research to find the answers.  

Here is what we thought:

- Tornadoes can pick-up the ground.
-Tornadoes can pick-up houses and people (we learned that they can pull houses apart but that they don't lift whole houses at once)
- Tornadoes turn
-You know tornadoes are coming when you can hear a lot of wind.
-Tornadoes can pick-up people and cars.  (we learned that it's not safe to hide your car under an underpass since the underpass could break and fall on your car).
-That people can't go in tornadoes (everyone agrees you should try to stay away from them to stay safe)
-That when tornadoes finish they turn into water (we learned this isn't true).
-Tornadoes come when there are big wind storms (we learned that rain is often involved too).
-You should go in the basement when there is a tornado (we also leaned that you can go in the middle of a building, like the school, but that it is important to stay away from windows).
 

Here are some questions we developed:

1) Are tornadoes black or white? (We saw that they are usually grey and full of "stuff").
2) How do tornadoes come? (We learned that they start as storms and get bigger and that it has to do with different kinds of winds).
3) How do tornadoes stop? (The scientists don't really know the answer to this.  Tornadoes just die down and end).
4) What makes tornadoes strong? (The winds)
5) How often do tornadoes happen? (Tornadoes happen over 1000 times a year but almost never in this area.  We found 4 different stories about tornadoes in this area and 2 of them were VERY old.)

Here are some pictures of some tornado inspired art: