Rain, ice, steam: Using reading to support inquiry about the water cycle
http://www.readwritethink.org/lessons/lesson_view.asp?id=912
A lesson plan for grades K–2 English Language Arts and Science
This unit of study allows students to discover the repetitive cycle of water. Read-alouds introduce the topic of rain and hands-on experiments and classroom centers teach students about the water cycle and how it functions. After introducing the topic of rain to students, the teacher leads them in a discussion about what they think of when they hear rain. Then, students participate in activities related to rain in centers around the classroom. The teacher explains a water cycle chart and engages students in various activities to help them better understand relevant vocabulary. After completing several activities and reading books about rain, students return to centers to learn more about water. In pairs, students discuss water evaporation and the class participates in an experiment using ice cubes and construction paper. Then after discussing their findings, students write about their experiments and the results. Then, students participate in another thinking activity about precipitation and discuss their findings. Once students have reviewed the vocabulary for the unit, they create a play based on the information they learned about rain in the previous class sessions. Finally, students perform the play for another class and write about their research findings. Readwritethink provides links to a variety of helpful web resources that focus on the water cycle.
North Carolina Curriculum Alignment
English Language Arts (2004)
Grade 1
- Goal 4: The learner will apply strategies and skills to create oral, written, and visual texts.
- Objective 4.04: Extend skills in using oral and written language:
- clarifying purposes for engaging in communication.
- using clear and precise language to paraphrase messages.
- engaging in more extended oral discussions.
- producing written products.
- completing graphic organizers.
- Objective 4.06: Compose a variety of products (e.g., stories, journal entries, letters, response logs, simple poems, oral retellings).
- Objective 4.04: Extend skills in using oral and written language:
Grade 2
- Goal 4: The learner will apply strategies and skills to create oral, written, and visual texts.
- Objective 4.06: Plan and make judgments about what to include in written products (e.g., narratives of personal experiences, creative stories, skits based on familiar stories and/or experiences).
- Objective 4.07: Compose first drafts using an appropriate writing process:
- planning and drafting.
- rereading for meaning.
- revising to clarify and refine writing with guided discussion.
- Objective 4.08: Write structured, informative presentations and narratives when given help with organization.
Science (2005)
Grade 2
- Goal 2: The learner will conduct investigations and use appropriate tools to build an understanding of the changes in weather.
- Objective 2.03: Describe weather using quantitative measures of:
- Temperature.
- Wind direction.
- Wind speed.
- Precipitation.
- Objective 2.03: Describe weather using quantitative measures of:
- Goal 3: The learner will observe and conduct investigations to build an understanding of changes in properties.
- Objective 3.01: Identify three states of matter:
- Solid.
- Liquid.
- Gas.
- Objective 3.01: Identify three states of matter:
Kindergarten
- Goal 2: The learner will make observations and build an understanding of weather concepts.
- Objective 2.02: Identify different weather features including:
- Precipitation.
- Wind.
- Temperature.
- Cloud cover
- Objective 2.02: Identify different weather features including:
