This is the lesson I did with my 6th grade science classes. There is weather data available for many other Massachusetts locations on the website.

Did you find it difficult to have students retreive data? Or did you do it for them? I would like to do this with my students for our weather unit but am not quite sure how to approach it.

One obstacle I have (as I am sure you do) is the use of the computers. We gather meaningful data and then by the time we set to use it- it loses its relevance to the topic we are on!

Luckily weather and temperature occurs every day.

I copied the charts and handed them out to students. You can get them from the National Weather Service website: www.weather.gov/climate/local_data_.php?wfo=box is the exact page I went to. There is a ton of info. The data I used was "preliminary" data, but it was free.(Other data on the site is not)
I had the kids transfer average temps from the chart. I gave them a colored index card to help them visually track each line as there is a lot of info on the charts. This was helpful to most of the kids.

Hi Ann
Nifty zip file posting format on Online 1. It made it easy to access all of your documents related to this unit. Is it easy to do? Love the title "How was your summer". I think a good title can be an important hook for some students.
In spite of your scheduling challenges, it sounds like it was a successful first experience with spreadsheets for many of your students.