Title: Clouds

Lesson plan elaborated by: Zyta Sendecka

Target Group

Students of the 4th grade of primary school

Core Curriculum

The general aim of education

Students explain the water cycle;

Criteria for success

• discuss the water cycle;

• you will explain how clouds are formed and what they are made from;

• you will recognize the basic types of clouds.

Key Competences

• Communication in the mother tongue;

• Communication in foreign languages;

• Mathematical competence and basic competences in science and technology;

• Digital competence;

• Learning to learn;

• Social and civic competences.

Methods/forms of work

Talk, work with text, workshop method, direct observation, indirect observation.

Frontal work, individual work and work in pairs.

Teaching aids

• abstract;

• interactive or traditional board;

• tablets/computers;

• items needed to prepare a diagram of the water cycle: pencils, paper plates, pins, cork, bristle, glue, stickers;

• items needed to conduct „Observation 1”: a plastic bottle with a cap, water, matches.

• items needed to conduct „Task 1”: a clear cup, a lid, warm water.

Lesson phases

Introduction

1. The teacher, referring to previous lessons, asks volunteers or selects pupils to answer the following questions:

• In which states of matter can there be water?

• How can you prove that there is water in the air?

2. The teacher gives the subject and the purpose of the lesson in a language that the student understands as well as the criteria for success.

Realization

1. The teacher asks pupils to read the passage entitled „The water cycle” and carefully look at the illustrations of the same title, and then prepare their own water cycle.

2. Students divide the paper plate in half using a line. In the lower part, they draw ground and underground water, in the upper part they draw the sun, clouds and falling rain or snow. They cut out a strip with a width of 1.5 cm and a length equal to half the radius of the saucer and the outline of a small drop of water, which they stick on one end of the strip. In this way, a hint is created, which the students place with the help of a pin middle of the saucer. The teacher distributes the stickers with the words: „evaporation” and „condensation”. Students stick them in the right places on the plate.

3. The lecturer announces the experiment of the Task 1. He or she instructs the students to write a research question and a hypothesis in the form provided in the abstract. Then the students perform the experiment, record their observations and conclusions. The teacher points the person who shares his insights and explains the conclusions made.

4. The teacher explains the concept of condensation and distributes stickers with this word to the pupils. Students stick them in the right place on their water cycle diagram.

5. Students in pairs carry out „Observation 1”. They explain what role the smoke of the match played during the observed process.

6. The teacher asks pupils to read two parts of the abstract: „Types of clouds” and „Clouds and weather events”, and then they independently complete an interactive exercise.

Summary

1. The teacher asks students to finish the sentence: „In today's lesson I was interested in ...”.

Homework

Students carry out „Observation 2”.

The following terms and recordings will be used during this lesson

Terms

Texts and recordings

Clouds

Water on Earth is constantly moving. From the entire surface of our planet water vapor rises and escapes into the atmosphere. Water evaporates primarily from the surface of rivers, lakes, seas and the oceans. Water vapor also comes from areas covered with snow and ice, as well as from the ground. Plants and, to a lesser extent, other organisms, are also of great importance for evaporation.
When the air cools at higher altitudes, the water vapor condenses. At very low temperatures it often turns directly into ice. The water vapour forms clouds, from which water falls to the surface of the Earth in the form of rain, snow or hail. This water is then collected in lakes, rivers and oceans, absorbed into the ground and is collected by living organisms. Thus the cycle repeats itself. The whole process is called the water cycle.

One stage of the water cycle is the formation of clouds. A cloud is a collection of microscopic droplets of water or ice crystals which are carried by air currents.
As we already know, the faster the surface or water temperature increases, the faster the air heats up. We also know that there is water vapor in the atmosphere. The higher up, the lower the temperature. The air is cooler and the water vapour begins to condense. During this process, the water molecules gather on fine dust in the air, this is condensation of water vapor. In this way, the condensed water forms a cloud. If the air temperature at the higher altitude is above zero, the cloud will consist of water droplets. If the air temperature is below zero, the cloud will be made of ice crystals.

In the sky you can see clouds which look very different. The construction, the shape of the clouds and the way they cover the sky depend on the temperature and humidity of the air, the height to which they arise, as well as on air currents. The variety of cloud shapes is large, but several types can be distinguished.

Cloud observations help in determining weather forecasts. They allow you to determine if you can expect precipitation in the near future.For example, low, wide, gray clouds signal a long‑lasting drizzle. Cumulus clouds generally do not mean rain and usually mean good weather. On the other hand, dark, dense clouds, measuring up to several kilometers from the base to the summit, are a sign of short but heavy rainfall and maybe even a storm. The storm usually lasts for a short time, but it is a very intense event. It consists of strong wind and heavy rain (sometimes hail), as well as electrical discharges – lightning.

• The cloud is a cluster of drops of water or ice crystals or a mixture of both floating in the atmosphere.

• Clouds arise when the warm, humid air rises and cools, resulting in the water vapor condensing.