Water Cycle Narratives with a Bit of Tech

Teaching about the Water Cycle is something that I do year in and year out, so each year I try to do something new and different if, for no other reason than to keep my own brain active and engaged. This past year, I combined the science of the water cycle with narrative writing and technology and, dare I say it, came up with a winner!

Of course we started with learning all about the Water Cycle during science lab.  You can see some past science lessons here and how I incorporated the Teach Me Something projects into those lessons to get the kids creatively thinking about the way the water cycle works here.

Once the kids knew all about how the water cycle works, I asked them to apply that knowledge by writing a narrative.  They were to pretend that they were a water droplet making their way through the various stages of the water cycle.  Within the context of a fictional narrative, they needed to include all of the science words that we had learned up until that point AND go through all stages of the water cycle (we learned that water can skip stages, or stay in one stage for a really long time...I didn't want them to include that in the narrative).  To help them along, I gave them this nifty little brainstorm sheet that helped them to map out their story, while keeping it in a basic order.

After the narratives were written, and subsequently typed, I asked them to get a little creative in the computer lab.  I took four separate pictures of each student posing as the water droplet in each stage of the water cycle.  Using the app Green Screen Magic, the students superimposed themselves into a picture that represented the various stages of the water cycle (they googled "evaporation" or "condensation" etc to find pictures they felt were appropriate and matched their narrative as best as possible.)

Once those google images were found, and the kids put themselves into the pictures, they then inserted the pics into their typed narratives.

As an added bonus, I had them google a generic water cycle picture and put all four pictures of themselves into that picture as well.

All in all, this came out great.  The narratives were amazing.  The pictures were spectacular.  The entire project, when put together, was a show-stopper.