Today's lesson begins with the students checking their cups. I ask them the same question that has been asked each day, "What is happening to our water?"  Following the discussion I tell the students, "Today we will find out where our water is going."

I will give each student a wet sponge to wipe across several chalkboards. One section will have a heater (sun) next to it. Another section will have a fan (wind) blowing on it. The last section will dry naturally. As the sections dry, I will have the kids watch and put the 3 sections  in ordinal positions. (The fan will dry first, the heat will dry second and the natural will take quite a while.) Which element dries the fastest? Was anyone surprised? This experiment is followed by discussion.

I asked the students, "Where did the water from the board go?" "I think it goes to the same place as the water from the cups and from puddles, etc."
 

• Link to Lesson

TIME: 5 minutes

• Reviewing the Water Cycle
• Helping the students make the connections.

I will have the students gather in a semi circle around me. They sit on the floor and I will show them a container of water on the floor. I will ask them to pretend it is a lake, river, puddle or their cups. We are going to create a water cycle of our own. (I will review the concept of 6 water droplets are needed to create 1 raindrop.) I will use a spoon to simulate the water rising from the wind and heat. I will explain the large blue sponge in my hand is a cloud. We will review the facts we have learned about clouds and how they get dark and heavy on the bottom before it rains.

How many spoonfuls of water will it take before it rains? Have the students predict the outcome. As I add each spoonful of water, the students  will count each spoonful as they are added to the sponge. The amount of water the sponge will hold is a surprise to the students and teacher.

After this experiment and our classroom discussion, we will review the water cycle using tag board cards with the following terms; precipitation, evaporation, condensation and heat (matching the bulletin board). The pictures and terms will match the bulletin board. I will pass these out along with a tag board picture of a sun, 3 clouds (a small, a large and a dark cloud) and a picture of the wind.  We put them in sequence order and review the water cycle. We will do it several times, making sure each student will get a turn.

Again I will ask the question, "Where did our cups of water go?"
EVAPORATION !!!!!! (This is the answer I hope for)

I end this experiment by giving each student a small sponge. They will take the sponge outside and see how many spoonfuls of water it will take until their sponge (cloud) rains.

MATERIALS NEEDED: A container with water. A large sponge. A spoon. (Students) Small sponges. Spoons. Several small containers of water.
TIME: 20 minutes 
 
 

RAIN   OR   SHINE ?

TIME: 2 minutes
MATERIALS: A map of the United States.
 
 

After the lesson today we can discuss our imaginary trip to Disneyland. Showing a map of the United States, I will ask, "Is there any one who can point out Anaheim, California on our map? How about Wittmann, Arizona? I will point out how a storm would travel from the west to the east. These two questions will conclude this activity.
"Now that we know about clouds, why would a cloud rain while it is over Disneyland and the same cloud not rain over Wittmann?"
"Should we pack for a sunny or cloudy weekend?"

TIME: 2 minutes
 
 

We will conclude our unit with a group discussion.  We will discuss our terrarium, our classroom temperature and weather graphs, our experiments and our bulletin board showing the water cycle.

TIME: 10 minutes