Book choices for today:

All Along the River    Allan Fowler
What is a River?   Monica Hughes
Clouds   Marion Bauer
Rain   Marion Bauer
Hello Clouds   Dalia Renberg
Down Comes the Rain   Branley
I Get Wet   Vicki Cobb

Geography: (first circle)

Need for lesson – Pictures of a stream, river, pond and lake, and Parts of a River.

Geography 22
We have talked about the ways land can look on our continent with plateaus, plains, hills, and mountains. We learned about oceans and how they are the large bodies of water around the continents. Water can be found on the continents also. When we turn on the faucet at school or at home water comes out. We call it running water. It is moving so we call it running or flowing water. On continents we can find running, flowing water.
When it rains, or ice and snow melts to water, the water starts to run and flow down mountains and hills. When a small bit of water starts to flowing, it is called a stream. If streams run together they get bigger and bigger and then it is called a river. Rivers are wide with running water.
A lake is a lot of water with land all around it. It doesn’t have running water. The water in a lake is standing still. A pond is a little bit of standing water with land around it. Lakes are big and ponds are small, both have standing water in them.
We are going to to look at the parts of a river.

River Pictures (Creative Teaching Press)

Parts of a River Chart and Booklet (JustMontessori.com)

Science: (second circle)

Need for lesson – Water Cycle Chart

Science 29
We learned about some of the places on the earth were we find water. Can you tell me some of them? Oceans, lakes, streams, rivers, and ponds. The earth has a limited amount of water . That water just keeps going around and around. This is called the water cycle. The water cycle is made up of a few main parts.
Evaporation is when the sun heats up the water in lakes, rivers, and oceans and turns it into vapor or steam. The water vapor leaves the water and goes up into the air. The water vapor in the air gets cold and changes back into a liquid and forms clouds. This is called condensation. When there is so much condensation in the air and clouds get so heavy that they can’t hold the water in them anymore and it falls back to the earth. This is called precipitation. It may fall back as rain, snow, or hail. This rain or snow falls back into the rivers, streams and other water sources on the earth. The water cycle happens again and again. Isn’t that amazing!

Water Cycle (JustMontessori.com)

I found this water cycle bag at Target I believe. You add water to it sand watch as the condensation build on the inside. Great find!

Additional Works:

Making a Cloud – Children can make a cloud full of ‘condensation’ until it rains. On a tray have cotton ball, an eye dropper, pitcher, and a small bowl for the dripping water. First children need to get some water with the pitcher. Children take a cotton ball and hold it over the bowl and adds drops of water on it, one at time, until it is full and ‘rains’.

Make a Cloud

Songs/Poems:

The Raindrops and the Water Cycle (by Zane Good)

A cloud is the place where all the little raindrops gather.
They love to be together, but the cloud gets too heavy and they have to leave.
This is called condensation.

When there are too many, the raindrops all jump from the cloud and race to the ground.
They all try to stay together, but as they fall they separate.
This is precipitation. We usually call this rain.

This is good since some fall on plants and trees, and other fill puddles, ponds, and lakes.
The raindrops get bored of being still, and jump into the river.
There are so many raindrops flowing in the river, it grows and grows.
This is called runoff.

The river eventually runs into the ocean, and all the raindrops play.
The ocean is so big, but the raindrops love all the room they have to gather.
Have you ever seen the ocean filled with so many raindrops?
This is called accumulation.

They play for a long time, and there are so many raindrops there.
The sun is so bright, and it makes them so hot, they start to get lighter and float in the air.
They turn into water vapor, which is called evaporation.

Each raindrop floats into the sky with all his friends and form more groups inside a cloud.
The cloud fills up with all the raindrops and again they jump down to start their trip again.
This is called the water cycle.

Little Raindrop Story