6 Activities for Learning About Water in Winter for Teachers and Homeschool Parents [Ep. 38]

Learning about water in winter

The winter season is the perfect time for learning about water thanks to the low temperatures that often reach freezing. This is the only time that water can naturally be found in all three states. So let’s take advantage of the season by learning about water in winter.

In this episode, we’ll talk about 6 activities for learning about water that are paired with Next Generation Science Standards for grades K-5. I’ll share the standard that inspired the activity, how the activity relates to water, and descriptions of how to use the activity in your classroom or outside.

The following standards are paired with activities for learning about water:

Kindergarten: K-ESS2-1: Use and share observations of local weather conditions to describe patterns over time.
1st Grade: 1-PS4-3: Plan and conduct investigations to determine the effect of placing objects made with different materials in the path of a beam of light.
2nd Grade: 2-ESS2-3: Obtain information to identify where water is found on Earth and that it can be solid or liquid.
3rd Grade: 3-ESS3-1: Make a claim about the merit of a design solution that reduces the impacts of a weather-related hazard.
4th Grade: 4-ESS2-1: Make observations and/or measurements to provide evidence of the effects of weathering or the rate of erosion by water, ice, wind, or vegetation.
5th Grade: 5-ESS2-1: Develop a model using an example to describe ways the geosphere, biosphere, hydrosphere, and/or atmosphere interact.

Science Snippet 🔬

A scientific definition for matter is anything that has mass and volume. A more child-friendly definition of matter is anything that takes up space and has weight. With that being said, the states of matter are the different forms that matter can be found in. These forms are possible based on the arrangement of the particles and the amount of energy the particles have.

Some people say that there are up to 7 different states of matter. According to scientists there are only four naturally occurring states of matter that have been discovered so far (Bagley, 2023). The four naturally occurring states of matter are solid, liquid, gas, and plasma.

Solids:

Have very tightly packed molecules
Have a definite (or fixed) shape, mass, and volume
They do not conform to the shape of a container they are placed in

Liquids:

Have loosely packed molecules that flow around each other
Have a definite (or unchanging) mass and volume
They conform to the shape of a container they are placed in

Gasses:

Have extremely loosely packed molecules that bounce off each other
Do not have a definite shape, mass, or volume
They conform to the shape of a container they are confined to

Plasma:

Have highly charged particles (sometimes defined as electrically charged gas)
Scientists have identified plasma as the most common state of matter in the universe, but the least common state of matter on Earth
The Aurora Borealis is an example of plasma on our planet