Land and Water

A student about to circle Egypt on the map

All this week I've been telling my students about our "Reading Oasis" contest.  (Scroll down to my last blog entry for all the details, or click here.)  To help the students understand the theme, we spent some time learning what an oasis is and how the theme ties in with Ancient Egypt.  This was especially fitting for my fourth graders who have just started a science unit called "Land and Water"!

In the fourth grade classrooms, the teachers have been encouraging the students to make observations and inferences when looking at a photograph.  This activity really helps them to differentiate between what we see (observable facts) and what we might guess is true.  In library, I introduced the concept of what an oasis is by putting up a photograph and asking the students what they noticed.

The students observed that there were a lot of trees and plants growing around the water, and many buildings could be found right next to it. They inferred that this was because both plants and people need water to survive.

Then I put a satellite photograph of Egypt and the Nile River Valley onto the SmartBoard and invited the students to come up with some observations and inferences.  They worked in small groups at their tables, and many of the students went up to the board to point out details to their peers. (The students were amazed when I zoomed in and they saw that the long, wide "river" was actually vegetation and the water was just a thin ribbon in comparison!)

On Thursday, the fourth graders created their own "rivers"!  These students are allowing a small stream of water to flow across an area of soil before draining out a hole at the opposite end.  This experiment allows them to observe how the water affects the land.  After the entire bottle of water had finished draining away, they noticed that the water:

   * forms a path that bends, depending on obstacles
   * picks up and carries soil as it flows, and
   * sometimes "fans out" as it reaches the end of the land

Is it just me, or does that sound a lot like the Nile and the delta formed by its tributaries?  I love when I can connect my lesson in the library with what's happening in the classroom!  :)