KANSAS RIVER:
WHERE DO THEY COME FROM?
WHERE DO THEY FLOW?
WHICH ONES MAKE THE KANSAS RIVER GROW?
Kathleen Lomshek
McCune Attendance Center
McCune, KS
Overview:
Students will be introduced to the major rivers in Kansas, their direction of flow, and tributaries of the Kansas River. Water flow and water-born particles will not stop at state or county boundaries. Knowing the origin, flow direction, and merging of streams is the first step in understanding how occurrences upstream affect water quality and quantity downstream.
 
Grade Level: 4th and 5th
 
Time Needed:
about one hour for Lesson One: about 30 minutes per student for Lesson Two (with several working at the same time)
 
Outcome:
The student will understand that water flow is immune to state boundaries; that Kansas streams generally flow eastward, most of them from or into neighboring states; that tributaries add to the volume of water in a river.
 
Geographic Themes:
Regions, Movement
 
Kansas Social Studies Standard (Grades K-5):
The student will understand the connections among people, places, and environments in the classroom, local school, community, Kansas, the U.S., and different regions of the world.
 
National Geography Standards:
The geographically informed person knows and understands:
 #5 that people create regions to interpret Earth’s complexity. By the end of 4th grade, the student knows and understands the concept of region as an area of Earth’s surface with unifying geographic characteristics. By the end of 8th grade, the student knows and understands the connections among regions.
 #7 the physical patterns that shape the patterns of Earth’s surface. By the end of 4th grade, the student knows and understands the components of Earth’s physical systems. By the end of 8th grade, the student knows and understands how to predict the consequences of physical processes on Earth’s surface.
 
 
Vocabulary:
 source stream 
 mouth  river basin (drainage basin)
 tributary  natural resource
 fork  
 
Performance Objective:
(DAY ONE) The student will locate the identify major rivers of Kansas on a map; mark the direction of flow from or into surrounding states;
(DAY TWO) on a map, locate the rivers and their tributaries that feed the Kansas River, then glue thread on these, showing how tributaries add to the volume of water in a river.

Materials: (included in the lesson plan)

Each student needs:
The teacher needs:
 
Procedures:
1. 
 Display the title of the lesson and the directive to have their colors, paper, and pencil ready.
 2. Instruct small group or partners to discuss and record ways we use rivers and to write names of any Kansas rivers or streams they know (specify a time limit: 3 or 4 min.) Each group reads its list to the class. 
 3.
Discuss why rivers are a natural resource, why the students as citizens should learn about them, and tell them the purpose of today’s work: to become familiar with the main rivers in Kansas and the directions they flow. (about 3 min).
 4. Turn on overhead with transparency as their maps are handed out. 
 5. Draw a compass rose with cardinal and intermediate directions, and tell the students to do the same with their pencils. For reinforcement, have them label the cardinal directions in the margins. Also in the margins, have them label the 4 states around Kansas: “the state north of Kansas is (Nebraska)” etc. Do the same on the overhead map. 
 6.
Instruct the students: “I will give you a clue to the name of a Kansas river. You will have 20 seconds to find the name on your map that fits the clue. When I clap (or some other signal), call out the name. I will mark the correct name in red on my map, and you mark the name, not the whole river, in red on your map. You can help each other by pointing to the name you’ve found. Ready: 
This river is:
 (a) the name of our state (Kansas) 
 (b) spelled the same as a state southeast of Kansas, but pronounced differently(Arkansas, pronounce ar-kan’-sas) 
 (c) the name of the state east of Kansas (Missouri) 
 (d) the name of a political party, shown in 2 places (Republican and South Fork Republican) 
 (e) the name of a wise king in the Bible. It is in 3 places and starts with S-o-l (Solomon, North Fork Solomon, and South Fork Solomon) 
 (f) the name of a nut (Walnut) 
 (g) a French name with -dig- in it; it is pronounced ver-di-gree’ and could mean greenish-gray (Verdigris) 
 (h) a French name that means Marsh of the Swans; the French would pronounce it mah-reh’day seen’-yih; local people usually say mahr deh seen’; it has 3 words and is in the east. (Marias des Cygnes) 
 (i) an Indian name that ends with an -O (Neosho) 
 (j) the name of a cattle trail, ends with -ron, and is in two places (Cimarron) 
 (k) named as if a high part of the land was burning (Smokey Hill) 
 7.

Throughout item #7, a mark directional arrows on the overhead map as you direct students in marking their maps. Tell the students:

Look at the streams on the western boundary of Kansas. Where would these probably have their sources? (Rocky Mountains) Which direction will these rivers be flowing? (from west to east) Why? (higher elevation in the west). Using red, I want you to mark arrows to show that these 9 streams flow from the west into Kansas (arrows will point to the entry of these streams into Kansas; partners check each other’s maps for accuracy).
Now I’m going to mark 4 streams that flow N. E. into Nebraska. Slant your arrows to the N.E. as you mark these streams. From Nebraska, 5 streams flow south into Kansas. Mark these to show the direction of flow. One river flows into Neb, then back into KS. Which one? (Republic) Use blue arrows to connect the South Fork Republican and the Republican.
Look at eastern Kansas. Mark red arrows to show 3 streams flowing east into Missouri. What are they? (Kansas River, Marias des Cygnes, and one unnamed: it is the little Osage River). In S.E. KS., in Cherokee Co., one stream has its source near Springfield, MO. (Point to it on the overhead) Which direction does it flow? (the Spring River flows S.W. into KS., then south into OK.) Why? (lower elevation than in S.W. MO.)
Find S.W. KS. Describe the direction of flow of the Cimarron River (east into KS. from Col., S.E. into Ok., north into Kansas, south into Ok.) Use blue arrows to show this flow. (mark the overhead). With red, mark 6 other streams that flow south into Ok. 
 8. Concluding questions: Which way do Kansas rivers generally flow? (west to east, and southeast in the Flint Hills region) What is a stream? (flowing water) Are all rivers streams? (yes) Are all streams rivers? (no) 



Materials: ( included in this lesson plan) (provided by the teacher)
Each student needs:
Procedures:
 1. Display title of lesson and the materials they need. 
 2. Display and tell them the purpose of today’s work: identifying rivers and their tributaries that feed the Kansas River, and to see how tributaries increase the amount of water flowing in a river. 
 3. Display a list of group members (8 or less per group). Tell all students to trace the Smoky Hill and Kansas Rivers and all of their tributaries in orange, to label surrounding states, and to draw a compass rose. 
 4. While you begin one group with the glue, have the others categorize the names of Kansas streams. Display a list of categories: Indian names, colors, plants, places, animals, directions, add any categories of your own. See EXTENSIONS for other activities.
WITH EACH GROUP 
 5. Check that all streams in the Smoky Hill-Saline, Solomon, and Kansas-Lower Republic River Basins have been traced. Tell the students the thread represents water in the streams, which merge and flow to Missouri. Every line of glue and piece of thread placed on the streams must therefore continue along the Kansas River until it meets the Missouri River. All glue and thread is applied from west to east, to duplicate the direction the water flows. 
 6. Demonstrate using a student’s map. Begin a thin line of glue on the Smoky Hill River; have the student finish it to Missouri. Lay one end of the thread (1 ft. long) in the glue just west of the Colorado line, since this river flows into Ks. from Col. Use one toothpick to hold thread in place at each bend of the river, as you maneuver the thread along the river to the next bend. Have the student finish the thread along the Kansas River trim off any excess slightly east of the state line, showing that the water flows into Missouri. 
 7. Other students in the group then proceed, placing glue and thread along one stream at a time. When finished, the Kansas River, from Leavenworth County going east, should have 13 threads in it. Each student will have formed a strong visual impression of the effect tributaries have on water volume, as the water and anything in it flows downstream to merge with other streams. 

Assessment: (using a map showing Kansas rivers)
 1. Students would count named and unnamed tributaries of a given river, then identify the named tributaries if any. They would specify if this river was itself a tributary for a large river. 
 2. Students would indicate the direction of flow for a given river, by filling in applicable facts on a chart, with the following headings: the state from which the river came, the first and last countries in Kansas through which it flows, any larger rivers with it merges, and the state into which it flows. 
 3. Ask a student to move a finger along a given river to show the direction of flow. 
 4. Students can invite a member of the local River Basin Advisory Committee to the classroom. (names and addresses from the Kansas Water Office) 
 5. Why did the Governor’s Water Quality Initiate first focus in 1996 on the Lower Republican-Kansas River Basin? Students can plot the location of Kansas towns and cities along various rivers, depicting population using dots (each dot represents 10,000 people) to see one connection: the rivers in N.E. Kansas supply the densest population in the state with drinking water. 

References:
 
 
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