We have been studying Earth and how it changes.  We’ve talked about slow changes like weathering and erosion; fast changes like earthquakes, volcanoes and floods; landforms  like plateaus, mountains, plains, barrier islands (which I have to admit I didn’t really know about!); and about bodies of water.  Because we needed to breathe a little bit of life into our work after having been discussing and watching videos for a few days, and because I know my kiddos are builders and creators at heart, I tried to figure out a design challenge of sorts that we could try.  There were many options I could have employed (and still might), but I thought that bodies of water would be a nice place to start.

So kiddos chose groups (in 4s) and then I explained their job: Create a representation of the body of water they get (I passed out cards to each group) so that everyone else can guess what it is.  They had options for research before they got started if they needed clarification on the characteristics of their body of water, and they could use whatever supplies in our room that they wanted.  There was a 30 minute time limit.

So do you think you can guess what each one is?  Try it out.  Here is body of water #1, a picture and a video (oh, and the video might have a spoiler, so guess before you watch it!):

Ok, here’s #2:

Try it with group #3:

Group #4 made this:

Check out #5, made with Legos:

Ok, and now that you’re done, check your answers.  Promise that you’ve tried it?

#1–ocean    #2–creek    #3–lake     #4–river       #5–bay

The best part?  We had fun, we learned alot and the only thing I’ve heard since we finished is “When are we going to do this again??” 🙂