What Happens to Water? (Water Cycle Exploration)

Created Feb. 6, 2024 by Julie Jarvis

Unit Title

Grade Level
4K

WMELS Standards Addressed:

V.C.EL.1, V.C.EL.2,V.C.EL.3V.C.EL.4

ELS Standards Addressed:

ELS.C1.B.e, ELS.C1.c.e, ELS.EX2.A.e, ELS.EX2.B.3, ELS.EX3.A.e, ELS.EX3.B.e, ELS.EX4.A.e, ELS.EX5.B.e

Checklist for Quality

Yes/ No	Criteria
Yes	Does the unit: Engage students physically in exploring, investigating, and manipulating elements in their environment?
Yes	Does the unit: Involve students in asking questions, probing for answers, conducting investigations, collecting and analyzing data?
Yes	Does the unit: Address questions that are relevant to the child?
Yes	Does the unit: Encourage children to engage in science process skills such as predicting, observing, classifying, hypothesizing, experimenting, and communicating?
Yes	Does the unit: Invite students to create, test, and revise theories?
Yes	Does the unit: Provide opportunities for students to share their observations and ideas with peers?

The preceding checklist is provided to assist with reflecting on whether the unit lessons support the development of scientific thinking in young children.

References

Selly, Patty Born. Teaching STEM Outdoors: Activities for Young Children. Redleaf Press, 2017.

Wilson, R. “Promoting the Development of Scientific Thinking.” EarlychildhoodNEWS, www.earlychildhoodnews.com/earlychildhood/article_view.aspx?ArticleId=409%20. Accessed 18 Oct. 2019.

Wisconsin. Early Learning Standards Steering Committee. Wisconsin Model Early Learning Standards: with Introduction. Madison, WI: Wisconsin Dept. of Public Instruction, 2017.

Part 1: Precipitation

Learning Targets (As a result of this experience outdoors, the student will know and be able to do): I can observe and describe what happens to water.
Success Measures (The student will know they are successful if they can): Students will be able to describe what they observe about water as it moves through the water cycle.
Essential Question: What happens to water?
Big Idea (I want my students to understand that…): Water is continuously moving from rivers, lakes, oceans and land to the sky and back again. This movement of water is called the water cycle. Water can be a liquid, solid or gas.
Materials Needed: small cups or buckets for collecting water, hand lenses (optional), "Splish! Splish! Splash!: A Book About Rain" by Josepha Sherman. Set up ahead of time: None Children are prepared and will bring outdoors: Dress for the weather.
Connect
Circle-Up/Opening	Teacher	Did you notice what is happening outside today? It is raining! Let’s read a book about the rain. Read Splish! Splash!: A Book About Rain by Josepha Sherman This book makes me wonder about rain. What do you wonder about rain? Gather students’ wonderings. If they don’t come up with any, suggest: I wonder where rain comes from, I wonder where the rain goes, I wonder what rain is made of. Today we are going to go outside in the rain. Let’s see if we can answer any of our questions about rain.
Explore
Inquiry What inquiry will students be involved in to develop skills/understanding of the learning target?	All	Get on coats and boots. Outside, notice the rain. Look to see where the rain is coming from. Encourage kids to look up at the sky, and feel the raindrops fall on their face. Notice that the rain is coming from the sky. Provide time to play in the rain. Catch rain- in little cups, buckets, in hands, etc. Each kid gathers a little rain. Look closely at the gathered rain. Possibly get out magnifying glasses to look closely. Ask, what is it? What do you think the rain is made of? Collect rain all together in one big bucket. Ask kids what to do with the collected rain. Possibly suggest that they give the fresh rain water as a gift to the plants inside the classroom when you go inside. Possibly set out a bucket to gather more rainwater for use in laundry later in the week.	Formative Assessment Observations of student behavior, specifically look for: engagement in looking at rain falling, looking at rain up close, and rain collection.
Engage
Reflection/Synthesis	All	Water plants (if that is what was decided) and review learnings while watering plants. For example, tell the plant that you have brought it a gift of fresh rain water, that you caught it as it fell from the clouds, through the sky, and down to the earth. Alternatively, have kids act out being a raindrop falling from the clouds through the sky and down to the earth. Possible script: "Let’s all gather at the carpet and pretend to be drops of water. Let’s pretend that when we stand close together we make a cloud in the sky. Now imagine that you leave the cloud and are falling from the sky, down, down, down to the earth below. (Invite kids to move around the room.) Where should we land? On the grass? In a lake? How about a stream! Let’s make a long line pretending that we are now drops of water in a stream!" (Kids get in line behind the teacher and move like a flowing stream through the room.) End at the carpet and sit down.	Formative Assessment: Student behavior, specifically look for: participation in the activity, either pretending to be a water droplet or act of giving water to the plants.
Review and Closure		Review the learning target- I can describe what happens to water. Sometimes water falls from the clouds as rain!

Part 2: Accumulation

Learning Targets (As a result of this experience outdoors, the student will know and be able to do): I can observe and describe what happens to water.
Success Measures (The student will know they are successful if they can): Students will be able to describe what they observe about water as it moves through the water cycle.
Essential Question: What is happening to water?
Big Idea (I want my students to understand that…): Water is continuously moving from rivers, lakes, oceans and land to the sky and back again. This movement of water is called the water cycle. Water can be a liquid, solid or gas.
Materials Needed: None Set up ahead of time: None Children are prepared and will bring outdoors: Dress for the weather.
Connect
Circle-Up/Opening	Teacher	Sing The Water Cycle song by Dr. Jean. Yesterday we noticed the rain falling through the sky from the clouds! We saw some of the rain fall on the ground and we collected some in our cups. Today, let's go see if we can find any places where water collects, or accumulates, on the ground. Let’s go on a search for puddles!
Explore
Inquiry What inquiry will students be involved in to develop skills/understanding of the learning target?	All	Get dressed for outside. Hike around the building and possibly into the woods to look for puddles. Stop to stomp, splash and play in the puddles. Maybe notice that water and dirt mixed together make mud. Possibly play in the mud a little bit too!	Formative Assessment Student behavior, specifically look for: students looking closely and/or manipulating the mud and engagement with the rain puddles.
Engage
Reflection/Synthesis	All	Today we went outside and found some places where water collected in nature. Turn to your neighbor and tell them what we call a place where water collects, we used the word accumulated. A puddle! Turn back to your neighbor and share what you think puddles are good for. After talking with a partner, invite students to share with the whole group. Record their ideas. Some ideas might include: Puddles are good for stomping, splashing, making mud, giving animals a drink, giving birds a bath...	Formative Assessment Student sharing with their partners that puddles are accumulated water and identification of something they think is good about puddles.
Review and Closure		Review the learning target-I can describe what happens to water. Sometimes water accumulates in nature to make puddles!

Part 3: Evaporation

Learning Targets (As a result of this experience outdoors, the student will know and be able to do): I can observe and describe what happens to water.
Success Measures (The student will know they are successful if they can): Students will be able to describe what they observe about water as it moves through the water cycle.
Essential Question: What happens to water?
Big Idea (I want my students to understand that…): Water is continuously moving from rivers, lakes, oceans and land to the sky and back again. This movement of water is called the water cycle. Water can be a liquid, solid or gas.
Materials Needed: Rags/laundry, bucket of water, rope for clothesline, clothes pins. Set up ahead of time: Completed the Paper Towel Experiment (optional) Children are prepared and will bring outdoors: Dress for the weather.
Connect
Circle-Up/Opening	Teacher	(Note that the author of this lesson takes her class to the woods for an extended time for nature play one day a week. This lesson is intended to be mostly nature play.) Explain that today one thing kids can work on is doing some laundry when we are in the woods. Demonstrate how to “wash” the clothes/ rags in a bucket of water. Feign surprise and confusion about what to do when the clothes are wet. Ask for suggestions about what to do with the wet laundry. Guide students to compare the wet laundry to the experiment they did with paper towels, and towards wondering whether, if they hang the clothes outside, just like the paper towels, the laundry will dry. Invite students to predict what will happen if they hang the wet rags on the line overnight. Sing Dr Jean- The Water Cycle Song or Water Cycle Song.
Explore
Inquiry What inquiry will students be involved in to develop skills/understanding of the learning target?	All	Head outside. On the way to the woods, look at puddle spots from earlier in the week to see if the puddles are still there. Alternatively look in the bucket to see if the water is still there. At the gathering spot, set up a laundry station. Hang clothes line with clothes pin. Invite kids to choose to wash and hang laundry. Bring wet items back with you and hang outside the classroom at the end of day, or leave on the clothesline for next time. (Remind them that the paper towels needed to dry overnight too!)	Formative Assessment Student verbalization of their noticings about the puddle/ bucket water, student participation in laundry activity and predictions about what will happen to the wet clothes.
Engage
Reflection/Synthesis	All	Review laundry activity: Today we washed clothes with our hands, not a washing machine. And we think they will dry by evaporation of the water.	Formative Assessment Student reflections on hanging laundry and predictions about what will happen with the clothes they hung.
Review and Closure		Review the learning target-I can describe what happens to water. Sometimes water evaporates into the air.

Part 4: Condensation

Learning Targets (As a result of this experience outdoors, the student will know and be able to do): I can observe and describe what happens to water.
Success Measures (The student will know they are successful if they can): Students will be able to describe what they observe about water as it moves through the water cycle.
Essential Question: What happens to water?
Big Idea (I want my students to understand that…): Water is continuously moving from rivers, lakes, oceans and land to the sky and back again. This movement of water is called the water cycle. Water can be a liquid, solid or gas.
Materials Needed: Tarp if ground is damp. A day with clouds in the sky. Set up ahead of time: None Children are prepared and will bring outdoors: Dress for the weather.
Connect
Circle-Up/Opening	Teacher	Review what they have done so far- discovered that rain falls from clouds in the sky. What happens to the water that falls? Some is drunk by plants and animals. Some soaks (gets absorbed) into the ground. And some accumulates in puddles, lakes, and streams. Just like the water we used to wash our clothes, that water evaporates and becomes part of the air. I wonder what happens to it when it is in the air. Let’s go look up in the air to see what we can find.
Explore
Inquiry What inquiry will students be involved in to develop skills/understanding of the learning target?	All	Walk outside to an open area. If the ground is damp, put down a large tarp for the kids to lie back on. Lie back on the tarp and look up into the sky. Possibly start with some belly breaths to calm down. Tell kids to imagine there is a big balloon in their bellies. As they breathe in through their nose, imagine you are filling up the balloon with air so you can see your belly puff up (Optional: place a small rock on student bellies to see it rise.) Now breathe out through your mouth like you are blowing a bubble. Let all the air out of the balloon. Take slow breaths. Try to count to 4 as you breathe in and then 4 again as you breathe out. Once calm, ask kids what they notice in the sky. Accept all answers. Ask them if they see water in the sky- maybe the water that evaporated from their laundry last week! Share that the clouds up in the sky are made of many, many drops of water. Share that water droplets come together- they condense- and form clouds. Take time to look at the clouds in silence. Ask how they would describe the clouds. I wonder if anyone remembers what fell from the clouds last week. Rain! When the water in the cloud gets too heavy to float in the air it falls down- as rain or snow!	Formative Assessment Student comments about what they notice about the sky and ideas about evaporated water and clouds.
Engage
Reflection/Synthesis	All	Invite kids to imagine they are a water droplet. Start all together in a puddle. Then tell them that the sun has come out and it is time to evaporate into the sky. Invite them to pretend they are floating around in the sky. Then tell them it is time to come together- to condense into a cloud. Have all the kids come together in a group. Then say, Rain! (or snow/ precipitation) And the kids run down the little hill pretending they are rain. At the bottom tell them to accumulate as a puddle again (or a river, lake, etc). Repeat. Sing Dr Jean- The Water Cycle Song or Water Cycle Song.	Formative Assessment Student participating in pretending to be a water droplet and/ or singing the song.
Review and Closure		Review the learning target- I can describe what happens to water. Sometimes water condenses in the sky and makes clouds.