XU Childhood Education and Literacy Lesson Plan – Middle and Early Childhood Education

Name Maiya Espinosa, Hannah Rapp, & Michaela Hartman

Topic(s) the water cycle, erosion, and flooding

Summary After being informed about the riverfront flooding in downtown cincinnati
and a recap of the water cycle by a meteorologist, the class will be
reminded of the water cycle and what helps flooding due to erosion and
excess rain. Children will work together in a cooperative group to create
a solution to solving the flooding problem in Cincinnati (levees). They will
receive materials to create a small body of water. They will predict what
will happen as the water rises without a levee and what will happen with
a levee. They will learn how levees work and how it could help the
flooding caused by the water cycle and erosion.
Subject(s)* Science

Grade/Level* 4th Grade

Time Frame A week

Context of the Lesson ● Students are to understand how the water cycle works and how
flooding can occur
● students are to understand erosion
● Students are to be in groups of 4-5 to brainstorm and work
together to find a solution to help flooding
● In future lessons, students will be expected to fully understand the
water cycle and its effects and build upon it

STANDARDS AND KEY CONCEPTS

Ohio New Learning 4.ESS.2: The surface of Earth changes due to weathering.
Standards* The water cycle causes excess rain that allows water to flood the river
causing erosion. This is where levees come in hand because they will act
as river walls that can hold back more water.

Student Objectives Students will be able to…

● rewrite the water cycle
● explain how levees work
● apply their knowledge of the water cycle to problem solving
techniques in our community through their projects
● collaborate in groups to brainstorm and create a technique to
solve the flooding
● present their understanding of how levees can fix flooding due to
erosion
PERFORMANCE TASKS AND ASSESSMENT
Performance Activities/ ACTIVITIES/PROCEDURES:
Procedures
 1. Have students write what they know, what they want to learn, and
Sequence of Activities learned about the water cycle on the smartboard.
Essential Questions 2. review the water cycle and watch the meteorologist video
(provided below)
3. assign students into groups of 4-5
4. Instruct students to come up with a realistic way they could use
levees to prevent flooding on the riverfront. Encourage students to
ask each other questions. Students should try to work through their
project as a group, before the teacher should intervene.
5. Once the students come up with their plan they are to tell the
teacher. Each group should say the levee can hold back higher
levels of water. They will then get materials for their experiment.
6. The experiment should be testing a body of water with a levee.
They should come to the conclusion that adding more water to a
body of water without a levee will cause flooding. Once they
prove this they will clean up their materials and clean up any
spillage and get an exit slip.
7. The exit slips should be done individually and turned in before
leaving for class.

ESSENTIAL QUESTIONS:
How do levees hold back large bodies of water?
How did the river flood downtown?
Is it possible that the river could dry out?
is it possible that the erosion could get worse?
Assessment/Rubrics Identify and document the instrument used to assess your students from
the teaching of this lesson (e.g. Observation Checklist/Rubric/ Exit Slip).
To measure that students have gotten the proper knowledge to
understand the water cycle and erosion, they will receive an exit slip that
asks students to fill in the blanks to the steps of the water cycle that is
provided images through each step. They will then answer a follow up
question about what causes flooding and how we can prevent it. (all
information they just obtained through their experiment and in the
lesson). Assigning roles when being put in to groups would be a good
way to keep track of this and making sure each students expresses
learning growth at least once throughout the project

● A complete and accurate exit slip will provide complete

knowledge of the water cycle
● A partially complete and partially accurate water cycle will need
some reteaching and confirming knowledge by thinking back to
our video and experiment
 ● No understanding and lack of any completion of the exit slip will
result in 1-on-1 lesson with the teacher and then retrying the exit
slip individually

Differentiated Students who fully understand can be challenged by helping and

Instruction teaching students who are struggling to understand the water cycle and
how levees can help flooding. Advanced students could also do their
own research in free time to learn about more communities that have
been affected by the water cycle. Special needs students and students
at-risk of failing can show their demonstration of learning through verbal
communication with the teacher who could attend to these students.
Either way, all students will be able to comprehend the knowledge to
complete the exit slip once the class is dismissed or the student has had
their one on one interaction with the teacher.

Technology Integration ● Using the SMART board for a KWL chart about the water cycle and
erosion
● Students can all access this google doc to express what they
learned, liked, and disliked about this lesson and add a picture
describing their feelings.
● Using the SMART board for If some students finish before others,
they can use the website Water Cycle Front. This website allows
children to go to different bodies of water and learn about how
they gain or lose water.

Resources/Materials RESOURCES: Water Cycle for Kids, Water Cycle Front, Meteorologist Kevin
Robinson, Erosion Article

Water Cycle for Kids | #aumsum #kids #education #science #learn. (2014,
December 27). Retrieved October 18, 2018, from https://youtu.be/9pqh6tlEOhs,

Project WET Foundation - The Blue Traveler. (n.d.). Retrieved from

http://www.discoverwater.org/blue-traveler/

MATERIALS: https://youtu.be/e4DxUTyestU