Water is very important. Even little children know it. That’s why today we focus on: WATER SOURCES, WATER USES and WATER CYCLE.
STEP 1 – BRAINSTORMING
Why is water so important? To drink, to wash, to clean, to water the plants,…
Let’s watch together the beautiful song about water created by Sesame Street: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CwpHMPH-WbM
You should stop the song when necessary and explain. The kids will learn new vocabulary: RIVER, SEA, WELL, ISLAND, POOL, DRINK, CLOUDS, RAIN, SHOWER, BATH, WASH, CLEAN, FISH, PUDDLE, FIREMAN, GARDEN, BOAT, WATERFALL, SNOW.
To fix the new words well in the memory, you can play a Memory game with some pictures from the song (at each turning a card, the student should say the corresponding word):
https://www.freememorygame.com/?dn=WATER%20from%20SESAME%20STREET%20WATER%20SONG
STEP 2 – WATER CYCLE
Where does the water come from? Where does the water in the river come from? And the water in our bathroom?
Another beautiful video, this time by Dr.Binocs, explaining the WATER CYCLE (you have to stop the video often and explain the unknown words, key words and steps of the water cycle): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ncORPosDrjI
Now the kids are ready to draw their own water cycle picture in their exercise books (the teacher draws on the blackboard, just to make sure they do not forget any important step 🙂 )
N.B. Just like me, you can bring with you an electric water boiler and a glass pot lid to demonstrate the condensation of the water steam.
STEP 3 – WATER CYCLE CRAFT
An amusing way to make it easier to remember the water cycle. Our little friend, the water drop, travels from the cloud to the river and back to the cloud. A very simple craft.
It’s nothing else than a paper clock where its one hand makes our water drop travel around the “clock”.
What you need:
– paper plate
– one copy of the water cycle template (see pdf enclosed below)
– sampleclips
– colours, scissors, glue, paper punch
– tiny stripes of transparent hard plastic
– one sheet of blue rubber paper (for the water drop), better if self-adhesive
Attention: If, like me, you have a large class, I advise you strongly to prepare the water drops already fixed to the “clock hand” with a hole on the other side of the “clock hand”.
1/ Give one paper plate to each student. They shall write their name on the back of the plate! Also give them one copy of the water cycle template, which they shall colour. (Some kids prefer to draw the water cycle directly on the plate, that’s fine!) The coloured picture then must be cut out and glued on the proper paper plate.
2/ Let the kids decorate the borders of their paper plate as they like it.
3/ Make a small hole in the centre of the paper plate of each kid (use a mini hole punch and a pencil to enlarge it). In the end, fix the clock hand to the plate using a sampleclip.
N.B. To get hold of the hard transparent plastic, I used some hard plastic wrappings (pencils, felt-tip pens, plastic containers for take away food, etc) 🙂 .
Water cycle template: