Distribution of Water on Earth NGSS 5-ESS2-2

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Your students are going to love this lesson on the distribution of water on Earth. This lesson covers the total water on earth and compares the percentage of freshwater available in lakes, rivers, glaciers, ground water and the polar ice caps.

This lesson is easy to follow and fun to use and teach with. No prep, just print and teach.

This lesson has been designed to align with the NGSS standard 5-ESS2-2 “describe and graph the amounts of salt water and fresh water in various reservoirs to provide evidence about the distribution of water on Earth”.

 Distribution of Earth’s Water Reading Comprehension – students read about the distribution of water on earth and discover how little freshwater there is available to drink. They will answer questions based on the passage.

 Draw It – this is a fun activity that shows the students the total volumes of water and freshwater compared to the size of the earth. After reading the explanation they can create, label and color their own version.

 Make It – this is a great visualization of the amounts of water on Earth. The students will add water to cups to compare the total amount of water on earth, the amount of freshwater and the amount of river/lake water. This really helps them visualize and understand the tiny amounts of water available.

 Graph It – Total Water in this activity the students title, label and color a pie chart comparing the percentage of ocean water with freshwater on Earth. I’ve pre-made this pie chart as the difference in percentages is so wide that it can be difficult to make a readable graph.

 Graph It – Freshwater in this activity the students will draw a bar graph comparing the amounts of freshwater on earth.

 Graph It – Surface Freshwater in this activity the students will draw a bar graph comparing the amounts of surface freshwater on earth.

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