Dakota State University

College of Education
LESSON PLAN

Name: ​Rachel Slaven

Grade Level: ​4
School: ​Oldham-Ramona Elementary
Date: ​4/12/2018
Time: ​2:00pm-3:00pm

Reflection from prior lesson:

In the previous lesson, we read and discussed the atmosphere.. The students really
seemed to grasp the idea, and at the end of the lesson they were able to converse with
their partners about the different layers of the atmosphere.

Lesson Goal(s) / Standards:

4-ESS2-2 ​Analyze and interpret data from maps to describe patterns of Earth’s
features.
4-ESS2-1​ Make observations and/or measurements to provide evidence of the effects
of weathering or the rate of erosion by water, ice, wind, or vegetation.

Lesson Objectives:
1. Students will understand the water cycle.
2. Students will describe the different stages within the water cycle.
3. Students will identify where each stage of the cycle falls in a concept map.

Materials Needed: ​.Promethean board, pencil, science books, water cycle worksheet,
plastic baggies, colored sharpies.

Contextual Factors/ Learner Characteristics: ​There are 9 students in this class. At

2:00 they will just have gotten back inside from recess, so it may take them a few
minutes to get focused again!
A. The Lesson
1. Introduction (5 minutes)
● getting attention-​ ​I will welcome the students back to class, and ask them to
get their pencils out, so we can start working on science.
● relating to past experience and/or knowledge-​ ​I will ask the students to
remind me about what we talked about the previous day in science. I am
looking for them to talk about the different layers of the atompshere, and to
descibe each one individually.
● creating a need to know-​ ​Today we are going to learn about the water cycle!
● sharing objective, in general terms-​ ​Our goal today is going to be to learn
all about what the water cycle means and what each stage of the cycle looks
like.
2. Content Delivery (40 minutes)
● Review-​ ​We will start by further reviewing the atmosphere. I will draw the
different layers on the board. I will also ask for student volunteers to come up and
fill in information about each of the specific layers.
● Water Cycle Reading-​ ​We will be reading about the water cycle out of the
student textbooks. We will read from page D14-D18. I will stop throughout the
reading to check for comprehension. I will ask for students to volunteer to read,
and then we will take turns going back and forth.
● Water Cycle In a Bag-​ ​We will begin working on a short science demonstration. I
will give each student a plastic baggie. The students will then use sharpie
markers to draw the “ocean”, clouds, sun, and precipitation onto their bags. They
will also label each stage of the water cycle. Then when the students are finished
I will fill the bottom up with water. Once everyone’s is complete I will tape them
up onto the window. We will let them sit over the weekend and then examine
them on Tuesday. (Inside the bag we will start to see the water cycle taking
place).
● Water Cycle Worksheet- ​With the time remaining at the end of class, students
will work with a partner to start the water cycle worksheet. We will finish whatever
doesn’t get finished on Monday.

3. Closure (5 minutes)
We will have a short class discussion about what the students learned about the water
cycle. I will ask for student volunteer(s) to come up and draw the water cycle diagram
on the promethean board.
B. Assessments Used
For this lesson I will use formative assesment, both formal and informal. Throughout the
entire lesson I will be listening to the student discussions during the water cycle project.
I will be formally assessing the students by collecting the worksheets to see how well
they were able to answer the questions.

C. Differentiated Instruction
With this being such a small class, there isn’t a need for a lot of differentiation. There
are a few students who are more advanced and finish tasks more quickly. However, in
this lesson, everyone should pretty much be on the same page.

D. Resources
1. Houghton Mifflin 4th grade science curriculum