Kristen Pizzolo and Paige Ennis
Natural Resources and Landforms Unit
Lesson #3
Taught: Monday, April 14
Lesson Plan Format
School of Education
The College of New Jersey
1. Title or Topic of the Lesson and Grade Level:
● How does Earth change?
● 2nd grade
2. Lesson Essential Question(s):
● How do wind and water affect the ways landforms are shaped?
● What are the processes of erosion and weathering?
3. Standards:
● 5.4.6.D.2 - Earth’s landforms are created through constructive (deposition) and
destructive (erosion) processes.
● 5.4.6.B.3 - Determine if landforms were created by processes of erosion (e.g.,
wind, water, and/or ice) based on evidence in pictures, video, and/or maps.
4.
A. Learning Objectives and Assessments: Write a sentence for each
of your desired learning outcomes. These must be written in observable terms
and be assessable. These must also correlate to the NJCCC Standards
addressed above.
B. Assessments: Describe the assessments you will use to measure student
progress towards or success in attaining the learning objectives. You may
include homework assignments.
Learning Objectives
Assessments
Students will be able to understand that
the environment played a role in
shaping the earth and creating different
landforms.
Students will complete an
accompanying worksheet during their
experiment, which will allow them to
describe what is happening and how
the forces are at play.
Students will be able to define the
words “erosion” and “weathering”.
Students will use the words to explain
what is happening during the
experiment to the teachers.
Students will be able to understand the
processes of weathering and erosion.
Students will create the scenarios of
erosion and weathering through the
use of straws, droppers, sand, and
water.
5. Materials:
● Sand
● Water
● Tray/ Tupperware
● Straws
● Worksheet
● Droppers
● Pictures of Grand Canyon, fields with erosion
● Textbooks pg. 152-153
6. Pre-lesson assignments and/or prior knowledge:
● Students will have knowledge of landforms from lesson one. This will help them
identify the landforms associated with weathering and erosion (canyons, rivers,
ect.)
● To access prior knowledge, ask children to remember a time when they washed
dirt or mud off their hands, feet or shoes. Ask: “Where did the soil go?” Discuss
the fact that water can wash away soil. Point out that water can wash away soil
on the surface of Earth.
7. Lesson Beginning:
● Place a sugar cube in water. Have students see how long it takes for the piece
of candy to dissolve in the water. Tell the students that the sugar cube dissolving
in water is similar to the process by which water in nature wears away, or
weathers, rock over time.
● Tell the students that they are going to read about some changes that happen on
the surface of Earth. The purpose of the reading is to find out what causes the
surface of Earth to change.
8. Instructional Plan:
● Read the beginning of the book discussing erosion. Explain to the students
“Earth is always changing and erosion can change Earth. Erosion happens
when rocks or soil are moved by water or wind.”
● Then show students how plants can help prevent erosion. The roots on plants
hold the soil in place (show picture on page 152).
● Then, explain weathering. Weathering can change Earth too. Weathering is the
breaking apart and changing of rocks. Water can cause weathering and changes
in temperature can cause weathering.
● After both weathering and erosion have been taught and discussed, break the
students into groups of four.
● Give each group a tray, a cup of water, four straws, four droppers, sand, and four
worksheets.
● The teachers demonstrate how to use the supplies like good scientists. Carefully
pile sand onto the tray. Next, the teacher demonstrates how to gently blow
through the straw and explains that this represents wind.
● Students may all take turns gently blowing through the straws towards the sand.
Students will be responsible for copying down what they see happening after
they used wind.
● The teachers will then demonstrate how to use the dropper and drop a few drops
of water onto the sand mounds. Then they will tell the class that they can start
with a few drops and add more as the sand starts to change.
● The students will copy the teachers and drop water onto their own trays.
Students will be responsible for recording what they see happening when water
is added to the experiment.
● Students will gather paper towels to clean up any spilled water.
● The student in charge of cleaning up will dump the sand into the trash and bring
supplies back to the supply table.
● Students will collect their worksheets and return to their desks
● Once everyone is back at their desks, the teacher will instruct the class to return
their seats and desks to their normal rows.
o Differentiation:
● ELL learners: translate erosion (erosión) and weathering (meteorización)
● Teacher will demonstrate the proper way to use experiment equipment
with students who have never used them before.
● Higher level students will be provided with a specific picture and asked to
replicate it without using their hands to touch the sand. They must use
only the straw and water.
o Questions:
● When you washed dirt or mud off of your hands where did the soil go?
● How does weathering change Earth?
● What is weathering?
● Which do you think would be changed more quickly by erosion, sand or
rock? Why?
● During the experiment ask:
○
○
○
○
What do you think the straws represent?
What do you think the water represents?
Do you notice any changes?
Are you able to make any specific landforms using the straw and
water? Which landforms?
o Classroom Management:
● The teachers will assign jobs to the students before beginning the
experiment. One student will be in charge of getting the materials needed
for the experiment, one student will be in charge of getting four
worksheets for their group members, one student will be in charge of
cleaning up the materials and putting them away, and one student will be
in charge of cleaning the desks.
● Students will stay in groups while conducting the experiment. If students
start wandering from their groups or fighting over materials they will be not
be able to participate in the experiment. They must sit at their desk and
watch quietly.
● Before beginning the experiment, the teachers will demonstrate how to be
a “good scientist” so that the students know how to handle all of the
materials during the experiment.
o Transitions:
● Before moving from the usual rows to science groups, the teachers will
explain that anyone who cannot control themselves during the experiment
will be sent to sit at a different table and can only watch and not
participate.
● Students will have assigned jobs to collect and clean up supplies.
● All experiment groups must be clean and have their supplies put away
before they can return to their original desks.
9. Closure:
● After cleaning up the experiment, students will go back to their seats with their
completed worksheets.
● The students and teachers will go over their completed worksheets and results.
● The teachers will then show more pictures of erosion and weathering and ask
students how they think they were formed.