1. Teacher Guide
This lesson is designed to teach kids to ask a critical thinking question that you can’t just put into a search box to solve. To do that, we encourage them with smaller questions that search can help them answer. Make sure that you read the notes for each slide: they not only give you teaching tips but also provide answers and hints so you can help the kids if they are having trouble.
Remember, you can always send feedback to the Bing in the Classroom team at You can learn more about the program at bing.com/classroom and follow the daily lessons on our Partners In Learning site.
Want to extend today’s lesson? Consider using Skype in the Classroom to arrange for your class to chat with another class in today’s location. And if you are using Windows 8, you can also use the Bing apps to learn more about this location and topic; the Travel and News apps in particular make great teaching tools.
Nell Bang-Jensen is a teacher and theater artist living in Philadelphia, PA. Her passion for arts education has led her to a variety of roles including developing curriculum for Philadelphia Young Playwrights and teaching at numerous theaters and schools around the city. She works with playwrights from ages four to ninety on developing new work and is especially interested in alternative literacies and theater for social change. A graduate of Swarthmore College, she currently works in the Artistic Department of the Wilma Theater and, in addition to teaching, is a freelance actor and dramaturg. In 2011, Nell was named a Thomas J. Watson Fellow and spent her fellowship year traveling to seven countries studying how people get their names.
This lesson is designed to teach the Common Core State Standard: Reading: Informational Text.
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RI.2.3 Describe the connection between a series of historical events, scientific ideas or concepts, or steps in technical procedures in a text.
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RI.2.5 Know and use various text features (e.g., captions, bold print, subheadings, glossaries, indexes, electronic menus, icons) to locate key facts or information in a text efficiently.
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RI.2.7 Explain how specific images (e.g., a diagram showing how a machine works) contribute to and clarify a text.
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RI.2.9 Compare and contrast the most important points presented by two texts on the same topic.

2. Kanarra Creek Canyon is part of the surrounding area’s limited water supply. Why do some parts of the world have more water than others?
© Paul Didsayabutra/500px
Having this up as kids come in is a great settle down activity. You can start class by asking them for thoughts about the picture or about ideas on how they could solve the question of the day.

3. Kanarra Creek Canyon is part of the surrounding area’s limited water supply. Why do some parts of the world have more water than others?
Two waterfalls delight hikers in Kanarra Creek Canyon, a slot canyon in southern Utah. The residents of nearby Kanarraville have taken responsibility for the creek and canyon, as it’s part of their limited water supply.
Depending on time, you can either have students read this silently to themselves, have one of them read out loud, or read it out loud yourself.

4. Kanarra Creek Canyon is part of the surrounding area’s limited water supply. Why do some parts of the world have more water than others? 1
Image Search
Find a diagram of the water cycle. Where does water come from? 2
Video Search
Find a video that takes you through the water cycle. Where does water go? 3
Web Search
What do we use water for? Why is limited water supply a serious concern? 4
Map Search
Find Kanarra Creek Canyon on a map of the U.S. How might its location help explain why the water supply there is limited? 5
Why does it rain in some places more than others?
There are a couple of ways to use this slide, depending on how much technology you have in your classroom. You can have students find answers on their own, divide them into teams to have them do all the questions competitively, or have each team find the answer to a different question and then come back together. If you’re doing teams, it is often wise to assign them roles (one person typing, one person who is in charge of sharing back the answer, etc.)

5. Kanarra Creek Canyon is part of the surrounding area’s limited water supply. Why do some parts of the world have more water than others? 5
Minutes
You can adjust this based on how much time you want to give kids. If a group isn’t able to answer in 5 minutes, you can give them the opportunity to update at the end of class or extend time.

6. Kanarra Creek Canyon is part of the surrounding area’s limited water supply. Why do some parts of the world have more water than others? 1
Image Search
Find a diagram of the water cycle. Where does water come from? 2
Video Search
Find a video that takes you through the water cycle. Where does water go? 3
Web Search
What do we use water for? Why is limited water supply a serious concern? 4
Map Search
Find Kanarra Creek Canyon on a map of the U.S. How might its location help explain why the water supply there is limited? 5
Why does it rain in some places more than others?
You can ask the students verbally or let one of them come up and insert the answer or show how they got it. This way, you also have a record that you can keep as a class and share with parents, others.

7. Kanarra Creek Canyon is part of the surrounding area’s limited water supply. Why do some parts of the world have more water than others? 1
Image Search
Find a diagram of the water cycle. Where does water come from?
(Possible queries: “Bing/Images: water cycle”, “Bing/Images: diagram water cycle”, “Bing/Images: water cycle for kids”).
Students should look at an image (such as the one found here: to determine that water travels in a circle. It comes to the earth by way of precipitation (snow, rain, etc…), travels back into the air through transpiration or evaporation, and then forms condensation which in turn leads to precipitation.

8. Kanarra Creek Canyon is part of the surrounding area’s limited water supply. Why do some parts of the world have more water than others? 2
Video Search
Find a video that takes you through the water cycle. Where does water go?
(Possible queries: “Bing/Videos: water cycle”, “Bing/Videos: water cycle animation”, “Bing/Videos: water cycle for kids”).
After watching a video animation (such as the one found here: students should articulate that water comes down from the sky through precipitation, collects in a body of water or goes into the ground, and then eventually goes back into the air through evaporation and transpiration.

9. Kanarra Creek Canyon is part of the surrounding area’s limited water supply. Why do some parts of the world have more water than others? 3
Web Search
What do we use water for? Why is limited water supply a serious concern?
(Possible queries: “what do we use water for?”, “why is water important?”, “danger of limited water supply”).
From
Water is our most precious resource. Water is vital to life. Humans, plants, and animals are made up of mostly water. All living things would die if it weren't for water. We use water for drinking, washing, cleaning, cooking, and growing our food as well as many, many other things. The average American uses around gallons of water daily. Even more water is used by industries to generate electricity, manufacture things, and transport people and goods.
Students should recognize that for all of these reasons, water is immensely important for sustaining life, as well as for helping people fulfill a wide variety of tasks. A limited water supply might mean would mean there is not enough water to go around.

10. Kanarra Creek Canyon is part of the surrounding area’s limited water supply. Why do some parts of the world have more water than others? 4
Map Search
Find Kanarra Creek Canyon on a map of the U.S. How might its location help explain why the water supply there is limited?
(Possible queries: Bing/Maps: Kanarra Creek Canyon, Utah”, “Bing/Maps: Kanarraville”).
For example:
Students should zoom out on the map until they can see Kanarraville in relationship to the rest of Utah and other surrounding states. They should note that it is in the middle of several states that are connected by land, without any major bodies of water in sight. This means that getting water from a lake or reservoir is probably impossible, and the climate would be drier than if it were closer to the coast. This might help explain why water supply is limited.

11. Kanarra Creek Canyon is part of the surrounding area’s limited water supply. Why do some parts of the world have more water than others? 5
Web Search
Why does it rain in some places more than others?
(Possible queries: “why does it rain in some places more than others?”, “why does rainfall vary?”).
From
Before it can rain, you must have moisture or humidity in the air. In order for there to be moisture in the air, water must evaporate. The best source for the air's moisture is the oceans and to a lesser extent large lakes like the Great Lakes. Air flows over these large bodies of water picking up moisture as it evaporates off the surface. The air then flows over the land and we feel it in the form of humidity. When air rises, such as up a mountain slope, or when encountering a cold front or warm front, the air cools and the moisture condenses into clouds and rain. Therefore, areas near oceans and lakes, and areas where the air flows off an ocean and up a mountain, are likely to get a lot of rain. If you live in a part of the country that gets a lot of weather fronts coming through, you will have more rain than areas that rarely see weather fronts, such as Arizona. If you live on the downwind side of the mountain, you will not see much rain. We call this a "rain shadow." This occurs because most of the moisture falls out as rain as the air rises up the one side of the mountain. Then, the air dries as it descends down the other side. This is another reason why Arizona and much of the Rocky Mountain region is much drier than other places in the country.

12. Kanarra Creek Canyon is part of the surrounding area’s limited water supply. Why do some parts of the world have more water than others?
This slide is a chance to summarize the information from the previous slides to build your final answer to the question. Students should use their understanding of the water cycle to explain where water comes form and where it travels to. They should recognize from their map reading and researching that some parts of the world get more rain than others due to how much moisture is in the air already and what the temperature is.