Lesson Plan: That Little Drop of Rain

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Tiffany L. Lossing

Water & Our Environment

Lesson Plan: That Little Drop of Rain

5th grade

Water & Our Environment

Inductive Lesson Plan:

That Little Drop of Rain

Michigan Standards and Benchmarks:

Science V.2.E 1Trace the path that rain water follows after it falls.

Purpose:

This lesson is designed for students to gain knowledge about the path rain follows once it has fallen. This is an important step in the water cycle which is discussed in the thematic unit Water and Our Environment. The unit Water and Our Environment looks at how water is important to our world and how it interacts with us.

Objectives:

Student will be able to describe the path rain taken after it has fallen.

Student will be able to use the internet to locate information on the key concepts of rain’s path.

Materials:

Computers with internet access

Pen/Pencil

Paper

PowerPoint presentation: That Little Drop of Rain

Duration:

1 hour

Set (Opening):

Using the blackboard to write their responses on, I will begin by asking students what they think happens to rain once it has fallen to the earth. I will write their responses on the board and ask the class, “do you think all of the rain goes to one of these places, or does it travel all over?” We will then discuss those answers.

I will then explain that we are going to view a PowerPoint presentation on the journey of a drop of rain and then follow that presentation by a web exploration about the journey of a drop of rain. Finally, students will be told that they will be assessed at the end of the lesson by drawing the path a drop of rain takes from the information they have discovered on their web exploration.

Provides clues/examples/data (checks for understanding):

Students will view the PowerPoint presentation “That Little Drop of Rain” which presents key concepts in looking at the path of a drop of rain.

Students will be asked to take notes during the presentation and focus on the key concepts. At the end of the presentation I will ask students if they have any questions.

It will then be explained that we will be going to the computer lab to complete a web exploration (internet scavenger hunt) about the path rain takes and its details. They will be asked to write down their answers for use when they return to class.

Draw conclusions/Debriefing:

Once we have returned from the computer lab, we will look at our blackboard to the list of brainstormed ideas of what happens to rain water. We will compare what we discovered on our web exploration to what we brainstormed.

Practice and assessment:

Students will then be asked to choose one path that rain takes and create a poster with an 11x14 piece of paper illustrating that path. Students will be asked to label that poster with any key terms they learned about the process.