A First Look
Water
Teacher’s Guide
Grade Level: K-2
Curriculum Focus: Physical Science
Lesson Duration: Two class periods
Program Description
Water—Water is all around us. Oceans, rivers, streams, lakes, and ponds cover most of the Earth’s
surface. Water explores the difference between freshwater and saltwater and explains why humans
need to use water resources wisely. The program describes the water cycle, in which water
evaporates from oceans, condenses into clouds, and returns to the Earth’s surface as snow, sleet,
and rain. This video also introduces young viewers to the three states of matter—liquid, gas, and
solid—and encourages scientific exploration by demonstrating several age-appropriate
experiments.
Discussion Questions
•
Where do we find water?
•
How is freshwater different from ocean water?
•
How can we conserve water?
•
What is the water cycle?
Lesson Plan
Student Objectives
•
Discuss the basic characteristics of water.
•
Discuss freshwater and saltwater.
•
Discuss reasons to conserve water.
•
Summarize the water cycle.
•
Work in a group to demonstrate one phase of the water cycle.
Materials
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Water video
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Computer with Internet access
•
Print resources about water’s properties and bodies of water
Water
Teacher’s Guide
2
Procedures
1. Review with students places to find water. Discuss examples from the video, such as oceans,
lakes, rivers, streams, ponds, and glaciers. How is water in a glacier different from water in a
lake? Discuss the water components in humans, animals, fruits, and vegetables. As an example,
compare a dehydrated fruit, such as a dried apricot, to a fresh version of the same fruit. What is
the difference between the dried fruit and the fresh fruit? What do students think the word
dehydrated means?
2. Ask students how freshwater is different from ocean water. Can we drink ocean water? What
would happen to our bodies if we drank saltwater? Where can we find freshwater? Is all
freshwater safe to drink? Why or why not? Discuss how pollution can affect the quality of our
drinking water. Why is it important to conserve water? What can students do to conserve
water?
3. Pointing to a map of the United States, ask students to guess which bodies of water contain
saltwater or freshwater. Record their responses. Examples include
•
Mississippi River (freshwater)
•
Lake Michigan (freshwater)
•
Atlantic Ocean (saltwater)
•
Missouri River (freshwater)
•
Gulf of Mexico (freshwater)
•
Pacific Ocean (saltwater)
•
Lake Superior (freshwater)
•
San Francisco Bay (saltwater)
•
Tampa Bay (saltwater)
4. Review with students the water cycle, including the three main stages: evaporation,
condensation, and precipitation. Define precipitation for students. What causes water in the
oceans to evaporate? Can water evaporate from other bodies of water? What happens to the
water when it condenses and cools? Where does the water go when the clouds produce rain or
snow? The water cycle is a continuous process. What does that mean?
5. Divide students into three teams. Ask each team to prepare a presentation demonstrating one
phase of the water cycle. Teams may develop their own idea for a presentation or choose from a
list of activities that you provide. (Students may create a poster on their topic as well as a
presentation.) Possible activities include the following:
•
showing what happens to a dish of water after some or all of the water has evaporated
•
creating condensation by putting crushed ice in a glass
•
creating an artificial rainfall with a watering can to demonstrate how precipitation
collects in bodies of water and sinks into the soil
Published by Discovery Education. © 2005. All rights reserved.
Water
Teacher’s Guide
3
Have students use print and Web resources to research their topics. The following Web sites are
good starting points:
•
Hydrologic/Water Cycle
http://www.und.nodak.edu/instruct/eng/fkarner/pages/cycle.htm
•
EPA: Drinking Water
http://www.epa.gov/region07/kids/drnk_b.htm
•
What’s it Like Where You Live (With links to water cycle and water ecosystems)
http://mbgnet.mobot.org/fresh/index.htm
•
The Water Cycle
http://library.thinkquest.org/11353/water.htm
•
NASA: Three States of Matter
http://www.grc.nasa.gov/WWW/K-12/airplane/state.html
•
Web Weather for Kids
http://www.ucar.edu/educ_outreach/webweather/
6. Have teams present their demonstrations to the rest of the class. Ask each team to include at
least three interesting facts about the water cycle in the presentation, to discuss the water cycle
as it pertains to the demonstration, and to answer any questions class members may have.
Assessment
Use the following three-point rubric to evaluate students’ work during this lesson.
•
3 points: Students were highly engaged in class discussions; worked effectively in a group
to produce a complete demonstration, including all of the requested information and at least
three interesting facts about the water cycle.
•
2 points: Students participated in class discussions; worked in a group to produce an
adequate demonstration, including most of the requested information and two interesting
facts about the water cycle.
•
1 point: Students participated minimally in class discussions; did not participate fully in a
group to produce a demonstration or produced an incomplete demonstration with little or
none of the requested information and no interesting facts about the water cycle.
Vocabulary
boil
Definition: To change from a liquid to a gas by the application of heat
Context: Boiling liquid water creates water vapor.
condensation
Definition: The process of changing from a gas to a liquid
Published by Discovery Education. © 2005. All rights reserved.
Water
Teacher’s Guide
Context: By the early morning, condensation covered the windows.
evaporation
Definition: Process of changing from a liquid to a gas
Context: Putting wet clothes out on a clothesline allows the clothes to dry through evaporation.
freshwater
Definition: Water that is not salty
Context: Freshwater from lakes and streams must remain safe to drink.
gas
Definition: State of matter in which a substance has no definite shape or volume
Context: Water vapor is H2O in the form of a gas.
ice
Definition: Water in its solid state
Context: Much of the Earth’s freshwater supply is in the form of ice.
liquid
Definition: State of matter in which a substance flows and takes the shape of the container into
which it is put
Context: H2O in its liquid form is called water.
solid
Definition: State of matter in which a substance has a definite shape and volume
Context: Water in its solid form is called ice.
water cycle
Definition: Cycle in which water evaporates from oceans and other bodies of water and then
condenses and falls to the Earth’s surface as rain, snow, or sleet
Context: The water cycle prevents the oceans from drying up.
water vapor
Definition: Water in the form of a gas
Context: When steam from boiling water mixes with the air around it, it is called water vapor.
Published by Discovery Education. © 2005. All rights reserved.
4
Water
Teacher’s Guide
5
Academic Standards
National Academy of Sciences
The National Academy of Sciences provides guidelines for teaching science in grades K–12 to
promote scientific literacy. To view the standards, visit this Web site:
http://books.nap.edu/html/nses/html/overview.html#content.
This lesson plan addresses the following national standards:
•
Physical Science: Properties of objects and materials
Mid-continent Research for Education and Learning (McREL)
McREL’s Content Knowledge: A Compendium of Standards and Benchmarks for K–12 Education
addresses 14 content areas. To view the standards and benchmarks, visit
http://www.mcrel.org/compendium/browse.asp.
This lesson plan addresses the following national standards:
•
Science—Physical Sciences: Understands the structure and properties of matter
•
Language Arts—Viewing: Uses viewing skills and strategies to understand and interpret
visual media
Support Materials
Develop custom worksheets, educational puzzles, online quizzes, and more with the free teaching tools
offered on the DiscoverySchool.com Web site. Create and print support materials, or save them to a
Custom Classroom account for future use. To learn more, visit
http://school.discovery.com/teachingtools/teachingtools.html.
Credit
Robyn Kurth, freelance writer
Published by Discovery Education. © 2005. All rights reserved.