Lesson plan Grade 4 Science

Where the Downspout Water Goes at Kirkhollow School

A 50-minute grade 4 lesson in which students walk the schoolyard, record what roof water has done to the ground at four downspouts, and rank the damage.

Grade: Grade 4
Subject: Science
Material: Lesson plan
Time: 50 min
Prep: Low prep
Materials: A printed outline map of the schoolyard for each pair, Clipboards and pencils, One meter stick or tape measure per pair, Chart paper and markers, Index cards for the exit ticket, A watering can of water and a tray of dry soil for the hook

Standards

4-ESS2-1 NGSS

Make observations and/or measurements to provide evidence of the effects of weathering or the rate of erosion by water, ice, wind, or vegetation.

How this material aligns: Students make and record firsthand observations at four downspout outlets and compare whatever ground cover each one has, such as grass, mulch, gravel, or bare soil, as evidence of how cover changes the rate of erosion by running water.

All materials for 4-ESS2-1 →

3-5-ETS1-1 NGSS

Define a simple design problem reflecting a need or a want that includes specified criteria for success and constraints on materials, time, or cost.

How this material aligns: After the walk the class defines the worst outlet as a design problem, writing criteria for a successful fix and constraints on materials, cost, and the time a custodian can spend.

All materials for 3-5-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 record what running roof water has done to the ground at four downspout outlets.
Students will compare the ground cover at each outlet and rank the four spots by how much soil has moved.
Students will write criteria and constraints for one fix at the school's worst outlet.

Vocabulary

Erosion: Erosion is the wearing away and carrying off of soil and rock by moving water, wind, or ice. Fast-moving stormwater can strip soil from bare ground and stream banks.
Downspout: A downspout is the pipe that carries rainwater down from a roof's gutters to the ground. Where that water goes next, whether onto a lawn, into a rain barrel, or straight to a storm drain, makes a big difference in how much runoff a property sends downstream.

Also: runoff, ground cover, criteria, constraint

Teacher overview

Kirkhollow Elementary is a fictional school standing in for the teacher's own building, and its roof drains through four downspouts that empty onto four different surfaces. A school roof sheds a large volume of water through very few openings, so the ground under each spout takes the whole storm at once, which turns an ordinary schoolyard into a ready-made comparison of ground cover. The misconception this lesson is built to correct is the belief that erosion happens only at rivers, cliffs, and beaches, and only over enormous stretches of time. A fan of washed-out soil at the bottom of a downspout is erosion at a size students can measure in one class period, which is why the lesson sends them outside to find it rather than showing photographs of canyons. If the school's own downspouts all empty onto pavement, the same walk works at a nearby park, a playground edge, or a parking lot island.

Procedure

Hook (5 min): Hold up a full watering can over a tray of dry soil and pour it out in one spot from as high as you can safely reach. Ask students to describe what happened to the soil, then tell them that a school roof does this same thing every time it rains, only with far more water.

Setting up the look-fors (8 min): Show the class the four things they will record at every stop: what the ground under the spout is made of, whether there is a hole or a hollow, whether soil has piled up somewhere downhill, and where the water goes next. Model one entry on chart paper using a spot you scouted before the lesson. Remind students that a photograph is not needed because a labeled sketch carries the same evidence.

Schoolyard walk (20 min): Move as a class to each of the four downspouts in turn, allowing about five minutes per stop. Partners fill in one row of the recording sheet at each stop and use the meter stick to measure across the widest part of any hollow or any pile of washed soil. At each stop, ask one pair to say out loud which way the water travels after it leaves the spout.

Ranking and criteria chart (12 min): Back inside, have pairs rank the four stops from most soil moved to least, then take a class vote and post the agreed ranking. Ask how the top-ranked stop differs from the bottom-ranked one, and steer the conversation toward ground cover rather than the amount of rain, since every spout gets the same storm. Then build two lists on chart paper for the worst stop: criteria, meaning what a good fix has to do, and constraints, meaning what the fix cannot use up, such as money, materials, and the time the custodian can give it. Students then copy both lists onto the back of the recording sheet in their own words, which is the piece you collect as evidence of the third objective.

Exit ticket (5 min): Students write one sentence on an index card naming the stop where the most soil has moved and one piece of evidence they saw with their own eyes. Sort the cards as students leave into those that cite evidence and those that give only an opinion. If fewer than three quarters cite evidence, reopen the chart at the start of the next science block and model two more evidence sentences before moving on.

Where the Downspout Water Goes at Kirkhollow School — Grade 4 Science

Name: ____________________________ Date: ______________

Student Handout

Downspout walk recording sheet. Fill in one row at each stop. Draw a small arrow on your map to show which way the water leaves the spout.

Stop	Ground under the spout	Hole or hollow? How wide?	Piled-up soil? Where?	Where the water goes next
1
2
3
4

After the walk, answer these on the back of your sheet.

Which stop had the most soil moved? Name one thing you saw there.
Which stop had the least soil moved? Name one thing you saw there.
What was different about the ground at those two stops?
Where does the soil that washes away from your school end up?

Then copy the class lists onto the back of this sheet under two headings. Under Criteria, write what a good fix at the worst stop has to do. Under Constraints, write what the fix cannot use up.

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

Differentiation

Support

Pair these students with a partner who records while they measure, and give them a recording sheet with the first row already filled in from your scouting trip. Offer a word bank for the ground cover column: grass, mulch, gravel, bare dirt, pavement. During the ranking discussion, let them place four printed photographs in order rather than working from their written notes.

Extension

Ask students to return to the worst stop and design a fix that meets every criterion on the class chart, then present it in a labeled drawing that names the materials and shows where the water would go instead. Students who finish early can check the school's storm drain grates for washed soil and explain how the soil got there.

ELL supports

Pre-teach downspout, hollow, washed away, and ground cover with a four-photograph card set before going outside, and let students point to the matching photograph at each stop before they write. Provide sentence frames for the exit ticket: "The most soil moved at Stop ___ because I saw ___." Allow students to label their sketch in their home language and then add the English word.

Extensions

Have the class check the same four stops after the next heavy rain and note what changed, which turns a single observation into a short record of the rate of erosion. A second follow-up is a letter to the principal or the head custodian recommending one fix from the criteria chart, with the evidence from the walk listed as the reason.