Today we had a demonstration of the water cycle. Mrs. Shultzman used a model to show the students how the water cycle works. We got to see the whole cycle by the end of the day. Our concentration was on learning the three important processes of the cycle: evaporation, condensation, and precipitation. We reviewed how important the sun is to our weather. It provides the energy for the water cycle. We used a lamp to show how the sun heats up water and then condenses to make clouds. Eventually the clouds get so full of water they explode producing precipitation. The students were able to relate the water cycle to many real life examples including our own dew point experiment. We also read about the water cycle and reviewed the steps with a diagram.
We continued to work on our mini-quilts in social studies. Many students were able to complete the project and I got to display some of them. They have done a really nice job. I noticed it was very difficult for some students to put their ideas together to form a paragraph connecting the vocabulary words. We did a lot of brainstorming and sequencing to help organize the paragraphs. The students have worked very hard. I was able to really see how much they learned in this unit.