Squeeze and Count
A math activity in which students will learn about the finite nature of water resources while practising graph making skills and predicting the outcome of an experiment.
Hands-on Activity
Language: Oral Communication – 2, 4, 5, (p36)
Mathematics: Data Management and Probability – 25, 26, 27, 28
Science and Technology: Exploration and experimentation – 4, 9, 10
Sounds Like Water
A series of group activities in which students can visualize the benefits of regular hand washing through visualization and role-play.
Hands-on Group Activity
Personal and Social Development: 19, 32
Language: Oral Communication – 2, 9 (p36)
Health and Physical Activity: Health and Well-Being – 3 (p54), Physical Development and Activity, 8 (p55)
Grade 1
Resource
Activity
type
Expectations covered
Splish Splash A counting activity in which the class will learn to use music and singing as a way of marking time, as well as monitoring their water use.
Counting Activity
Mathematics: Number Sense - 2.2, 3.1; Measurement – 1.2, 1.3, 1.5, 1.6
Language: Oral Communication – L1.1
Arts : Music – 1.2, 1.3, 2.2
Two Seasons
While learning about their own seasons, the children will get a glimpse of what seasons are like in other countries. They will use their predicting and visualizing skills to understand how rain can shape the world around them.
Discussion/ Reading and Craft Activity
Science and Technology: Life Systems, 2.2, Earth and Space, 1.1, 1.2, 2.4, 2.6, 3.2, 3.5, 3.6
Water and Soil and Worms - Oh my! The student(s) will use listening skills, past experiences and past ideas to understand and assemble knowledge about the importance of water and soil before reading Diary of a Worm by Doreen Cronin. They will make predictions about and identify things that rely on water and soil for their creation and / or well-being, and gain a basic understanding of worms and how they link to water and soil.
Listening and Activating Prior Knowledge to Respond
Social Sciences – Canada and World Connections, Features of Communities Around the World: 2z1.3
Flowing Downhill
Students learn how rivers are formed while practicing the use of new verbs and creating their own river drip art.
Shared Reading and Craft Activity
Language: Oral Communication – L1.1, 1.3 Reading – 1.4, 1.6
Science and Technology: Life Systems – 2.2, 2.5; Matter and Energy – 2.1, 2.2, 2.3, 2.7,
The Arts: Visual Arts – 2.1, 2.21.7, 2.4
Grade 3
Resource
Activity
type
Expectations covered
Rivers of Time Students explore the setting of early Canadian life through problem-solving and reading. They will then demonstrate their understanding through a hands-on activity and a written response to an excerpt of the book.
Water Alive!
A discussion-based activity designed to challenge student’s existing knowledge about water both at home and overseas. This is a research-based activity designed to help generate an understanding about universal dependence on water. The students are asked to create an advertisement from the perspective of an African animal, challenging humans to take action on a water issue - related to their animal of choice
Create a Living Museum
This research-based activity is designed to help students identify and compare the ways in which people in various early civilizations interacted with and used the natural environment. Students are asked to create a poster or a play and make a group presentation to explore this question. Group discussions will identify how past inventions influence how we live today.
Collage – Our Heath and Water This research-based group activity is designed to help students identify the ways in which the human body depends on water for survival and health. Students will need to conduct individual research and then work together in a group to compile a common presentation.
Canada’s Link to a Global Community A group activity designed to increase student’s knowledge about Canada’s participation in international efforts to address current, global issues. In groups, students will research and make a dramatic presentation about Canadian organizations addressing these issues.
Clean Water An individual activity that uses microscopes to help student’s visualize the differences between clean and contaminated water. Students are then encouraged to think and write about the lives of people in developing countries without access to clean water.
Investigation
6s10, 6s15, 6e1, 6e2
Common Water Diseases A group presentation on a water-borne disease, designed to encourage students to think about the importance of clean water for human health.
A Walk For Water A group walk and discussion about the role of women as water collectors in developing countries.
Physical Fitness/Discussion
7p31, 7p36
Water and Geography A multi-step activity designed to teach students about water, initiate discussion about water and developing countries, and to have students make a group presentation about a specific African country of their choice.
1.1
In search of water An introductory activity
to highlight a variety of facts about water.
Web search
8s134,
8s135, 8s136, 8s137, 8s138, 8s139, 8s140
1.2
The quest for water
A
kinesthetic activity where students search for bodies of water
in the classroom.
Game
8s140,
8g19, 8e62, 8e63, 8p32, 8a34, 8a35
1.3
Bringing water home A cooperative game where students need to transport water to a given location.
Cooperative
game
8s 121,
8s140
, 8g19, 8e62, 8e63, 8p32
1.4
Water Usage Log Students will discover the uses of water in their daily lives and why water is important in their daily lives. They will track their personal and family use of water over the course of two days, and compare and graph their results. They will also identify the activities, which use the most amounts of water, and begin thinking in terms of reducing wastes of water!
Research
Graphing
8s139,
8s140,8g19, 8e 56, 8e62, 8e63, 8m108, 8m104, 8m112
1.5
Spending Water This game helps students determine uses of water as necessities or luxuries, and compare their lives in Canada with other countries around the world. Since water is not wholly a renewable resource, this activity also stresses the importance of long-term use and availability of water. This activity is open-ended to engage students in their own learning, and uses a practical problem-solving in small groups.
2.1
How does pollution affect nature? Plant growth is studied in the presence of 4 different types of pollutants, while making the connections between our food supply and the importance of clean water.
Experiment
8s126,
8s137, 8s138, 8s139, 8s141
2.2
Water Filtration and Purification Students will conduct a series of experiments to simulate water filtration and purification techniques; these will also be linked to conditions of water (man-made or natural). The experimentation will provide concrete, practical exposure to issues of the availability of clean drinking water, and the different processes involved to make water safe for human consumption.
2.3
Water Around the World This class project introduces students to water usage, and to data gathering and analysis. The Center for Improved Engineering and Science Education (CIESE) has set-up an Internet-based collaborative project which allows students to share information about water usage with other students from around the world. Students and others in their household will collect data for one week and use the information to determine the average daily water use per person. This data will be submitted to a world-wide data base to compare their average to others around the world.
Project
8s123
2.4
Water Cycling Students create a pictoral representation
of the key features of the water cycle.
Activity
8s122,
8s123
2.5
Bodies of Water
Students will research the different
types of bodies of water and share this information with classmates
to complete a worksheet.
Research
8s122,
8s123, 8s126
2.6
How Salty is Your Water? A
comparison of the availability of fresh water (liquid and
frozen) and salt water on the globe using a map of the world.
3.1
Rain Pain A
study of the effects of acid rain on seed germination.
Experiment
8s134
,
8s135, 8s136, 8s137, 8s138, 8s143
3.2
A Drop in the Ocean A
simulation of the effect of melting icebergs on global water
levels, along with calculations to emphasize observations.
Experiment
8s122
,
8s123, 8s132, 8s138
3.3
Saving Water Buckets
of water provide a model for the comparison between efficient
and wasteful water uses as students "use" water in daily activities.
Foreign Aid
A group project during which students must evaluate several Canadian Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) using criteria developed by the group.
Group Research/ Critical Thinking
Is There Enough Water?
Students will read and evaluate an article on the issue of water scarcity. Students will discuss possible solutions to this looming crisis.
Big Issues to Fill
An introduction to the issue of world water conservation by way of a quiz and an essay. Students will identify the issues arising from water management, as well as the issue most likely to be a catalyst for change.
Quiz/Essay
Academic and Applied Science (D1.1, D3.8, D3.7)
Acedemic and Applied English Writing (1.3, 1.4, 2.4, 2.5)
Adaptable Activities
Resource
Activity
type
Level
Water-Related Book List A variety of fiction, non-fiction and picture books appropriate for Primary through Intermediate students and teachers. (Word Version)
