Let it Rain - Water Cycle

Fourth Grade - Science Curriculum / Celebration of rain to help our crops grow

 

Let It Rain!

 
Grade Level: 4th
Integrated Subjects: Science
 
Objectives: Tell the students what they are going to learn!  (Blooms Taxonomy)
-The students will...
          1. List (knowledge) familiar terms and knowledge relating to the water cycle

          2. Discuss (comprehension) the importance of rain and weather and how it is produced

          3. Demonstrate (application) new knowledge about one stage in the water cycle through a creative presentation.

          4. Discover (comprehension) the water cycle over time in the classroom with terrariums

          5. Rearrange (synthesis) stages in correct order of the water cycle through effective discussion and exploration
 
TEKS met:

(4.2) Scientific processes:

            (A) Plan and implement descriptive investigations including asking well-defined questions, formulating testable hypotheses, and selecting and using equipment and technology.       

            (B) Collect information by observing and measuring                   

(4.6) Science concepts:

            (A): Identify patterns of change such as in weather, metamorphosis, and objects in the sky

(4.7) Science concepts:

            (A): Observe and record changes in the states of matters caused by the addition or reduction of heat

(4.11) Science concepts:

            (C): Identify the Sun as the major source of energy for the Earth and understand its role in the growth of plants, in the creation of winds, and in the water cycle.

 
Multiple Intelligences: Howard Gardner
          -Verbal / Linguistic: The students will listen and discuss the read aloud of the Wind and Thunder Quarrel by Jane Archer. The students will also present their water cycle stage to the class. The students will also listen and ask question during instruction.

          - Spatial: The students will receive and read water cycle stage handouts in which they create a new way to present the given information. 

          -Bodily / Kinesthetic: The student will construct a terrarium that demonstrates the water cycle overtime. The students will use hands on activities to produce and record the terrarium science experiment.

          -Interpersonal: The students work in cooperative groups to present and discuss the important stages of the water cycle and how important the sun is in the development of each stage.

          -Naturalist: The students understand the process and importance of the water cycle and its effects on the nature around us through instruction and discovery.

 
Materials: soil, glass jar, plant, plastic wrapping, water, water stage handouts, chalk, science journals, pencils, pens, Wind and Thunder Quarrel by Jane Archer
 
Rationale: The teacher would provide instructional relevance by associating weather and how it effects our everyday life's. The teacher could ask what the weather is like that day and what was it like the day before.  The teacher will present a  real life scenario. For example Have you ever planned an outdoor party, and had to cancel it because of rain? Why does it rain and how does rain develop or come about? Where does the water for the rain come from? Weather is the condition of the atmosphere in a certain place. It can be sunny, warm or cold, rainy or windy.
 
 
Focus / Set                                          Click here to read myth
Introduction: To grab hold of the students attention the teacher would read aloud The Wind and Thunder Quarrel (a Texas Native American Myth) by Jane Archer. The teacher would then ask a few questions to get the students thinking.  Why did the Native Americans need rain? Do we need rain? Is weather important in the way we live our life's?
 
Lesson Activities:
 
Instructional Input:                           Click here to view handouts
The teacher will use a KWL chart to find out what the students know about weather and the water cycle. As a whole class the students will be introduced to the important stages in the water cycle such as precipitation, collection, evaporation and condensation.
 
Cooperative Groups:
The teacher would divide the students into four groups. Each group would receive one of the four stages of the water cycle (in no particular order). Click above to view each handout. Each group will then work together for ten minutes to read and develop a presentation of their stage to the class. For example if the group received the stage precipitation handout they would read about it and then come up with a creative way to express their understanding of the concept to the whole class.
 
Instructional Input:
Once the students have completed their short presentations the teacher would have the students put the stages in order for the water cycle. Together the class will discuss important events within each stage of the water cycle.
 
Discovery and exploration:
The students will create their very one water cycle by building a terrarium. Over time the students will observe and record how the water evaporates from the plant to the top of the plastic covering and falls back down again. Each day in their science journals the students will record the changes in the terrarium and relate it to the water cycle.
 
Closure: The students would gather as a whole groups to discuss what they learned about the water cycle. The teacher will ask the students to tell her the process of rain as well as why it was so important then for the Native Americans as it is now with us today that our land receives plenty of  rain.
 
 
Evaluation: The teacher would use the science journal entries as well as their presentations and discussions of the four stages of the water cycle as assessment tools for this lesson.
 
* This lesson incorporates the use of discovery
 

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