Lesson plan Grade 3 Science

Why Ambleforth Farms Irrigate and Inglemoss Farms Do Not

A 45-minute grade 3 science lesson where students read three climate cards for invented farming regions and explain which farms must water crops and why.

Grade: Grade 3
Subject: Science
Material: Lesson plan
Time: 45 min
Prep: Low prep
Materials: Printed climate cards, one set per group, Printed student handout, Wall map or globe

Standards

3-ESS2-2 NGSS

Obtain and combine information to describe climates in different regions of the world.

How this material aligns: Students obtain and combine information from three climate cards to describe when rain falls in three farming regions and how each stores water; the regions are invented, and they follow the real dry-summer, rain-all-year, and single-wet-season patterns.

All materials for 3-ESS2-2 →

RI.3.1 Common Core ELA

Ask and answer questions to demonstrate understanding of a text, referring explicitly to the text as the basis for the answers.

How this material aligns: Items 1, 4, 5, and 6 are answered by copying or pointing to the exact sentence on a climate card, and items 2, 3, 7, and 8 ask students to name the card whose stated figures support the answer.

All materials for RI.3.1 →

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This material is in the public domain (CC0) and may be copied, edited, and shared freely, without attribution. Updated 2026-07-23.

Objectives

Students will describe when rain falls in three different regions using information from climate cards.
Students will explain why farms in a dry-summer region water their crops while farms in a rainy region do not.
Students will point to the sentence on a card that supports each answer they give.

Vocabulary

Key words: climate, region, irrigate, dry season, wet season, crop

Teacher overview

Climate is the pattern of weather a place gets year after year, and that pattern decides how much water a farm has to add on its own. This lesson uses three fictional farming regions, each with a different rainfall pattern, and asks students to work out which farms must irrigate and when. A common assumption is that a hot place is always a dry place, and the cards are built to test it, since one region is hot and soaking wet for three months of the year while another is cool and wet all year long. Students answer every question by pointing back to a sentence on a card rather than from memory.

Procedure

Hook (5 min): Show the class a wall map or a globe and ask where it rains the most. Take two or three answers. Tell students that farms in the fictional region of Ambleforth water their fields every summer, while farms in Inglemoss almost never do, and that the cards will explain why.

Direct instruction (10 min): Define climate as the rain and temperature pattern a place gets year after year, and contrast it with today's weather. Read the Ambleforth card aloud. Underline the sentence that names the dry months, and show students how that one sentence answers the question of why those farms irrigate.

Guided practice (12 min): In groups of three, students read the Inglemoss and Fettleby cards. Each group underlines one sentence per card that tells when rain falls. Groups report their underlined sentences, and the class checks that every group found a sentence about timing rather than about temperature.

Independent practice (13 min): Students complete the handout on their own. Remind them to write the card name beside each answer so the evidence is easy to find.

Closure and formative check (5 min): Ask each student to name, out loud or on a slip of paper, the one region whose farms need the most watering in July. Tally the responses. If more than five students name a region other than Ambleforth, reread the July sentence from each card before collecting the handouts.

Why Ambleforth Farms Irrigate and Inglemoss Farms Do Not — Grade 3 Science

Name: ____________________________ Date: ______________

Student Handout

Card 1: Ambleforth. Ambleforth is a fictional farming region with cool, wet winters and hot, dry summers. Most of its rain falls between November and March. In January the region gets about 12 cm of rain. In July it gets about 1 cm. Beans and corn grow in Ambleforth from June through August, so farmers pump water from a canal to the fields all summer.

Card 2: Inglemoss. Inglemoss is a fictional region beside a cold sea. Rain falls in every month of the year. In January the region gets about 9 cm of rain. In July it gets about 7 cm. Summers are cool and cloudy. Inglemoss farmers grow hay and cabbages, and they water the fields only in a rare dry spell.

Card 3: Fettleby. Fettleby is a fictional hot region with one short wet season. Heavy rain falls in June, July, and August, and almost no rain falls the rest of the year. In January the region gets about 0 cm of rain. In July it gets about 26 cm. Fettleby farmers dig ponds to hold the wet-season rain, then use that stored water on their fields during the long dry months.

Which region gets rain in every month of the year?
Ambleforth gets about 12 cm of rain in January and about 1 cm in July. Which of those two months is wetter in Ambleforth?
Fettleby gets about 0 cm of rain in January and about 26 cm in July. Which of those two months is wetter in Fettleby?
Ambleforth farmers pump water to their fields all summer. Copy the sentence from Card 1 that explains why.
Inglemoss farmers water their fields only in a rare dry spell. Copy the sentence from Card 2 that explains why.
Fettleby farmers dig ponds. What do the ponds hold, and when do farmers use that water?
Of the three regions, which one is driest in July?
A farmer moves from Inglemoss to Ambleforth. Name one new summer job that farmer will have, and name the card that told you.

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: Inglemoss. Card 2 states that rain falls in every month of the year there.
Answer: January. Card 1 gives about 12 cm in January and about 1 cm in July, and 12 cm is the larger amount.
Answer: July. Card 3 gives about 0 cm in January and about 26 cm in July.
Answer: Most of its rain falls between November and March. Accept that sentence, the first sentence naming hot, dry summers, or the sentence naming about 1 cm of rain in July, since each explains the summer shortage.
Answer: Rain falls in every month of the year. Accept the sentence about cool, cloudy summers as a supporting second choice, though the timing sentence is the direct reason.
Answer: The ponds hold rain from the wet season. Card 3 states that farmers use that stored water on their fields during the long dry months.
Answer: Ambleforth. Its July rainfall of about 1 cm is smaller than the 7 cm in Inglemoss and the 26 cm in Fettleby.
Answer: Watering or irrigating the crops in summer. Card 1 is the source, since it states that Ambleforth farmers pump water from a canal to the fields all summer.

Differentiation

Support

Give these students a two-column chart with the region names already filled in and the headings "When it rains" and "Do farms water crops?" so the reading task becomes a sorting task. Read all three cards aloud with the group before they begin, and assign items 1, 2, 4, and 7.

Extension

Ask students to write a fourth card for an invented region where rain falls only in winter and the summers are cool. Have them predict whether farms there would need to irrigate a summer crop, and require that the prediction quote a sentence from their own card.

ELL supports

Pre-teach "climate," "region," "irrigate," and "dry season" with a picture strip of a calendar year showing rain clouds over some months and sun over others. Allow students to answer by pointing to and reading the underlined sentence aloud rather than copying it, and provide the frame "Farms in ___ water their crops in ___ because ___."