Classroom activity Grade 2 Science

Chalk Arrows on the Sparrowdyke School Blacktop

A grade 2 outdoor activity where teams pour water at six chalk spots, draw arrows showing which way it ran, and map the schoolyard's low ground.

Grade: Grade 2
Subject: Science
Material: Classroom activity
Time: 45 min
Prep: Low prep
Materials: Sidewalk chalk in three colors, 6 plastic cups, A pitcher of water, A large sheet of butcher paper, Markers, Clipboards, one per team

Standards

2-ESS2-2 NGSS

Develop a model to represent the shapes and kinds of land and bodies of water in an area.

How this material aligns: In step 5 the class builds a paper model of the schoolyard that shows the six tested spots, an arrow at each one for the way the water ran, and the low places where water collects.

All materials for 2-ESS2-2 →

K-2-ETS1-1 NGSS

Ask questions, make observations, and gather information about a situation people want to change to define a simple problem that can be solved through the development of a new or improved object or tool.

How this material aligns: Question 6 has students state, in their own words, the problem behind the puddle that blocks a school door after heavy rain, using the arrow observations they gathered at the six tested spots.

All materials for K-2-ETS1-1 →

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This material is in the public domain (CC0) and may be copied, edited, and shared freely, without attribution. Updated 2026-09-04.

Objectives

Students will find which way water runs at six spots on a paved yard.
Students will mark the low places where the arrows meet.
Students will build a class map showing the yard's slopes and puddle spots.

Vocabulary

Key words: slope, downhill, low spot, arrow, puddle, map

Teacher overview

Sparrowdyke School is fictional, while the puddle that forms in front of one door after every heavy rain is an ordinary problem at real schools, and this outdoor activity has six teams of three or four students find out what decides where that puddle sits. Each team pours a small cup of water at a marked chalk spot, watches which way it runs, and draws a chalk arrow in that direction, until the whole blacktop carries a set of arrows the class can read at once. Because paved ground looks flat, second graders usually predict that a puddle forms wherever the rain happens to be heaviest, and the arrows are what replace that guess with a slope they can see. The activity ends with the class copying the arrows onto a paper map of the yard and marking the places the arrows point toward.

Activity Directions

Setup before class (low prep, about 10 minutes): Choose a paved area and mark six spots on it with chalk numbers 1 through 6, spread well apart. Fill six cups about one third full and set one beside each number. Draw the outline of the paved area on the butcher paper and mark the six numbers on it in the same arrangement.

Step 1, briefing indoors (5 min): Tell the class about the door that floods after a storm and ask them to guess why the water goes there and not somewhere else. Explain the job: each team pours a little water, watches, and draws an arrow that shows which way the water went.

Step 2, first pour (8 min): Send each team to its numbered spot. One student pours the cup slowly at the number while the others watch the leading edge of the water. As soon as the direction is clear, a second student draws a chalk arrow from the number in that direction. Everyone on the team records the spot number and the direction on the handout.

Step 3, rotation (12 min, 4 min per spot): Teams move on to the next numbered spot, where the teacher refills the cup from the pitcher, and repeat the pour, the arrow, and the record. Run three rotations so that every team has tested four different spots and every spot has been tested at least twice.

Step 4, reading the arrows (7 min): Bring the class to the edge of the paved area and walk the whole set of arrows together, reading them aloud from spot 1 to spot 6. Ask students to watch for arrows that point toward the same place. Mark each such place with a large chalk X in a second color.

Step 5, building the class map (10 min): Back inside, spread the butcher paper on the floor. Team by team, students copy their arrows onto the map beside the matching numbers, then add the X for each low place and color those places blue. Label the doors, the fence, and any drain the class noticed.

Step 6, debrief (3 min): With the map on the floor, ask two questions. "At how many spots did the water run uphill, and what does that tell us about the way water moves across the yard?" Then, "Where does our map say the next big puddle will be?" The activity is over when every spot has been tested twice, the map carries every arrow, and both questions have been answered aloud. Have students wash hands after the outdoor work.

Chalk Arrows on the Sparrowdyke School Blacktop — Grade 2 Science

Name: ____________________________ Date: ______________

Student Handout

Fill in one row each time your team pours.

Spot number	Which way did the water run?	Did it run fast or slow?

Answer these questions after the class map is finished.

Did the water run uphill at any of your spots?
Look at all the arrows on the yard. Name the place most of them point toward.
The class marked that place with an X. Is that place high ground or low ground?
Where do you think the biggest puddle will be after the next heavy rain?
On our class map, what do the arrows show?
The door by the bus line floods every spring. Write the problem the school should work on.

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

Answer Key

Answer: No. Water ran downhill at every spot, which is what makes the arrows worth reading together.
Answer: Accept the low place the class actually marked on its own yard, named by a landmark such as the fence corner, the drain, or the door.
Answer: Low ground. The arrows point toward it from more than one direction, which is what happens at the bottom of a slope.
Answer: Accept any answer naming a place the arrows point toward, especially the spot marked with the X. A different guess is fine when the reason names an arrow.
Answer: Accept any answer saying the arrows show which way the water runs from each spot, or which way the ground slopes.
Answer: Accept any answer that states the problem rather than a fix, such as rain from the whole yard running to the low spot at that door and having nowhere to go.

Differentiation

Support

Assign these students the pouring job, which requires no writing, and pair them with a recorder. Give them a handout whose direction column offers four arrow pictures to circle instead of a blank space, and let them place a sticker rather than draw when copying arrows onto the class map.

Extension

Ask a team to test two more spots on a grass area beside the blacktop and compare what happened there with what happened on the pavement. Have them write one sentence on the class map about how the two surfaces differed.

ELL supports

Model one full pour, watch, and arrow at spot 1 with the whole class before teams split up, narrating each move. Provide direction cards reading toward the fence, toward the door, toward the field, and toward the drain, and let students hold up a card instead of writing the direction.

Extensions

Run the same six spots again on a rainy morning without pouring anything, and mark where real puddles sit. Ask students whether the puddles landed where the class map predicted and what they would change on the map.