The discussion about rain was going on with students in class. I was asking them questions like, ‘How does the rain come? How does it fall down?’ They said that it came through clouds. Then I asked them how clouds came into existence, who put them in sky, what are they made up of? I planted these questions in their minds. And then I told them all about the rain cycle. During the discussion, one thing came out clearly that steam comes from water, and then this steam goes into the sky and it becomes clouds. But to make big clouds, a big amount of steam is required, so how is this steam made? One of the students answered, ‘My mother heats up water at home and then it produces steam and then it goes up. Like this, from all other homes also steam goes up in the sky…’
It was so funny but at the same time, the little girl had given a kind of hint to find out the answer and gave them all a direction for their search. After that, we started searching about water bodies in nature. Where do we find the sources of water? We went out of the school and roamed around and then the students remembered that there are water bodies such as ponds, lakes and rivers. I told all of them that there is the biggest water body of all, called the sea. Then they realized that the big amount of steam required for clouds comes from sea and they became very sure that sea was enough for making steam. But who heats up the sea? Quickly everybody answered, ‘The sun!’ Then I showed them a picture of the water cycle and from the picture they told each other how rain comes! The participation of the kids made this period so special and very pleasant also. I was feeling very satisfied by all this. —Madhuri
Photo and text courtesy Akshara. To learn more, click HERE.