Science & Movement
The Water Cycle
![Picture](/uploads/1/7/0/9/17099422/9624877_orig.jpg)
Grade Level: 2nd
Time: 20 minutes
Lesson Background:
This lesson is meant to teach students about the water cycle and the different forms water takes. The water cycle shows how the Earth recycles it’s water and students should know the various stages of the cycle.
Big Ideas, Key Concepts, Competencies: Water is all around us and we need it to survive. Sometimes it is visible and sometimes we cannot it with our naked eyes.
Teacher Knowledge: Teachers should know the stages of the water cycle in the order it occurs but does not have a beginning or end point (cycle). Air is a material that surrounds us and takes up space. When liquid disappears, it turns into a gas in the air and can reappear as a liquid when cooled, or as a solid if cooled below the freezing point of water. Clouds and fog are made up of tiny droplets or frozen crystals of water.
Pennsylvania Curriculum Standards:
Objectives:
Materials:
Teacher:
Student:
Step-By-Step Procedure:
Engagement/Introduction
Engage students by activating prior knowledge. Students should have a clear idea of what the water cycle from previous lessons about bodies of water. Next, the teacher will ask students to form a circle around the teacher's desk where the electric tea kettle is located. The teacher will turn on the tea kettle and as the water boils, the teacher will hold the metal spoon above it until water particles form on the spoon (water vapor). Teacher should explain that this is what water vapor is and this is how clouds form in the water cycle during condensation.
Explicit Instruction
I will teach students the tune (“If You’re Happy and You Know It”) and words to the song about the water cycle:
“Water travels in a cycle. Yes it does.
Water travels in a cycle. Yes it does.
It goes up in evaporation, forms a cloud of condensation, and comes down in precipitation.
Yes it does.”
After they understand the tune of the song, students will do movements that correlate to the water cycle stages:
Make sure to emphasize that once precipitation is over, the cycle does not end. A cycle means it keeps going around in a circle. It also means that evaporation is not necessarily the first step and precipitation is not the last.
Modeling
I will model how to move during each phase of the water cycle. I will speak about my movements as I am doing them and relate them to the stage of the cycle. An example, "I am starting by kneeling like I am a piece of dirt and raising myself with my arms as I extend to the sky like evaporation and steam does."
Guided Practice
During this time, I will ask students to follow as I sing the song and do the movements. I will be there as a support for students who do not seem to understand what each stage is. I will also do it with them as many times as they need to understand. Students will have time to look over the song a couple times and practice singing and dancing without my help.
Evaluation
Students will open their notebook Science notebooks and divide their sheet in four sections. They are required to write the name of each stage of the water cycle (start and end point does not matter as long as they are in order of the cycle). Under the name of each stage, students are supposed to draw a picture of what each stage looks like. Although students learned three stages, there are four stages and the final section is extra credit. Students can use background knowledge and knowledge from previous lessons to figure out the fourth stage. This will be a formal way of assessing whether students understand what happens in each stage. I will also do an informal observation of students as they practice and do their song and dance. This will give me an idea of students who do not understand what each stage of the cycle looks like.
Differentiation
Time: 20 minutes
Lesson Background:
This lesson is meant to teach students about the water cycle and the different forms water takes. The water cycle shows how the Earth recycles it’s water and students should know the various stages of the cycle.
Big Ideas, Key Concepts, Competencies: Water is all around us and we need it to survive. Sometimes it is visible and sometimes we cannot it with our naked eyes.
Teacher Knowledge: Teachers should know the stages of the water cycle in the order it occurs but does not have a beginning or end point (cycle). Air is a material that surrounds us and takes up space. When liquid disappears, it turns into a gas in the air and can reappear as a liquid when cooled, or as a solid if cooled below the freezing point of water. Clouds and fog are made up of tiny droplets or frozen crystals of water.
Pennsylvania Curriculum Standards:
- Academic- 3.3.2.A4: Explore and describe that water exists in solid (ice) and liquid (water) form. Explain and illustrate evaporation and condensation.
- Art- 9.1.3.A: Know and use the elements and principles of each art form to create works in the arts and humanities. Dance: • energy/force • space • time.
Objectives:
- Students will be able to define stages of the water cycle: evaporation, condensation, and precipitation.
- Students will be able to act out the different stages of the water cycle as they sing a song.
Materials:
Teacher:
- Tea Kettle
- Metal Spoon
- Copy of water cycle song (one for each student)
Student:
- Copy of water cycle song
- Science notebook
- Pencil
- Colored Pencils
Step-By-Step Procedure:
Engagement/Introduction
Engage students by activating prior knowledge. Students should have a clear idea of what the water cycle from previous lessons about bodies of water. Next, the teacher will ask students to form a circle around the teacher's desk where the electric tea kettle is located. The teacher will turn on the tea kettle and as the water boils, the teacher will hold the metal spoon above it until water particles form on the spoon (water vapor). Teacher should explain that this is what water vapor is and this is how clouds form in the water cycle during condensation.
Explicit Instruction
I will teach students the tune (“If You’re Happy and You Know It”) and words to the song about the water cycle:
“Water travels in a cycle. Yes it does.
Water travels in a cycle. Yes it does.
It goes up in evaporation, forms a cloud of condensation, and comes down in precipitation.
Yes it does.”
After they understand the tune of the song, students will do movements that correlate to the water cycle stages:
- Evaporation: start by kneeling, move arms from the floor to the sky as you stand up
- Condensation: reach towards the sky and move hands together as if you are holding an invisible ball (forming a “cloud”)
- Precipitation: move hands from the sky back down from the floor as if your fingers are rain drops hitting the ground
Make sure to emphasize that once precipitation is over, the cycle does not end. A cycle means it keeps going around in a circle. It also means that evaporation is not necessarily the first step and precipitation is not the last.
Modeling
I will model how to move during each phase of the water cycle. I will speak about my movements as I am doing them and relate them to the stage of the cycle. An example, "I am starting by kneeling like I am a piece of dirt and raising myself with my arms as I extend to the sky like evaporation and steam does."
Guided Practice
During this time, I will ask students to follow as I sing the song and do the movements. I will be there as a support for students who do not seem to understand what each stage is. I will also do it with them as many times as they need to understand. Students will have time to look over the song a couple times and practice singing and dancing without my help.
Evaluation
Students will open their notebook Science notebooks and divide their sheet in four sections. They are required to write the name of each stage of the water cycle (start and end point does not matter as long as they are in order of the cycle). Under the name of each stage, students are supposed to draw a picture of what each stage looks like. Although students learned three stages, there are four stages and the final section is extra credit. Students can use background knowledge and knowledge from previous lessons to figure out the fourth stage. This will be a formal way of assessing whether students understand what happens in each stage. I will also do an informal observation of students as they practice and do their song and dance. This will give me an idea of students who do not understand what each stage of the cycle looks like.
Differentiation
- Provide student with pictures of people modeling of each of the movements in the song
- Write OR draw the stages of the water cycle
- Draw one stage of the water cycle instead of three
© 2013 Dana Daniel