This lesson introduces students to the urban forest as an ecosystem of living and nonliving things in and around cities, towns, and villages, and to the urban water cycle.
Students take a sensory walkabout to observe living and nonliving things, build a yarn web showing how those things are connected, and write a poem about the urban forest.
Students play an urban water cycle game and use precipitation maps of Wisconsin to explore how changing rainfall connects to the urban forest and climate change.
Use this lesson on its own or as a sequence with the rest of the urban guide (Lesson 2, Lesson 3, and Lesson 4).
This lesson runs 105-150 minutes and is built around one outdoor walkabout plus three indoor activities, so plan for outdoor time and appropriate weather clothing.
Introduce key vocabulary together as a class and have students draw a picture for each term.
Assign student roles or recruit other teachers to help manage the stations in the Urban Water Cycle activity.
Differentiation:
Adapt this lesson to your context by switching the maps of Wisconsin in the third activity to simplified maps of precipitation for your state.
Follow age-based recommendations provided by the lesson authors to target the lesson to your students' grade level.
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