Water Cycle Lesson Plans

Lesson One:
Big Idea: Water is essential for life.
Essential Question: How does weather affect our lives?
Guiding Questions:
What forms does water take?
How does water move?
o Does it always move the same way?
What are clouds made of?
What powers the water cycle?
o What if there was no sun?
Do all living things need water?
Do all living things get water in the same way?
o What are some other ways they may get water?
Should we conserve water?
o Why should we?
o What if we dont?
o How can we conserve water?
What is it called if our water is dirty?
o Can we limit water pollution?
o What can we do to stop water pollution in our community?
o Why is this important?
Content Standards:
3.9 the students will investigate and understand the water cycle and its relationship to life
on Earth. Key concepts include:
1. There are many sources of water on Earth;
2.

The energy from the sun drives the water cycle;

3.

The water cycle involves several processes;

4.

Water is essential for living things; and

5.

Water on Earth is limited and needs to be conserved.

Technology Standard: C/T 3-5.2 Identify and use available technologies to complete
specific tasks.
1. Use content-specific tools, software, and simulations to complete projects. Use
tools in various content areas as directed by the teacher.

Prior knowledge students should have: students should have prior understandings of
energy; we will be adding vocabulary of condensation, and evaporation onto that
understanding.
Objective:
Student will be able to
1.
Create a water cycle by representations
2.
Identify the sun as the origin of energy for the water cycle.
3.
Identify the different forms water will take.
Hook: Read on the carpet; The Magic School Bus Wet All Over: A Book About The Water
Cycle by: Pat Relf, Illustrated by: Carolyn Bracken
**If book is unavailable, YouTube has the movie version of this book
Class discussion: After reading about the water cycle we will then walk about how water
affects our lives and why water is important to us. We will go over the water cycle as we
learned about it from Ms. Frizzle and learn hand gestures for each step in the water cycle.
We will talk about where the water cycle gets its energy from (the sun) and how the water
cycle could not take place without the sun. Just like people, animals, and all other living
things could not live without water. We will have to talk about the different things that get
water in different ways, but still need water to survive. We will be able to them talk about
the importance of water conservation and possible ways to save water at home and at
school.
Make a list of possible ways to conserve water on a poster board, which can later
be hung near the class sink to remind students to conserve water in the classroom.
Once we understand that we must conserve water, we will discuss the importance of
keeping our water clean. To do this we will talk about the vocabulary word water
pollution and where water pollution may be coming from in our community.
Activity: After the group discussion each student will write a quick exit ticket email. For
this each student will send you a quick email of three things they took away from the
discussion and email it to you. This will allow you to easily read over them and see what
needs to be discussed again or emphasized more.

Lesson Two:
Objective:
Student will be able to
1.
Identify the sun as the origin of energy for the water cycle.
2.
Identify the different forms water will take.
Discussion: Lesson two will start off with a class discussion fueled by the exit ticket
emails that you received from them at the end of the last class. Tailor the discussion
around what important information they way of forgotten and how water has an impact
on our lives.
Activity: for the activity they today they will be doing a water cycle worksheet, where
they have to cut and past the names to each phase of the water cycle. Then they will put
sentences that describe the water cycle in order on a piece of construction paper, with
their labeled water cycle glued to the top of the paper.

Lesson Three:
Objective:
Student will be able to
1. Create a water cycle by representations
Assessment: water cycle bracelets
Resources and Materials:
Item

Amount

Beads (white, clear, blue, yellow)

At least 4 of each per student

Pipe Cleaner

1 per student

Activator: Ask students to recall what they remember about the water cycle from
the previous science lesson. Tell students that you are going to test their memories
before todays activity. For a useful mnemonic device, use hand gestures to review
the different stages of the water cycle.
Evaporation: moving hands up like steam rising
Condensation: moving hands together in the shape of a puffy "cloud
Precipitation: moving hands down like rain
Collection: form a ring with your arms to form a lake
Introduction: Once you have reviewed these steps and hand motions, play a game
of cold calling where you call out a step of the water cycle and a student's name and
they have to act out that stage of the water cycle. Make sure to call on each student at
least once. If a student gets it wrong, give them another opportunity to try until they
do get it right. Stop when you have called on every student and your class
demonstrates an understanding of the water cycle.
Activity: Students can make water cycle bracelets using different colored beads
strung on a piece of pipe cleaner. Make a key on the board to indicate which color
represents which different step of the water cycle. Students should make sure to
follow the proper pattern and be prepared to explain the order in which they placed
their beads. Have students double-check the order of their beads with the teacher
before they string them.
Bead Color

What it Represents

Yellow

Sun

Clear Bead

Evaporation

White Bead

Condensation (Clouds)

Blue Bead

Precipitation/ Collection

Lesson Four:
Objective:
Student will be able to
1. Explain how water moves through the water cycle.
Assessment: Video of a raindrops life
Resources and Materials:
Item

Amount

Science Notebooks
Laptops/Ipads

10

Activator: Ask students to recall what they remember about the water cycle from
their science lesson. Tell students that you are going to test their memories before
todays activity. For a useful mnemonic device, use hand gestures to review the
different stages of the water cycle.
Evaporation: moving hands up like steam rising
Condensation: moving hands together in the shape of a puffy "cloud
Precipitation: moving hands down like rain
Collection: form a ring with your arms to form a lake
Once you have reviewed these steps and hand motions, play a game of cold calling
where you call out a step of the water cycle and a student's name and they have to act
out that stage of the water cycle. Make sure to call on each student at least once. If a
student gets it wrong, give them another opportunity to try until they do get it right.
Stop when you have called on every student and your class demonstrates an
understanding of the water cycle.
Activity:
1) Have students write the story of a raindrops life. Starting with when it first
falls from the sky and what happens along its long journey. Encourage them
to use the vocabulary we have been using when discussing the water cycle.
They should illustrate each page of the raindrops story, so younger readers
could read and comprehend what happens to the raindrop. They can create
the story individually or in pairs.
a. You could give each group a unique location for their raindrop story to
take place, to encourage individuality between the groups.
i. For this assignment each group will be given their groups based
on local water supplies in the area, the group will include:
1. Chesapeake Bay
2. Rappahannock River
3. Potomac River
4. Atlantic Ocean
5. Aquia Creek
6. Lake Anna
7. Abel Lake Dam
8. Smith Lake Reservoir

9. A stream
10. A pond
2) Have students initially write the stories in their science journals until they
have a final draft, which they will be creating into a short video for the class.
a. Each group will have to do research to see what may be concerns in
that water
i. Is it polluted? Does it turn into our drinking water? Is that body
of water growing or shrinking? What lives off of that water
source? Etc.
3) When done with creating their stories allow them to share them with the class and
ask questions about each story to form a better understanding of the water cycle.
Closure: Ask students to discuss what would happen to the water cycle if there were
no evaporation. Help them understand that each step of the water cycle is dependent
on one another. Ask the class what they have learned about our local water sources
and how they may be different from other water sources. See if they can conclude
why water is essential.
Formative Assessment: After we have done our group raindrop stories we will
have a formative assessment. It will be given on Socrative to allow immediate
feedback on how well the student s understood the material.