This year, I am working with 6- to 7-year-old students. They love stories a lot and are very curious and kind-hearted, eager to learn and get involved. Therefore, I proposed to them to celebrate World Water Day through a series of activities through which they learned the story of the water drop.

I used the graphic organizer “I know / I want to know / I learned” and I wrote down what they already knew about water and what they wanted to know.

To understand what water is, I guided the students through several experiments that challenged them to become little scientists, and I pointed out the following facts about water: it is a flowing liquid body, it takes the shape of the vessel in which it is placed, it has no color, taste, and odor if it is clean, it is transparent, it is everywhere in the body of people, animals, and plants. We highlighted, with the help of the mirror, the existence of water vapor in the exhaled air so children understood that water can be in different states of aggregation and, under certain conditions, passes from one state of aggregation to another naturally or under human action. I also showed them water vapor coming out of a pot in which the water boiled, how it condensed on the cold lid, and how ice cubes melted in their warm hands. I used educational resources to retain the knowledge they gained through experiments, but also to emphasize the importance of water for life on our planet:

1. The Educational Pack: Terra Mission. Theme 5: Water (8 – 10 years), https://teacher.gynzy.com/#/en-us/docent/board/959c42b9-31ec-4b53-9d9d-31170e4570ce
2. Practicing how to save water, https://teacher.gynzy.com/#/en-us/docent/board/735c5f03-c40d-4079-9133-8444147d22d2

Children love teamwork, coloring, and cutting, they know how to read. I continued the activity with the creation of a book “The story of the water drop”. After coloring and cutting, they assembled the booklet by placing the pages in the correct order according to the water circuit in nature and then they read the story of the water drop. In the end, we practiced saving water by washing our hands properly, we made drawings in teams, Chatterpix videos, and WordArt word clouds with messages about the importance of water and the need to save it. We also played a WordWall game on this topic. The pedagogical value of the activity resided in the fact that activities were connected with real-life experiences and formed skills such as critical thinking, creative thinking, collaboration, communication, information, communication, and technology (ICT).  This kind of activities should be used because project-based learning turns students into small scientists who learn by doing, and who will better understand the value of water and the importance of saving it. This kind of learning changed their minds from an empty box into a laboratory of ideas.

Pictures provided by the author (Attribution CC-By)

About the author: Cristina Noaghiu

Although she is a 36-year-old primary school teacher, she is still amazed by the children’s curiosity and pleasure in exploring the world. She joined the Scientix Ambassadors team because she wants to improve her work with her students and make them little scientists.

Tags: sustainability