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Description

To promote an understanding of the value of water - where it comes from and how to conserve it. To understand how children in some communities have to travel to find water. Introduction: Water is the most precious resource in the world. Without it nothing can survive. Having plenty of clean water is a privilege for those that have it but also a responsibility. Children need to be taught that they have a responsibility to protect our water supply for future generations. A sense of responsibility and stewardship is important so that children have an awareness of our need for water, its benefits and the issues that surround water for us and those in other countries BB Junior Pro Pack C-2-2

Resources

Activity 1
Glass of water
Bucket of water
Toothbrush and toothpaste

Activity 2
Whiteboard or flipchart
Marker pens

Activity 3
Celery
Water
Food colouring
Potato
Bowls
Salt

Instructions

Activity 1 Did you know

Aim: To teach the young people about water.

Instructions:
Today we are going to play Did you know’ and look at some interesting facts about water.
• Does anybody know any facts about water?
• Do you know where it comes from?
• Or how it gets to the tap?

Listen to their answers and then slowly work through the following list letting the children respond if they want to.
• Did you know that without water, the Earth would look like the moon?
• Did you know that almost SO percent of the Earth’s surface is covered with water?
• Did you know that if there was no water on Earth, there would be no plants, animals or humans?
• Did you know that it takes about 5 litres of water to brush your teeth when you leave the water on?

Show the children the bucket of 5 litres of water and ask them if they think that they should need that much water to brush just their teeth? Tell them that they should turn the tap off when they brush their teeth and only turn it back on when they need the water again.
• Ask a child to brush their teeth using only a glass of water.
• Did you know that the human body is almost 70 percent water? Every part of our body uses water.
• Did you know that people can live several weeks without food, but only a few days without water ?

Activity 2 How much water do we use

Aim: To think about how much water we use and to compare with a family in Africa.

Instructions:
Let’s think about how much water we use in a day and then compare that to a family living in Africa.

So who can think of different ways we use water? Washing, cooking, brushing teeth, drinking, gardening.

In this country we can turn on the tap and we get fresh clean water. It is not the same for everyone. In other countries many families have to walk a long way to fetch water and it is not always clean water. They may have a container that takes 15 litres of water which is very heavy and the children around your age sometimes have to carry that home. Because of this there is not much water to use. The family has to be very careful with their water and not use so much.

So let’s see the difference in how much water we use and how much a family in Africa might use.

See attached for chart

You could have the chart completed on the side and ask the children to guess the other side.

So there is a big difference isn’t there. We must try to be more careful in the way that we use water. How can we use less water?

Ways could include:
• Turn off the tap when we brush out teeth.
• Don’t leave a dripping tap
• Only use what we need
• Don’t leave the water on in the garden for too long.

Activity 3 Water

Aim: To look at water through experimentation and consider our choices.

Salty Potato Experiment:
• Two bowls
• Potato
• Salt
• Label saying Salty
• Water

Preparation:
Try the experiments before so that you know what happens and it is not a surprise to you.

Instructions:
Water is our most important resource - in fact it’s so important that nothing can live without it.

Can you tell me, what is the best drink to drink when you are really thirsty? The best drink to quench your thirst? Answer — Water also known as H20

Water has no sugar, which is found in fruit drinks. fizzy drinks, so it does not cause any tooth decay. Tap water is also free and costs you absolutely nothing. It is always available, so you do not need to the shop to get it.

The first two experiments need to be set up at the beginning of the session and then at the end of the session take the children back to see what has happened.

Thirsty Celery Experiment:
• Put a stalk of celery into a tall glass.
• Fill up the glass with a mixture of water and food colouring to about 2/3rd of the way up the glass.
• Leave the celery in the glass and put it to one side
• Ask the children what they think will happen?
• When you return to check the experiment you should see that the celery has been drinking the water and is coloured with the food colouring.
• Tell the children that the celery is like our bodies. We are made up of water and so is the celery. The celery needs to drink water to stay alive just we do. Without drinking water each day our bodies won’t work properly so it is very important that we drink water.

Salty Potato Experiment:
• Cut a potato in half.
• Fill two bowls with water.
• Mix salt into one of the bowls and mark a label with salty next to it.
• Put one half of the potato into each bowl flat side down.
• When you return to the experiment at the end of the session the salt water will have drawn the water out of the potato, making it shrivel up.

Tell the children that we are just like a potato, and salty food and drinks - like crisps and fizzy drinks make us thirsty. So we should not eat these foods all the time.

Give them a glass of water each at the end of the session. Get them to think about how refreshing water is.

Extension Tasks/Adaptations:
Have a look at Tear Fund www.tearfund.org

Devotion Links:
Don’t get spiritually dehydrated
Spiritual dehydration happens when our walk with God starts to dry up. This can happen quite easily. A bit like the potato — when you are only absorbing the salt of the world it will drain the spiritual life out of you and you will shrivel up. And it can happen very easily. Maybe school is a place where there are not many Christians and it is hard to stand up for Jesus. The only way to battle spiritual dehydration is to drink the living water that Jesus promises us and we need to drink it often. This means coming to BB, reading your Bible and praying that God will help you to stand up for Jesus each day.

John 7:38 (NW)
Whoever believes in me. as Scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from within them.

Additional Resources:
• Have a look at Oxfam’s resources: www.oxfam.org.uk/education/resources
• Have a look at Water Aid’s learning Zone: www.wateraid.org/uk/learn_zone/

For full details see the BB Junior Pro Pack C2-2

Tags

• community
• experimnet
• water
• Water use

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