National
Drinking Water Clearinghouse
West Virginia University
P.O. Box 6064
Morgantown, WV
26506-6064
Teaching
Children about the Hydrologic Cycle
by
Harriet Emerson
On Tap Senior Editor
Hemerson@wvu.edu
Water is essential for all life on this blue planet, and the
way water moves between Earth, sky, and sea is a natural, yet fascinating
cycle. Rain falls from clouds onto roofs and roads. Snow covers trees and
mountains. Ice and snow melt, and like rain, flow into streams, ponds, and
rivers. Water replenishes aquifers deep underground, filtering down, filling
spaces in earth. Streams and rivers flow to the sea. The sun’s warmth
turns water to vapor, and draws it up into clouds. And it rains again, and
water trickles down through the Earth and cracks in rocks.
How can we introduce children to this wonderful water cycle? How do kids learn
best about the hydrologic cycle and how important drinking water is? Children
are naturally curious and like to know how things work. Kids like stories,
rhythm, rhyme, and bright color. They love information, particularly if it’s
interesting, strange, or silly.
Today there are dozens of wonderful, colorful books about water. This is a
review of first learning books, primarily picture and story books for children
aged four to eight.
Telling
Water’s Story
Picture books or poetry are wonderful introductions for children of any age,
including babies and kids too young to read by themselves. Robert Louis Stevenson’s
A Child’s Garden of Verses has been a favorite children’s
book for more than 100 years. He writes about natural things, such as rain
and rivers. Decades before I researched drinking water, one of my favorite
books was about the hydrologic cycle. Over and over I read how rain falls,
and troops of raindrops, leaning forward trudged up a rainbow to become clouds
again.
Once past story books, there was geography class, little Golden Nature
Guides, and the World Book Encyclopedia. The cost of these books
reviewed ranges from $3.50 to $20.00. Text varies from nonfiction to easy-to-read
poetry. And illustrations range from cartoon character drawings to stunning
art, such as Thomas Locker’s oil paintings and Walter Wick’s photography.
Because most children still learn about the hydrologic cycle in geography
class, I didn’t review school books or water curriculums.
Often in books about the hydrologic cycle, content or pictures spills over
into weather or the way rivers run, thus several books concentrate on rain,
clouds, or rivers. Several books discuss the hydrologic cycle but include
additional information about the color spectrum, rainbows.
Where do we begin?
Among the best beginning books are The Water’s Journey, written
and illustrated by Eleonore Schmid; Peter Spier’s Rain; and Lola
Schaefer’s This Is the Rain. Schmid’s book, is a beautiful,
quiet book named to the John Burroughs List of Nature Books for Young Readers
in 1990. The Association of Booksellers for Children named The Water’s
Journey a Living in a Peaceful World Book. Schmid is Swiss and the paintings
have a distinctively European feel.
Peter Spier’s Rain is a Reading Rainbow book, which contains 84
delightful paintings and no words. Children who like Richard Scarry books
with no text and lots of action will love Rain. The pictures give kids a chance
to tell the story themselves. Schaffer’s This Is the Rain, combines
poetry with bright, wild graphics. This book has a wonderful rhythm and the
type of text a young child will ask parents to read over and over. It begins:
“This is the ocean,
blue and vast,
that holds the rain water
from the past …”
Artist
Jane Wattenberg, who illustrated the book, combined photographs into computer
collages to give this a totally modern and very unusual look. Among the nicest
books about water for those of all ages are Thomas Locker’s Water
Dance, named an Outstanding Science Trade Book for Children, and Cloud
Dance. Locker, whose distinctive Hudson River style oil paintings grace
at least 30 children’s books, combines science and art with poetic prose
and beautiful landscapes. Water Dance is his primary book about the
hydrologic cycle, although Cloud Dance touches upon it also. Locker’s
later books include a section in the back with several pages of scientific
information researched and written by Candace Christiansen, a science teacher
and writer. Miniature Locker pictures accompany this additional information.
Locker’s books have been honored with numerous awards, including the
Christopher Award, the John Burroughs Ward, and the New York Times Award for
best illustration.
Children, as well as many adults, find pop-up books irresistible. Water,
written by Francois Michel and illustrated by Yves Larvor, is such a book.
Michel is a well-known French children’s book author, geologist, mountain
climber, and educational filmmaker. Larvor is widely known in France for his
magazine and advertisement illustrations.
Water, first published in France, is referred to as a “lift-the-flap
guide to our most valuable resource.” Additional information about water
is included under flaps in the picture. There’s a spectacular double
page where you can pull a tab and watch all the water drain from a tub, toilet,
and washer down into a sewer beneath the street. Keith Brandt’s What
Makes It Rain? The Story of a Raindrop, is also a nice little book about
the hydrologic cycle with water color illustrations by Yoshi Miyake. It is
very easy to read.
What
about dancing raindrops?
The scientific purist may object to raindrops that talk, hug each other, and
say “excuse me” when they bump each other, but kids love them. The
Raindrops’ Adventure: From Raindrops to Rainbows, written and illustrated
by Kimberly Kerr, is a colorful book populated by cute raindrops that wear
galoshes and sometimes carry an umbrella. Kerr’s book is written in rhymes.
Kerr’s book goes beyond the hydrologic cycle into rainbows and color
spectrums. It includes many fun extras, such as activity pages and a bookmark.
Scholastic, which produces books for teachers to enhance in-class studies,
offers two animated hydrologic cycle books: Elsie Ward’s Follow a
Raindrop: The Water Cycle, a Super-Science Readers book, and The Magic
School Bus: Wet All Over: A Book About the Water Cycle by Joanna Cole
and illustrated by Bruce Degen.
In the latter book, the children in Ms. Frizzle’s class take a trip down
the river encapsulated in water drops. The Magic School Bus is also a Public
Broadcasting System television project funded primarily by the National Science
Foundation and Microsoft. Ward’s Follow a Raindrop includes a teacher’s
guide and six little books for students. Both books are cute and a little
silly.
Water
and More Water
Scholastic Press offers a most amazing water book Drop of Water: A Book
of Science and Wonder by Walter Wick. This nonfiction book is written
for a slightly older reading level. Wick took experiments illustrated in early
science books, replicated the experiments and photographed things like a pin
floating on the water surface, an egg splashing water out of a glass, and
drops caught in mid-air. This is a fascinating book for water lovers of any
age.
Locker’s Where the River Begins is a story book about just that:
how the river meanders through the countryside. This is one of Locker’s
earlier books and doesn’t include additional scientific information;
however, the paintings of rural scenery are beautiful. Meredith Hooper’s
River Story, illustrated with iridescent water colors is another lovely
river story book. Both Hooper’s and Locker’s books are nicely written
and easy-to- read.
This article provides a brief review of some of the wonderful water information
available for children. And when looking for answers, don’t forget about
atlases. Susanna van Rose and Anita Ganeri’s The Big Atlas of the
Earth and Sea: The Forces that Make and Shake Our Planet is a particularly
nice atlas. Although the reading level is more difficult than in the story
books, it is beautifully written and has stunning cutaway illustrations.
What’s on the Web?
The Internet offers some great Web sites for kids—with animated hydrologic
cycles and happy little guides, such as Lehigh Valley Water Suppliers’
three-dimensional Dewey at www.lvwater.org
and The Groundwater Foundation’s G.W. Gecko, official mascot of the Awesome
Aquifer Club, www.groundwater.org/KidsCorner/.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has a very cool kids site at
www.epa.gov/safewater/kids/.
All three sites provide animated hydrologic cycles.
Did you know that the Dead Sea is the saltiest sea in the world or that the
first water pipes in the U.S. were made of logs? Dewey at the Lehigh Valley
Web site has lots of information like that and offers many ways for kids to
learn and play, including “Water Filtration: Follow a Water Drop.”
This animated hydrologic cycle tour gives kids choices, such as “go to
the ocean” or “go to the treatment plant.” The text includes
lines like: “Waiting for Action: Here in the home’s plumbing system
you may sit for awhile with your molecule friends . . . ”
Did you know that a gecko can’t move his eyelids, which means its eyes
are open all the time? Geckos lick their eyelids with their tongues to keep
them clean and moist. The Groundwater Foundation Web site includes many fascinating
tidbits like this.
The Groundwater Foundation is perhaps best known for its water festivals,
now held in schools and communities around the country. Water festivals are
a fun way for kids to learn about water. Past festival activities include,
Gooey Garbage, where kids constructed a leaky landfill and learned how properly
constructed landfills protect groundwater; Aquifer on the Go—kids learn
about aquifers by building their own mini-aquifer to take home.
The organization offers books, such as Making Ripples: How to Organize
a School Water Festival, that take a teacher or parent through the steps
needed to create a successful festival. Kids can e-mail G.W. Gecko at GW@groundwater.org
and he’ll answer questions. You may also buy other items, such as a tape
of water songs created by nationally known folk singer and writer Ann Bailey-Rowland
and very cute G.W. Gecko stickers.
The EPA Web site provides great information for kids in addition to their
animated water cycle, including water bloopers, water trivia, word scramble
and word searches, and a good list of links. EPA offers a great list of books,
activities, and posters, including “Ground Water and Land Use in the
Water Cycle” and “Water: Every Living Thing Depends On It!”
EPA provides separate Web pages for students and teachers.
Please
Note
The books discussed in this article may be ordered through your local book
store or online. I’ve included the retail price of the books primarily
for comparison. It is possible to buy many at lower prices than those listed,
and I found several of them on clearance tables. This is by no means an exhaustive
list of books or Web sites. Parents, teachers, water professionals, or children
are invited to e-mail Hemerson@wvu.edu
and suggest books and Web sites.
Children’s Water Books:
Bailey-Rowland, Ann. Excuse Me Sir, That’s My Aquifer.
The Groundwater Foundation. Cassette tape with songs, booklet of sing-along-lyrics,
background notes, and student activities. GW@groundwater.org.
$14.50.
* Brandt, Keith. 1982. What Makes It Rain? The Story of a Raindrop.
USA: Troll Associates. Watercolor. Illustrator: Yoshi Miyake. www.troll.com.
$3.50.
* Hooper, Meredith. 1998. The Drop in My Drink: The Story of Water on Our
Planet. New York: Viking Press, a member of Penguin Putnam, Inc. www.penguinputnam.com.
$16.99.
* Hooper, Meredith. 2000. River Story. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Candlewick
Press. Oil, pastel, acrylic and pencil. Illustrator: Bee Willey. www.candlewick.com.
$15.99.
* Kerr, Kimberly. 1999. The Raindrops’ Adventure: From Raindrops to
Rainbows. Sewickley, PA: Kimberly Kerr Press. Illustrator: Kimberly Kerr.
* Locker, Thomas. 1997. Water Dance. New York: Harcourt Brace and Company.
www.harcourt.com. $16.
* Locker, Thomas. 1984. Where the River Begins. New York: Puffin Books.
$6.99.
* Locker, Thomas. 2000. Cloud Dance. New York: Silver Whistle/Harcourt
Inc. www.harcourt.com. $16.
Michel, Francois. 1993. Water. New York: Lothrup, Lee, and Shepard
Books.Illustrator: Yves Larvor. $19.95.
Rauzon, Mark J. and Cynthia Overbeck. Water, Water Everywhere. San Francisco:
Sierra Club. www.sierraclub.org/books.
$6.95.
* Relf, Patricia. 1996.The Magic School Bus Wet All over: A Book About
the Water Cycle. New York: Scholastic Inc. $3.50.
* Schaefer, Lola M. This Is the Rain. 2001. New York: Green Willow
Books. Illustrator: Jane Wattenberg. www.harperchildrens.com.
$15.95
* Schmid, Eleonore. 1989. The Water’s Journey. New York: North-South
Books. www.northsouth.com. $5.95.
* Spier, Peter. Peter Spier's Rain (Reading Rainbow Book). New York:
Picture Yearling Books. www.randomhouse.com/kids/catalog.
$6.99.
* Stevenson, Robert Louis. A Child's Garden of Verses. www.poets-corner.org.
van Rose, Susanna, and Anita Ganeri. 1999. The Big Atlas of the Earth and
Sea: The Forces that Make and Shake Our Planet. New York: DK Publishing,
Inc. Covent Garden Books. Illustrators: Richard Bonson and Luciano Corbella.
pp. 38–52. www.dk.com.
* Ward, Elsie. Follow a Raindrop: The Water Cycle. New York: Scholastic,
Inc. Super Science Reader Books. Includes six copies of student booklets.
$10.95.
Wick, Walter. 1997. Drop of Water: A Book of Science and Wonder. New
York: Scholastic Press. Illustrator: Walter Wick. $16.95.
* Denotes an easy-to-read book.
More
on the Web
• Blue Thumb Project - www.awwa.org/bluethum.htm
• Educating young people about water offers 143 drinking water curriculums
for children - www.uwex.edu/erc/eypaw/
• Enchanted Learning - www.enchantedlearning.com
• Franklin Institute Online - http://www.fi.edu/city/water/science.html
• Geography for Kids - www.geography4kids.com/index.html
• Mojave Water - http://www.mojavewater.org/Mwa800.htm#Hydrologic
• Teach the Children Well is a collection of links on more than 50 topics
for use by students in grades K-4 as well as their parents and teachers. -
http://www.teachthechildrenwell.com
• Water Education for Teachers - http://www.montana.edu/wwwwet/
• Water Science for Schools - ga.water.usgs.gov/edu/followdrip.html
• Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources - www.dnr.state.wi.us/org
About
the Author
Harriet Emerson, MSJ, National Environmental Services Center publications
supervisor, edited On Tap for five years. She has received awards for
writing and art including an award for a children’s book and a 1998 West
Virginia Division of Culture and History Fellowship in Literature.