Activity 1D: Let’s Make a Map
Overview
Review with students some of the things they observed on their Water Detective walk the day before. Students will return to the same area to draw a “map” that will show where the water is located.
Activity Type
Hands-On
Class Time
70 minutes
Level
Kindergarten
Location
Classroom, Large Space, Outside
Focus Question
- Can we show where the water is around us?
Enduring Understandings
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Living and nonliving things in Alaska waters come in a great assortment of colors, shapes, and sizes.
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Living things move, grow, and change.
Engage
10 minutes
Review with students some of the things they observed on their Water Detective walk the day before. Tell them that they will be going back to the same area to draw a “map” that will show where the water is located.
Explore
30 minutes
Distribute science notebooks for students to put in their backpacks. Go on a walk, returning to a place where you found water during the previous lesson. Allow each child to find his or her own space for making a map as well as an observational drawing of what they see, hear, and feel around them. Distribute pencils. Remind them to start with the date and a title. As students finish drawing and writing encourage them to share with a partner sitting next to them.
Explain
20 minutes
Complete the maps back in the classroom.
Model a science notebook page on chart paper. Ask questions: How did we get there? What was close by? What else can you add to your map? Suggest possible additions such as buildings, bridges, trees, rocks, and docks.
Allow time for students to complete their maps, and have each child share their map with a friend as they finish.
Gather the class together, and have students sit in a circle with their science notebooks on their laps. Ask students to share ideas from their maps, while you make a chart that records common elements from all maps. This is a great opportunity for students to learn from each other. List student ideas on a chart to model writing, and elements of a map.
Elaborate
10 minutes
Begin an O-W-L Chart with the students. Record the Observations: what students were able to see and possibly what they inferred from what they noticed (for example if they saw garbage in a creek, they might have inferred that the water was dirty or that people had been near the water).
Ask students: “Now that you’ve seen water in our backyard, what are some things you OBSERVED about water?” Tell them: “Later on we’ll come back to: What are some things you WONDER about water? Eventually we’ll document: What have we LEARNED about water?”
Evaluate
Notice which students are able to share observations of their work. Keep notes or a checklist so that you can make more explicit instruction available for those students who do not seem to be able to work independently.
Curricular Connections
Math. The Globe Toss activity helps students practice counting skills and introduces basic concepts of probability and statistics. Allow students to revisit this activity during center or choice time, and encourage students to collect additional data: are their hands touching mostly land or water? They can compare it with the class data chart.
Language Arts. Students develop speaking and listening skills, and begin to practice writing as they use labels with drawings.
Art. Students draw from their observations.
Additional connections to music and poetry can be made by bringing in a picture of the planet Earth from space, and song “Blue White Planet” by Raffi.
Teacher Needs
Teacher Prep
Read the Teacher Background for more information. Prior to Activity 1B, collect water from a local outdoor water source (ocean, river, or pond). Collect enough to fill 5 jars. (If you plan to do this as a science center activity instead of as a whole class activity, you may need only one jar of water). After completing the What’s in the Jars (1B) activity, place the jars of water in a sunny spot, and save them to use with the Take a Closer Look activity (1E).
For each table group, fill one jar with the water you collected and one jar with soil or rocks representing land.
Prior to Activity 1C, walk possible routes and decide where to take the students to find water in the neighborhood. Arrange for additional adult support as needed.
Science notebooks: Set up a page or two facing pages in the children’s science notebooks for Land and Water comparisons (1B), with spaces for a date, a title, and a drawing of each. Set up a page for making a map and drawing of neighborhood water (1D). Set up a page for recording observations of living things in the water (1E).
Materials List
- Inflatable globe
- Chart paper and markers
- 2-10 glass jars with lids
- Water from a local outdoor source such as a tidepool or pond.
- Soil, dirt, and/or rocks
- Science notebooks
- Pencils
- Book: Water by Frank Asch
- Clipboard
- Camera
- Magnifying glasses
Student Needs
Prior Knowledge
Children will have used their senses of touch, taste, smell, sight and hearing to explore the properties of water.
It is helpful if students have had prior experiences in their science notebooks. If not, students will need an introduction to science notebooks.
Students need to be able to listen to other children as well as to speak and participate in a large group.
Experience using a magnifying lens. They tend to put the lens next to their eye and lean close to the object being observed.
Vocabulary
Adult, data, detective, diatom, direction, environment, globe, larva, magnify, map, observation, ocean, phytoplankton, plankton, planet, tally, zooplankton
Words for local water, such as: creek, harbor, lagoon, pond, river, sea, slough
Standards
Science GLEs Addressed
- K-12 Standards A1, A2, B1, C3, G3
Ocean Literacy Principles
- The ocean supports a great diversity of life and ecosystems.