Preschool and Elementary Water Cycle Lesson Plan
Teach Young Students about Snowflakes, Raindrops, and Waterfalls
Dec 20, 2008
After the end of year break it may be challenging for teachers to get the kids back into a daily classroom routine. A great way to ease students back into the learning groove is to engage them in a water cycle lesson plan. This can be an integral part of a required weather thematic unit or simply a stand-alone adventure in science.
Start off with a book or educational show describing the water cycle, and then design a lesson plan packed with fun activities, games, and projects. Here are a few ideas to consider.
The Perfect Water Cycle Book for Ages 4 through 8
Choosing an appealing book to wrap a lesson plan around is a great way to get the water cycle lesson started. There are so many charming water cycle stories for children in this age group. One of the best is The Snowflake: A Water Cycle Story by Neil Waldman [CT: Millbrook Press, 2003].
In this book of incredible artwork and storytelling, a snowflake is formed in January on a mountaintop. Readers are taken on a yearlong water cycle journey throughout the wondrous seasons. The tiny snowflake changes its form many times over as it joins with clouds, rivers, seas, and land. It even visits a sink at home where a child is brushing her teeth.
Water Cycle Themed TV Program
Another way to introduce the water cycle to young students is to show an entertaining and educational children’s show on the subject. One sure pleaser that elementary teachers could try is Episode 19 of The Magic School Bus, entitled “Wet All Over” produced by Malcolm-Jamal Warner in 1995.
In this show that periodically airs on PBS, students in Ms. Frizzle’s class go on a field trip and physically experience the water cycle by becoming droplets of water. They evaporate and join with clouds, condense to become rain, and finally get caught up in a rushing river. After repeatedly going through the cycle the students figure out that they need to somehow get inside the school bathroom in order to change back into themselves.
Preschool and Kindergarten Water Cycle Activities
Follow up the reading or film with an exciting and educational water cycle activity. There are many classroom activities that can illustrate to young students how the water cycle works. Weather “stations” can be set up around the classroom for each craft, book, or game idea. Try providing snowflake/raindrop activity worksheets, setting up a melting snow activity, or constructing a water cycle bulletin board.
A group game can also be fashioned such as “hide-and-seek snowflake”. Let the child who is “it” be a river and have her melt the hiding snowflakes one by one as she finds them.
Elementary School Winter Projects
Elementary teachers can assign even more involved water cycle projects such as shadow boxes or diagrams that can be constructed by students at home and presented in front of the class. Another idea would be to have the children produce a water cycle play and perform it in front of other classes or parents.
Other water cycle activities can include setting up a rain gauge outside when wet weather is expected, or discussing perspiration (animals sweating) versus transpiration (plants sweating). Bring a vaporizer into class and have students observe condensation and evaporation first hand.
Prevent the winter doldrums from hitting the classroom this year by actively engaging students in a water cycle lesson plan using books, TV shows, and water cycle themed activities that will teach them how remarkable and entertaining science can be.
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