Singin’ In the Rain (or Snow or...) By Tom Wright, Naturalist, LA County Outdoor Science School, Wrightwood

Ah yes the rainy season cometh. No, no... this is not time to fret, it is time to rejoice in the life giving moisture that brings renewed life to our natural ecosystems. Sing a song of praise and revel in the moisture, then if too cold for the students, move inside to do further teaching. Yes of course one does need an arsenal of indoor activities, so here’s one for you that teaches about the marvelous moisture falling from the sky.

Personally, I always like to start with an outdoor segment to activities, and then move inside if it’s too wet to write, and/or too cold and the students start to “Maslow out” on me. Thus when teaching about the water cycle, I start with The Water Cycle Boogie, which covers the basics of the water cycle, is active, and a silly way to revel in the rain or snow.

To do the activity, get the group in a circle, and review the basic steps of the water cycle: evaporation, condensation, precipitation, and transportation. I also address infiltration, which is not part of the activity. Next teach the song and dance portion of the activity, whose words are: evaporation, condensation, precipitation, transportation, the water cycle boogie goes up and down, the water cycle boogie goes round and round. I’ve heard several tunes for this song, and seen various hand motions for the parts of the water cycle. I then split my group into two or three groups so that cabin leaders are in charge of the sub groups, and have them lead the song and dance. The song is sung over and over until each student has had a chance to run around their sub-group circles. The song is sung once, and then at the beginning of the first repeat, the leader runs around the circle, while the students sing and dance. As soon as the leader gets back to their spot, the student to their right starts running. This continues until all students have had a turn.

The sub-groups then reform into large group, and I ask if the water cycle is as simple as the boogie depicts. When it is determined that there is more to the water cycle, we move to the next water cycle activity, which is an adaptation of “Water Wonders” in Project Learning Tree. This adapted activity was presented by Michael Charnofsky at the fall 1999 AEOE conference, and can be done either inside or outside.

I start by surveying the students’ knowledge of the places on our “spaceship” that water is found. Prior to doing the water cycle boogie, I’ve already set the stage for studying some of the basic life support systems on our spaceship, Earth. At the end of the survey, I’ve lumped the water into seven groups: oceans, clouds, mountains, lakes and streams, plants, animals, and ground water.

Next, I demonstrate how the students will experience a more accurate model of the water cycle. This starts with entitling a blank page in their field journals “Water Cycle,” and then dividing the page into two columns, entitled “Place” and “What Happens.” The place column is roughly one third of the page, leaving the other two thirds for the what happens column. Then I tell the students that I will assign them a station to start at, and demonstrate. Once at the station, signified by a sign, the students will find a bag of cards. The students write down the name of the station under place, then randomly pick a card from the bag. The card tells the students what happened to them at that station, and what station they are to go to next. Basic cards are found in Project Learning Tree, but I have adapted these to fit my site better. The students will write down what happened in the appropriate column, and also what station they go to next in the place column. Then my cabin leader and I will check each students’ journal entry to make sure that it is in the prescribed form. The cards are then placed back into their bag and when I say “cycle”, the students will move to their next station. I go through these steps five times with the students telling me which steps to do next.

Once the students are all assigned a station in which to start, they each draw their own card, and are checked for the first three rotations. Then the students work at their own speed until they have taken and recorded eleven cards. A short processing session takes place when all of the students finish, after which story time begins.

The activity ends with each student choosing five consecutive things that happened to them as water drops, and writing a brief story about it. I give the students a story example using my original five station examples in order to show an appropriate level of creative license in their writing. The writing of the story can be done as homework, but I prefer having it written during a magic spot by a stream. Of course if the water cycle is precipitating upon you, an indoor magic spot might be preferable.