If you floated down a river, where would you end up?

Work of Water Unit

Lesson 2 of 6

Mapping: Mountains & Rivers

Lesson narration:

Activity Prep

In this lesson, students develop a model of the earth’s surface and use it to discover an important principle about how rivers work. In the activity, Paper Mountains, students take turns using a spray bottle to make rain fall on paper models of mountains to observe patterns of how water and rivers flow.

Vocabulary

  1. forest: a place with lots of trees

  2. pond: an area of still water, larger than a puddle, but smaller than a lake

  3. lake: a large area of water with land all around it

  4. ocean: a large area of salt water that covers the Earth

  5. river: a long, thin area of water that flows

  6. flow: to move along

  7. float: to rest on top of water without sinking

  8. stream: a small river

  9. map: a picture that shows the features of a place and where those features are

  10. pattern: something that happens again and again and again in a way that can be predicted

  11. plains: large areas of flat land with few trees

  12. hill: a high area of land that isn't as tall as a mountain

  13. mountain: a high area of land with steep sides

  14. rain: water drops that fall from clouds

  15. model: a pretend version of something that scientists use when the real thing is too big, small, or complicated to work with

  16. experiment: a test used to discover new information about a question

🎉 That’s it for this lesson! How did it go?