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Classroom activity Grade 2 Art & Music

Torn-Paper Water Map of Ripplewood Valley: A Grade 2 Collage

Four groups tear paper for the snow, river, pond, and town of a made-up valley, then join the pieces into one class map showing solid and liquid water.

Objectives

  1. Students will build one panel of a class model showing land and water in an area.
  2. Students will place torn white paper for solid water and torn blue paper for liquid water.
  3. Students will label the parts of the finished map and say where the water goes next.

Vocabulary

Key words: valley, peak, pond, solid, liquid, collage

Teacher overview

Ripplewood Valley is a made-up place built from four group panels that join into one long class map. No scissors are used, and that single constraint does most of the work, because a torn edge is soft and uneven and reads as water or rock better than a cut line does, and tearing does not favor the students with the steadiest hands. Each group of five or six builds one panel, and the panels sit in order from the snowy peak on the left to the town on the right, so the finished map reads as a route the water takes.

The color rule carries the science. White torn paper is only ever used for water that is solid, and blue torn paper is only ever used for water that is liquid, so choosing a color is already a claim about the water's form. A group that wants snow on the pond has to explain why, and that explanation is the science conversation.

Activity Directions

  1. Before class, tape the butcher paper along a wall or two tables at student height, and draw one light pencil line dividing it into four equal panels. Place the four labeled index cards, one at the top of each panel, in this order from left to right: Peak, River, Pond, Town.
  2. Gather the class in front of the blank map. Read aloud: "This is Ripplewood Valley. It has snow on top, a river, a pond, and a town. Water is in all four places. In some places it is hard and in some places it runs."
  3. Hold up a white sheet and a blue sheet. Read aloud: "White paper is for water that is solid. Blue paper is for water that runs. Brown, green, and gray are for the land." Tear one small white piece and one small blue piece in front of the class so the torn edge is seen.
  4. Divide the class into four groups and send each to its panel with paper and glue. Give the groups five minutes to talk before any gluing starts, which is the design stage. The Peak group builds the mountain with its snow patch, the River group builds the river running down through the rocks, the Pond group builds the pond and the marshy edge, and the Town group builds the houses, the water tank on its legs, and a puddle after rain.
  5. Groups tear and glue for eighteen minutes. Circulate and ask one group at a time: "Where does your water come from, and where does it go next?" Their answer has to point left and right at the neighboring panels, which is what makes the panels line up.
  6. Call a five-minute joining stage. Groups meet their neighbors at the pencil lines and add the pieces needed to connect the panels, such as the river crossing from panel two into the pond.
  7. Each student writes one label on the map with a marker, and every label ends with the word solid or the word liquid. No two students label the same feature.
  8. End the activity when all four panels are joined and labeled. Gather the class at the left edge and walk slowly to the right edge, tracing the water route with a finger while the class names each place aloud. Then have students complete the handout questions.
Torn-Paper Water Map of Ripplewood Valley: A Grade 2 Collage — Grade 2 Art & Music
Name: ____________________________ Date: ______________

Student Handout

  1. Name two places on our map where water is a liquid.
  2. Name one place on our map where water is a solid.
  3. Look at the edges of your torn paper. Tell one way a torn edge looks different from a cut edge.
  4. Where does the water in the pond come from? Write the name of the place it comes from.
  5. Draw a small arrow on your panel. Show which way the water moves. Which way does your arrow point, left or right?

From Water for Schools (waterforschools.org). This material is in the public domain (CC0) and may be copied, edited, and shared freely.

Answer Key
  1. Answer: The river and the pond. Accept any two of the river, the pond, the marsh edge, the puddle in the town, or the water in the tank, since all of these are liquid on this map.
  2. Answer: The snow on the peak. This is the only place on the map where white paper is allowed, and ice on the peak is an acceptable wording as well.
  3. Answer: A torn edge is soft and uneven. Accept any description of the edge being fuzzy, bumpy, rough, or wavy compared with the straight line a scissors cut leaves.
  4. Answer: The river. Water comes down from the snow on the peak, runs through the river panel, and collects in the pond, so either the river or the peak is correct if the student traces the route.
  5. Answer: Right. Water on this map moves from the peak on the left toward the town on the right, so arrows should point right or downhill toward the pond and town.

Differentiation

Support

Give these students a pre-torn pile of shapes in the correct colors for their panel, so the decision they make is placement rather than tearing and placement together. Assign them the label for a feature the group has already named aloud, and let them copy that word from a card. Seat them at the joining stage with a partner who can point to the neighboring panel.

Extension

Ask these students to add a fifth panel showing what happens to the water after the town, such as the pipe that carries used water away or the creek below the town, and to write two labels on it. They can also add a small key in the corner of the map, with a white square marked solid and a blue square marked liquid, and explain the key to the class during the closing walk.

ELL supports

Teach solid and liquid by handing each group an ice cube in a cup and a cup of water at the start of the tearing stage, so the two words attach to objects on the table. Post the six vocabulary words with a small sketch beside each on the wall above the map. Accept labels written in the home language with the English word solid or liquid added beside them during the closing walk.

Extensions

Photograph the finished map in four sections and print the sections small enough for each student to glue into a notebook, then have students draw their own arrow route across the printed copy and write one sentence about where a raindrop that falls on the peak ends up. Classes with a local map available can compare Ripplewood Valley to the real waterways near the school and mark which one supplies the building's taps.