Materials:

• Water use chart

• Daily use of water chart by country

• "Twists of fate" cards

• counters: tiles, beans, candies,... (to divide up daily water use)

Note: cards need to printed and cut out prior to the activity

1. Using the information from their water logs as referenced in Activity 1.4, have students tally the total volume of water they use per day. List countries for students and ask them to identify whether they use the same, less or more water per day. Ask students how they would change their day if they had less water to use. 
2. Tell students that they are going to play a game to test their ability to "spend" a water budget!
3. In groups of 4, students must break down their daily water amount into different uses (using the spending chart provided); a minimum of 5 L must be allocated for drinking and 20L for cooking/bathing. Each group is given a daily limit of 326 L to use over a 3-day period.
4. Allow students a few minutes to begin their planning, using counters/candies etc as manipulatives to help them if needed. Then, have one person from each group pick a "twist of fate" from a box (previously printed and cut up) without looking. Each paper describes either a fortunate or an unfortunate event that affects that group's water supply, to which they must then adjust their daily water expenditure (beginning on the second "day's" chart). For an added challenge, give groups another paper each after a few more minutes.
5. At the end, debrief with students about what challenges arose during the course of the game. Review the uses of water, and have students explain how they chose to categorize these into necessities and luxuries as their water limits rose/decreased. Post their ideas up on the board/overhead.
6. To involve a real world context, broaden the discussion to different countries (such as Africa), where daily water limits are as little as 10-20 litres. Discuss the possibility of water shortages in the future, and why there is such a concern today for conservation. 
7. As an extension to this activity, have students write a brief paragraph on how it would feel if Canada ever had such a low water limit, or a world without water, or perhaps even a poem or creative writing piece about the importance of water. 
8. As an alternate version of this game, each group could be given assigned to represent a different country, and have a different daily water limit to begin with. This would increase the challenge, and provide awareness of global water distribution and use (see chart provided).

FIn this case, the amounts of water in the "twist of fate" cards may have to be altered, or not used at all.

Observation of group skills and discussion.

Writing piece as an addition to a writing portfolio.

GLOBAL DISTRIBUTION OF WATER USAGE CHART

Source: Canadian Water Education Council www.cwec.ca