Level 3
Part 4 Number 1 2007
Winter Weather Woes:
The Matata flood p14-23
by Adrian Muller.
Science
Investigate the water cycle and its effect
on climate, landforms and life.
Health: Safety Management
Identify risks and their causes and
describe safe practices to manage these
One very rainy, May evening in 2005, Ethan
Beach looks out his window to see his street
filling with muddy water. An unforgettable night
is about to begin. The story is about the storm
that wiped out part of Matata, told through the
eyes of Ethan.
Literacy goal
To identify relevant information in a text, and
consider how it links to other information, in
order to reach a conclusion.
Make inferences to explain why the events
occurred.
Specialised vocabulary : debris,
Vocabulary
Interest words : premonition, millimetres, “toxic quagmire,”
Task purpose:
To find out how continuous rain over a short time affected local landforms and wild
life.
Task
Resources
This recount provides an example of the
http://www.teara.govt.nz/en/map/732
impact severe weather had on one
2/towns-of-the-rangitaiki-plains
community and its local landforms.
This link shows a map of the region.
Ethan Beach recounts what he noticed
happening in his environment after three days
http://www.teara.govt.nz/en/video/57
of heavy rain.
1. Read Ethan’s story to locate information
about the effect of the rain during the flood
and after the flood.
 Describe what happens during the
flood?
 Describe what the environment
looked like after the flood?
 Explain why has this happened?
13/flooding-matata
Video clip of flood devastation taken
from a helicopter.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/ar
ticle.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10356166
This newspaper report describes the
effects of the flood six months on.
2. Also read the newspaper report for
additional information about the
environmental impact
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/artic
le.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10356166.
3.View the video of the flood
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4. Take notes from all of the texts to help you
capture the relevant information.
5. Create a table describing what happened
during and after the flood.(See Fig 1 for the
table)
Identify four things that happened during the
flood as a result of the heavy rainfall over a
very short period of time?
Why do you think this occurred?
Tips on how to analyse and synthesize this
information.
1.Scan the articles and looking for information
that provide the readers with clues about the
weather.
2.Identify information such as :
Eg. Not long after that we heard rocks being
swept along, grinding and smashing.
What was the effect on the land wildlife and
people after the flood?
3.Summarise information to just focus on the
impact of the weather: Rocks are swept along
by the water.
Use your notes drawn from Ethan’s recount
the newspaper report and the video to fill out
the table.
4.We can also infer from this clue that why the
rocks are moving is because the water is
becoming faster and deeper.
When you have completed your table.
6.Write a short conclusion about what you
have discovered about how rain can impact
on the local landforms and life.
Purpose: To plan what items will be useful in the event of a flood.
Task 2
1.If you were the family list the six
items you would have wanted on
hand to make things easier and
safer during the emergency.
2. Draw the selected items and explain
why you have chosen them.
(Refer to the link for further ideas on
what might be important to have
available in the event of a flood.)
How effective was I in achieving my
literacy goal?
What did I do well?
What do I still need to work on?
http://getthru.govt.nz/disasters/flood/
A practical guide with helpful suggestions of
what to have on hand.
Was I able to locate the information relevant to the
reading purpose?
Was I able to take notes that helped me achieve the
purpose?
Was I able to break information into parts to gain new
ideas?
Was I about to make inferences by using clues in the
texts to think about why these things happened?
Was I able to combine the new ideas together
2
effectively to arrive at a satisfactory conclusion?
How effective was I in achieving my
science goal?
What did I do well?
Was I able to document and explain the impact of
significant rainfall on landforms and life?
What do I still need to work on?
3
(Figure 1) A
During the flood
Identify four things that happened as a result of the heavy rainfall over a very short period of time.
Draw what was seen
Write a simple caption for each illustration
The street filled with muddy water.
Rocks and boulders were
grinding through the water.
Make an inference for each drawing about why this occurred
It had rained for three days.
Three hundred mm of rain fell in 24
hours, with 94.5 millilitres in just 1
hour
4
Figure 1 B
What was the effect on the land and wild life after the flood?
The lagoon is a toxic quagmire
Why did this happen?
5
Examples of possible answers
During the flood
Identify four things that happened as a result of the heavy rainfall over a very short period of time.
Draw what was seen
Write a simple caption for each illustration
The street filled with muddy
Branches and logs
floated through the water
water.
Rocks and boulders were
grinding through the water.
Make an inference for each drawing about why this occurred
It had rained for three days.
The volume of water had picked up Water was becoming deeper.
Three hundred mm of rain fell in trees and swept them into the
water.
twenty four hours.
Cars and houses were floating
in the water.
Water was deep and fast.
What was the effect on the land and wild life after the flood?
The lagoon is a toxic quagmire
There were boulders and trees where there
had been houses
The wild-life refuge no longer exists.
The force of the water shifted rocks and
trees into places they weren’t before.
The cost of cleaning up all the mud and
debris, meant that it was nothing left to
clean up the wild-life refuge.
Why did this happen?
Fourteen cars are buried in the mud. The
lagoon has been contaminated by oil diesel
and weed killer.
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