Fourth Grade Programs

The Lilly Center’s K-12 programs aspire to a high goal: develop water literacy in the children who will eventually lead our community. Students who engage with one or several of our programs leave with a deeper understanding of and appreciation for local water resources, as well as practical ways to care for them on their own.

Outdoor Field Trip Programs

Join us in September! Lake Adventure Day is offered each fall at various locations around the county. Students rotate through a series of hands-on stations to learn about water use, watersheds, fishing and more. Space is limited and fills up quickly, so make your reservations early.

Essential Questions: What is the water cycle and what are the parts of it?

Description: Lake Adventure Day is a day designed for 4th graders to learn about water use, pollution, and erosion among other lessons. Students will even have the chance to learn how to fish and possibly catch a fish. Classes will be split into three stations that are roughly 35 minutes long. Students will cycle through each station learning about new environmental topics as well as the popular fishing station. This event will allow students to engage in environmental lessons while also being outside away from the traditional classroom.

Indoor Field Trip Programs

Our most popular learning experience! Students rotate through all of the following stations during their 2-hour visit to the Lilly Center. They will interact with live animals, the Virtual Aquarium and the Augmented Reality Sand Tables while learning about local water quality impacts.

Essential Question: What is the water cycle? How does the water cycle move water? What are the different parts of the water cycle?

Description: When students think of the water cycle, they might entertain the misconception that a circle of water flows from a stream to an ocean, evaporates into clouds, rains down on a mountaintop, and flows back into a stream. The movement of water is much more dynamic than that. It is truly a cycle: water is ever-moving, with no beginning or end. By role-playing a water molecule, students learn to conceptualize the water cycle in a way that approximates how water actually travels.

Essential Question: What is the water cycle and how does it work?

Description: Students will begin by learning what the water cycle is and the 3 main parts (precipitation, condensation, and evaporation). They will continue their learning through the book Wet All Over by Patricia Relf. Once they have a complete understanding of what the water cycle is then they will create their own water cycle process so they can have a visual representation. The experiment will allow them to see precipitation, evaporation, and condensation.

Standards:
4.CC.1: Engage effectively in a range of collaborative discussions on grade-appropriate topics and texts, building on others ideas and expressing personal ideas clearly.
4.CC.2: Pose and respond to specific questions to clarify or follow up on information, and make comments that contribute to the discussion and link to the remarks of others.
2-ESS2-3: Obtain information to identify where water is found on Earth and that it can be solid or liquid.

Essential Question: How do watersheds work and how do they benefit the environment?

Description: Students will begin the lesson talking about a watershed. They will learn what watersheds are and why they are important. Students will get a watershed journal that will reinforce what they learned about watersheds. Students will take turns at the Sandtable creating a landscape and making it rain to see what a watershed looks like. They will move the sand to create their unique landscape and then make it rain to see where the water goes in that specific watershed.

Standards:
4.CC.1: Engage effectively in a range of collaborative discussions on grade-appropriate topics and texts, building on others ideas and expressing personal ideas clearly.
4.CC.2: Pose and respond to specific questions to clarify or follow up on information, and make comments that contribute to the discussion and link to the remarks of others.
5-ESS2-1: Develop a model using an example to describe ways the geosphere, biosphere, hydrosphere, and/or atmosphere interact.

Ready to book a field trip?

Reach out to Grace St. Clair, lead education coordinator: stclagk@grace.edu.