Students are introduced to the concept of the water cycle. Through
inquiry, hands-on activities and problem solving, students will increase
their understanding of the steps of the water cycle and benefits of rain.
Students will also learn about the small amount of drinking water available
on the earth and the need to keep it free from pollution. The math portion
of the lessons deals with simple addition and demonstrating percentages
using counting chips or small beans.
Take A Look 1, Rain
Science For You,Why is the Sea Salty
Students will be able to:
Discover that the water cycle is the constant changing of water from
a liquid to a gas and back to a liquid.
Explain that evaporation occurs when the sun heats the water on the
earth.
Explain that condensation occurs when warm air filled with water vapor
rises and cools and changes back to liquid drops of water.
List the four steps in the water cycle in correct order.
Record and graph weather for one month.
Observe rain being made in the classroom.
Observe condensation on a glass of cold water.
Observe evaporation of water on a blackboard.
Understand that the amount of drinking water on earth is limited.
List ways to protect and conserve our water supply.
Demonstrate percentages using counting chips or beans
Demonstrate simple addition from numbers 1 - 10
Small mirror for each student
Word strips with CONDENSATION & EVAPORATION written on them
4 small watercolor brushes
Water
Hot plate
Ice cubes in metal tray
Small posters of 4 stages of water cycle (found at end of lesson)
Colored water in clear glass or metal glass
Ice cubes
Blank chart for recording weather for each student
Science journals for each student
Picture book, Cloudy With A Chance Of Meatballs, by Judi Barrett
Picture book, Fish Eyes A Book You Can Count On, by Lois Ehlert
100 counting chips or beans for overhead
10 counting chip
Evaporation
Condensation
Pollution
Have the students breathe through their mouth onto a small mirror.
Ask them what the cloud is made of that they see on their mirror. (water).
Will the cloud disappear? (yes) What is called when the water disappears
(evaporation, this is just an introduction to the term evaporation as this
lesson will investigate it further.)
Now ask the students to put their hands up to their mouths and breath on
it. Ask how their breath feels (warm and moist). Ask where does the moisture
go they feel on their hand? (into the air)
What is the moisture they feel called? (water vapor, this also will probably
be a new term. Just introduce the word for now.)
Ask three or four students to come to the chalkboard. Give them each a glass
of water and a watercolor paint brush. Have them write their names with
water on the chalkboard. Ask the class what will happen to the names written
with water (it will dry by itself). Where will the water that was on the
blackboard go (into the air). What is this called (evaporation). Place a
large word strip with the word EVAPORATION on it on the blackboard where
the water once was.
1. To give students specific responsibility while viewing have
them focus on some specific information that will be shown in the video.
For very young viewers the information should be shown in the first few
minutes and then the tape stopped to ask questions to check for understanding.
For this first segment ask the students if the weather is the same everyday?
Sometimes does the weather keep us from doing what we want to do? Ask the
students to watch the Take A Look 1, Rain to find out why Jeff is disappointed.
2. START the video at the very beginning of the Take A Look, Rain
video. You will see the house and hear the theme music. Play until Jeff
says." I wish we could decide when to have sunny weather and when to
have rain." PAUSE tape.
3. Ask the students what is was that Jeff wanted to do that he couldn't
do because of the rain outside. (fly his kite). Ask if any of the students
have ever had their plans changed because of the weather. Before beginning
the tape again have the students focus on a new concept. Ask them to listen
for the word water cycle and be able to explain what it is.
4. RESUMEPLAYING TAPE until Kate finishes showing the chart
of the water cycle and Kate says "that is what is known as the water
cycle". PAUSE tape and have students tell in their own words
what the water cycle is.
5. To reinforce this concept have the class play a game. Give each cooperative
learning group 4 cards. Each card will have one pictures of a step in the
water cycle. Tell them that their group needs to line up in the correct
order. When the groups are sure they are in the right order to raise their
hands. (The cards are found at the end of this lesson.) Most groups will
line up in a line, however, since the water cycle is a circle encourage
the groups to form a circle.
6. The next part of the video demonstrated how rain is made.You will want
to do this in the classroom for the students to see themselves. (Sometimes
after we do the experiment I will show the class the experiment on the video
so we can compare results. Any experiment that can be done in the classroom
will be more meaningful that just watching it on the video.) Have the students
record in their science journals what happened during the experiment.
7. RESUME play and watch as Kate shows the chart that she has kept
of the weather for the past month. One of the state core objective is for
the students to chart the weather for a month. This would be a good time
to begin the class chart. Each student should be able to have their individual
chart to record the weather. STOP the tape when Jeff discovers condensation
on the outside of the glass of orange liquid.
8. This is another experiment that the students will want to be able to
do in the classroom. Make sure the liquid in the glass is colored so that
they can see that the moisture that collects on the outside of the glass
is a different color than what is inside.Place the word strip CONDENSATION
above the glass. Students will record in their journals.
9. Ask students to listen to the music video about rain to tell us why the
rain is important. START the tape at the beginning of the music video.
Have them list at least three things that we need the rain for. After the
music video is over (when you hear the narrators voice and see the boy flying
the kite) STOP the tape and record their answers on the chalkboard.
Visually REWIND the music video and REPLAY it to make sure
that the class discovered all the reasons we need rain.
WE NEED THE RAIN....
grass to grow
water flowers and trees
animals
drinking
keeping cool
washing
swimming
10. REMOVE the Take A Look Tape and replace it with Science for You,
Why is the Sea Salty. Ask the students if they have ever seen real pictures
of the earth from out in space. The focus for this section will be for the
students to discover why the earth is called the blue planet.
11. START the tape at the beginning where you see the standard introduction
of the Science for You series. PAUSE playing when you see the globe
of the earth and hear ..."perhaps we should call the earth planet ocean
instead of planet earth." Discuss the amount of water and color of
the earth's surface with the students.
12. Ask the students if they think there is a lot of drinking water available
on our planet. Have students vote yes or no and record numbers on chalkboard.
Tell them that the tape will help us answer this question. RESUME
play until you see the earth and hear "how much of the earth's water
is really drinkable."
13. Place 100 counting chips or beans on the overhead. Have the students
count with you while you place them when they can all see. RESUME
play and pause when the boy first tries to take a drink and the glass is
taken away. Remove 70 of the chips from the overhead and tell the class
that represented the water that is salty.
RESUME play again until the second time the glass is taken from him.
This time remove 20 of the chips to represent the water frozen at the North
and South pole. RESUME play until the glass is removed again, take
away 9 chips to represent the water found underground or in clouds and on
plants. Ask how much of the water is left? One, or one percent. PlAY
until the boy finally gets to drink one drop and you hear "why is so
much of it salty". STOP the tape and remove video. Ask students
if they think there is a lot of water available to drink.
14. Go back to the chalkboard where the class voted on the amount of drinking
water available. Discuss their vote. Ask if anyone wants to change their
vote to No. Then review again using the counting chips how much of the water
is able to be used from drinking water. What could we do to keep it clean
and not waste it?
Read the book Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs to the students.
Have them work in cooperative groups to make large poster of what they would
like it to rain if they could choose. Display the posters in the hall for
other classes to enjoy.
Another activity to end the lesson with is to read the book, FISH EYES a
book you can count on, by Lois Ehlert. This book is very colorful and has
pictures of many fish. The students count with you as the fish are added
together. You may want to give the students counting chips to act out the
story of the fish.
Visit a weather station. Many weather stations can be found
at airports, colleges, or high schools. Observe the equipment and ways of
predicting weather. Observe how the weather reporter gathers information
to report the weather. Where does the information come from?
LANGUAGE ARTS
1. Make a list of compound words that contain the word rain.
2. Make a collection of rain expressions and explain the meaning of each.
3. Describe a storms and tells what happens before, during and after the
storm.
4. Pretend you are a small insect during a rain storm. Describe the storm
using five senses.
ART
1. Design a bulletin board showing the water cycle.
2. Watercolor pictures of different types of weather
SCIENCE
1. Make a rain gauge and use a chart to record the rain for one month.
2. Bring in water from various sources and examine it under microscopes.
