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Lesson plan Grade 3 English Language Arts

A Raindrop Named Bramble: A Grade 3 Water Cycle Narrative Lesson

A grade 3 narrative writing lesson in which students sequence a raindrop's path through the water cycle and draft a short story using time-order words.

Objectives

  1. Students will sequence the stages of the water cycle in the correct order.
  2. Students will write a narrative that uses time-order words to sequence events.

Vocabulary

Evaporation
Evaporation happens when liquid water, often warmed by the sun, turns into an invisible gas called water vapor that rises into the air. It is how water leaves oceans, lakes, and puddles.
Condensation
Condensation is when water vapor in the air cools down and turns back into tiny liquid water droplets. It is how clouds form and why a cold glass gets wet on the outside on a warm day.
Precipitation
Precipitation is any water that falls from clouds to the ground, including rain, snow, sleet, and hail. It is the main way water returns from the sky to the surface of the Earth.

Also: collection

Teacher overview

Every raindrop that falls on Hollow Pine Reservoir has already traveled a long path through the sky, the clouds, and the ground before it lands. This lesson turns that path into a narrative writing task: students give a raindrop a name, follow it through the four stages of the water cycle, and write its story in the correct order. Following one character through the water cycle gives third graders a natural plot to sequence, which supports the narrative structure this lesson practices.

Procedure

Hook (5 min): Show students a single water droplet (a drop of water on a paper towel, or a picture of a raindrop) and ask, "Where do you think this drop of water was yesterday? Where will it be tomorrow?" Collect two or three guesses on the board without correcting them.

Direct instruction (10 min): Introduce the raindrop character, Bramble, and the four water-cycle stages: evaporation, condensation, precipitation, and collection. Using chart paper, draw a simple cycle diagram and narrate Bramble's path aloud: "Bramble rises off Hollow Pine Reservoir as invisible water vapor (evaporation), joins millions of other drops to form a cloud (condensation), falls back down as rain (precipitation), and lands in a river that carries her back to the reservoir (collection)." Post the four vocabulary words in order on the board.

Guided practice (15 min): In pairs, students receive four sentence-strip cards, one for each stage of Bramble's trip, shuffled out of order. Pairs read the cards aloud, decide the correct order, and tape them onto the board in a line. As a class, check the order together and add a time-order word (first, next, then, finally) above each card.

Independent writing (15 min): Each student drafts a short narrative, three to five sentences, that tells the story of Bramble's trip in order, using at least three time-order words. Students may choose a different starting point in the cycle (a puddle, a cloud, a river) as long as the four stages appear in a sequence that makes sense.

Closure / exit ticket (5 min): Students answer one question on an index card: "Which stage of the water cycle happens right after precipitation, and why?" Collect the cards and scan for the word "collection" before dismissal.

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: Collection. After precipitation, the water that falls collects in rivers, lakes, or the ground, which is why collection is the stage that follows a raindrop's fall.

Differentiation

Support

Give students a pre-printed sentence pattern for each stage ("First, Bramble ___. Next, Bramble ___. Then, Bramble ___. Finally, Bramble ___.") so they only need to add the water-cycle action for each stage.

Extension

Ask students to write a second paragraph describing what might happen if Bramble landed on a hot parking lot instead of the reservoir, using the vocabulary word evaporation to explain why she might return to the sky faster.

ELL supports

Pair each vocabulary word with a simple hand motion (fingers wiggling upward for evaporation, hands forming a circle for condensation, fingers falling downward for precipitation, hands sweeping together for collection) and have the whole class perform the motions together during direct instruction. Allow the independent narrative to be dictated to a partner or aide and copied onto the final draft.