Science Mentor Text for the Water Cycle- Water Dance {lesson ideas for the water cycle}

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This week's mentor text is based on science.  I usually make ask Stacia to do science because she thinks better scientifically...but her sister-in-law got married yesterday so she's been MIA for the last few weeks, helping get everything ready.  So, you're stuck with me!  ;O)

The book I want to share today is:

About a month back (the last time we did science) Stacia shared about Cloud Dance also by this same author.  Stacia has that book and I have Water Dance (we share).  These are fantastic books!

Here are some pages from the book!  Just look at these amazing illustrations that Thomas Locker painted!

These pages are a two page spread, but I couldn't get them big enough so you could read them and really see the illustrations.

Just look at the personification that Thomas Locker includes in his poems!

This book takes you through the water cycle using poetry.  I love the "I am" statements.  There is also scientific information to go along with the book in the very back.

I have used this book when I introduce the water cycle as a fun way to guess what each little poem is describing.  This year, I am going to start the year doing poetry in language arts and I'm going to use this book as a mentor text to integrate science and poetry.

I will read this book at the end of the unit and have students guess each poem before reading the "I am" statement.  We will use this book in LA to discuss personification and vocabulary.  There are great words like cascade, spiraling, plunging, palisades...there's just tons of great vocabulary, vivid verbs, and amazing adjectives.

Since I will use this at the beginning of the year, here is the sentence I would pick for a mentor sentence:

Click this picture to learn more about mentor sentences.

I would choose this sentence because it illustrates personification, the amazing adjectives and the vivid verbs.  Plus, we could talk about the compound word, pronoun, plural noun...and on and on.

Then, I would have students create their own water poem ending with an "I am" statement.  I don't have an example, but I'd like it to be more of the poem on the outside and the I am statement hidden or on the inside so that other students could read the poem, make a guess, and then check to see if they were right.

I'm considering giving them a picture already created to help give them inspiration.  I have found that getting cheap calendars, pulling the pages apart, and laminating the picture pages can work as inspiration for writing.

Or, they can draw an illustration to go with their poem.  I haven't decided yet.

This way, they are combining their knowledge of the water cycle with writing a poem using vivid verbs, amazing adjectives, and personification.

Here is a unit that we created to go with this book.  It integrates poetry, vivid language, and the water cycle!

We also created a graphic organizer book to go with our water cycle unit.  This year, I used this book as a review when we were preparing for state testing, but this could easily be used as you go through teaching the water cycle.

It's great for all age levels!

I hope that you got some ideas you can use!
Amanda

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Next week's topic- Social Studies