Unit 3.

Water
Water is essential for all life on Earth. most of the planet is covered in water,
but less than 3% is fresh water, which is the type plants need for growing
and animals need for drinking. The other type of water is salt water, which is
contained in our seas and oceans.
Can you think of all the things we use water for?
How do we get water?

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Types of bodies of water

SPRING OCEAN

FRESH WATER SEA

ICE CAPS GROUNDWATER

Questions
1. What percentage of the Earths water is salt water? where can we find it?

2. Why does the sea look blue if water is transparent?

3. How many parts of a river can you name?

4. What can we see in the photographies?

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River Mio

Questions
1. Read the definitions below and match them to
the correct term: river basin, spring, tributary,
source, rain

1. The starting point of Mio river is Sierra de

Meira. The starting point of a river is

2. The Sil feeds the Mio river. A smaller river that feeds into a bigger river is a

3. The area in which a river and its tributaries flow is called

4. Precipitation that falls from the clouds in the sky is

5. A natural flow of underground water that reaches the surface is a

Look at the table and answer the questions.

1. Complete the chart with the missing information. Then add information about the
longest river in Spain.

2. Does the longest river have the fastest flow? which column gives you this information?

3. Which countries does the River Nile flow through? Which continent is the river located
on?

Average flow
Length
Name Location (cubic metres /
(kilometres)
second)

Nile Africa 1.584

Amazon South America 6.400 180.000

Yangtze 6.240 35.000

North America 6.192 17.545

Volga Europe 3.680 8.000

500

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Bodies of water
If you look at a map, you will see that most of our planet is covered in water.
no wonder it is called the blue planet!
Bodies of water range in size from enormous oceans to small streams and
everything in between.

Oceans

An ocean is a large body of salt water.

Though all the Earths oceans physically

blend together, we think of them as five
separate entities: the Pacific, Atlantic,
Indian, Southern and Arctic oceans.

Seas
A sea is a large body of salt water similar to
oceans, but smaller.
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There are approximately 70 seas in the world. Some of the most important include the
Mediterranean Sea, the South China Sea, and the Bering Sea.

Lakes
Lakes are large encloses bodies of fresh water. Can you name any Spanish lakes?

Rivers
A river is water that flows over the ground, usually towards a body of water, such an
ocean, lake or another river.

Questions
1. Explain the dierence between a sea and an ocean.

2. Why is the Earth known as the blue planet?

3. Which seas and oceans from the text are on the map. Which continent can we see?

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River basin

Rivers contain fresh water.

A river basin describes all the land a river flows through.

A riverbed is the ground a river flows over.

A river that flows into another river is called tributary.

Rivers that flow into seas flow into a drainage basin. this is an area of sea or ocean
where rivers meet. for example the drainage basin for the river Mio is the Atlantic
Ocean.

We talk about rivers in three stages. each stage refers to a certain type of flow and
landscape.

1. Upper course: here a river is fast-flowing and travels down a steep slope, away from
the source.

2. Middle course:
here it flows more
slowly on gentle slopes
and plains. it also
meanders, forms a
bend in the river.

3. Lower course: here

the river widens as it
nears the sea or lake,
forming an estuary,
and its flow is much
slower.

Activities:
4. Find images of the rivers in all three stages. do the stages look very dierent
physically? if so, how?

5. Research which rivers in Spain have the Atlantic Ocean as their drainage basin.

6. Find out about a Galician river. Which stages of the river can you see? where is its
source and its mouth? Does it have a drainage basin?

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Rivers in Spain

Thousands of rivers flow across the Iberian Peninsula, but most of them are
quite small and dry up during the summer months. Some of Spain largest
rivers flow for hundreds of kilometres through many villages, towns and
cities. These rivers are used for agriculture, such as for irrigating fruit and
vegetables. they also provide both wild animals and people with drinking
water.

Questions
1. Which river only flows throng one autonomous community?

2. Look at the map. which rivers form parto of the border with Portugal?

3. Which rivers flow towards the Atlantic Ocean? Which rivers flow towards the
Mediterranean Sea?

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From the source to the estuary

The major rivers begin high in

the summits of the mountain
ranges of Spain. Each river
begins at a dierent source
and travels across Spain to its
mouth, located in one of the
major bodies of water
surrounding the Iberian
Peninsula.

The Mio river is the longest

river in Galicia (Spain) with a
length of 340 km. Its source is
in Serra de Meira in the
province of Lugo and its
mouth is in the Atlantic
ocean, in the province of
Pontevedra and Portugal. Its
main tributaries are Sil, Avia
and Arnoia. It is used to
produce hydroelectric power and to water vineyards and farmland. There are also man
made reservoirs, for example Belesar, Peares and Castrelo. It is a not navigable river.

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 River Source Route Estuary

Sierra de Albarracn Castilla-La Maancha,

Tajo Atlantic Ocean
(Sistema Central) Extermadura, Portugal

Cantabria, Castilla y
Pico Tres Mares
Len, La Rioja, Pas
Ebro (Cordillera Mediterranean sea
Vasco, Navarra, Aragn,
Cantbrica)
Catalua

Picos de Urbin
Duero Castilla y Len, Portugal Atlantic Ocean
(Sistema Ibrico)

Sierra de Cazorla
Guadalquivir Andaluca Atlantic Ocean
(Cordillera Btica)

Questions:
4. Which river flows through the city of Sevilla and creates Spain only commercial river
port?

5. Find the rivers on the map that are not in the chart above and complete the
information about them.

6. Rivers are very important for agriculture and drinking water. find out what else we use
rivers for.
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The water cycle

The constant movement of water around the Earth is called the water cycle.
this cycle includes the changes of state of water, and how this water travels
over land, in bodies of water and in the atmosphere. lets look at each phase
of the water cycle in detail.

Evaporation

Heat from the Sun warms the water in seas, oceans, rivers and lakes. this causes some of
the water to evaporate.

Plants also contribute to this process through transpiration. this is when they lose water
through their leaves.

Condensation
The water vapor in the air rises and cools. As it cools, it turns into water droplets and ice,
which form clouds.

Clouds appear white because the water droplets reflect light. the darker the cloud looks,
the more water droplets it contains.

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Precipitation

The water droplets constantly move around within the cloud. when they bump into each
other, they combine and grow in size.

When these droplets become bigger, they become too heavy to stay in the cloud and fall
to the ground as precipitation.

Some of the ice on mountain tops and in the ice caps skips the melting phase and
evaporates directly into the air. This is called sublimation (is the transition of a
substance directly from the solid to the gas phase without passing through the liquid
phase).

Collection
This precipitation falls and collects in bodies of water such as rivers and lakes.it also falls
on the ground and is absorbed by the soil. this is called groundwater.

Rivers and groundwater carry this water back to the seas and oceans, where it evaporates
all over again.

Questions
1. Find out at what temperature water changes from a liquid into a solid and from a liquid
into a gas.

2. Investigate the reason why rain clouds look darker than white clouds.

3. How much of the Earth fresh water is stored in glaciers and ice caps?

4. Investigate what causes sublimation. Which stage does sublimation miss out?

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Groundwater
Many people do not realize that a very large amount of water lies below the
Earth surface. in fact, there is more water underground than in all the world
rivers and lakes combined.
This water formas when the ground absorbs precipitation. it sinks down into
the ground and collects in the holes and spaces in the rock to form
groundwater.

The water travels through the soil by finding routes in porous rocks (rocks with holes in
them).

Water sinks into the ground and collects to form aquifers. These are underground
collections of water.

Most aquifers lie in layers of saturated soil that lie above impermeable rock (rocks that do
not have any holes in them).

Most groundwater flows back into rivers, lakes and oceans.

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Accessing groundwater

There are both natural and man-made

ways of accessing groundwater.

Natural springs occur when two layers

of impermeable rock trap groundwater
and cause so much pressure that the
water is forced upwards to the surface.

Man-made wells are holes dug into the

ground to access groundwater. water
pumps are sometimes used to create
more pressure to bring water to the
surface.

Questions
1. Write the definition of aquifer. What does saturated mean?

2. What is the dierence between a lake and groundwater?

3. Where does the water that forms groundwater come from? How does it travel through
the ground?

4. Find out what the boundary between groundwater and unsaturated soil is called. Why
is it important to know where it is?

5. Investigate how groundwater can become polluted. Can we prevent this? if so, how?

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Find out. Make a river basin
Idea: we can make a model of our own river basin (Mio basin)

Materials

iPads apps

Plasticine (green, blue, brown and white)

Cardboard

Toothpicks

Strips of paper

Pencil

Sticky tape

Process/carry out
Look up information of the Mio river basin.

Organize the information

Draft the river basin

Make a model showing the dierent parts of the river.

1. Draw the outline of a river basin onto the cardboard.

2. Stick on green, blue, and brown plasticine for the land, water and relief. Add as many
details as you want.

3. Lastly, use the paper, toothpicks and sticky tape to label the dierent parts of the river
basin.

Follow up

1. How does the landscape change along the course of the river? where is the relief
highest?

2. Where in the river basin would you plant crops? Why?

3. Have you added snow to your model? Where would you add a waterfall?

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Review
1. Copy and complete

2. Copy and complete the sentences

Slowly estuary source lower course meander upper course

a. A river flows fast in ints ___________ and travels away form its___________.

b. When it reaches its middle course, it flows more ___________ on plains and begins
to___________.

c. In its___________, the river widens as it nears the sea or lake, forming an___________.
Here it flows very slowly.

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3. Match. Then write full sentences in your notebook.

a. Groundwater

b. Aquifers

c. Springs

1.___________ are pockets of water that develop where precipitation collects in the
ground.

2.___________ Emerge when water is pushed back to the surface.

3.___________ is water that exists underground.

4. Work in your groups. Order the words in the questions and then answer them.
The fast finisher say. FINISH!

a. sea/is/what/a?

b. river/parts/of/name/four/a

c. water/of/three/are/what/the/states?

d. five/all/name/oceans

e. longest/is/world/in/river/the/ what/the?

f. rivers/ Spain/name/five/in

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Term 1 Review
Read the quiz and write the answer in your notebook

1. Who first proud that the earth was round?

2. How long does it take the Moon to orbit the Earth?

3. What was the name of the first animal which went into space? What type of animal
was she?

4. Name four types of precipitation

5. List three types of wind on the Beaufort Wind Scale.

6. Name three types of cloud and the type of weather they bring.

7. What do we call the stage of the water cycle in which clouds form?

8. List the worlds five oceans.

9. What do we call water that collects underground?

CONTEST

Get into teams. Take it in turns to guess what the other team is talking about.

Team 1
1. This word means equal night
2. This line of latitude divides the
Earth into two hemispheres.
3. This word describes the amount of
water vapor present in the air.
4. On this scale, water freezes at 0.
5. A large enclosed body of fresh water.
6. All the land through which a river
flows.
Team 2
1.The rise and fall in seas and oceans
caused by the Moon and Sun.
2. This line of longitude is the standard
agains which all the wold clocks are set.
3. The measure of how hot or cold
something is.
4. On this scale, water freezes at 32.
5. A body of salt water that is similar to
an ocean, but smaller.
6. An area of sea or ocean that rivers
flow into.

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