March 22, WATER DAY, is around the corner! If you’re looking for some nice activities to do with your students to celebrate the date, COME ALONG =)

Edit: Teacher Paula shared with us important thoughts on the topic:

• We should use “reusable” for the experiments. Water is an important item for kids development and we can manage to use water in a fair and sensible way.

 Do you know the water that goes down the drain while people wait to get in the shower? That’s the water I’ve been collecting for our experiments and I make that clear to our students.

1. Babies and toddlers (6m-3y)

                                                * Sand and water ocean sensory bin*

         Supplies:

• Storage bin
• Ocean animal toys
• Decorative shells
• Play sand
• Water
• Blue food coloring

          Set up:

• Pour sand on one side of the bin
• Place a bunch of shells at the edge of the sand to act like a barrier between the sand and water
• Slowing pour water on the other side of the bin. It’ll need to be fairly shallow to keep the water from totally going over into the sand.
• You can add a few drops of food coloring to the water and stir it in with a whisk
• Add the ocean animals to the water in the bin

          Play:

• As they are playing, we can talk to them about ocean animals and the ocean habitat. Why some animals are able to live in the ocean and others can’t. Why it’s important to keep the water clean, etc.

                                                                         * Ice boats*

         Supplies:

• disposable cup
• bendy straw
• scissors
• colored cardboard
• hole punch
• scotch tape

         Set up:

• glue a piece of scotch tape on the top of the straw.
• stick the straw to the bottom of the disposable cup so it stands still.
• fill half of the cup with water and put in the freezer.
• take the ice out of the cup carefully and make a triangle with the colored paper with two holes to be the sail of your boat.
• You can also put a action figure to sail.
• To make it even more fun you can add food coloring to the water in the bowl.

2. Children (4y-8y)

                                                       * Water pollution exploration*

         Supplies:

• Plastic bowl
• sponge cut in the shape of a fish attached with fish line
• Plastic cups with lids
• (Kitchen) ingredients that would represent a pollutant (green food coloring, dish soap, soil, salt, syrup, paper, coffee grounds)

          Play:

• Read the story of Freddie (the fish)
• Freddie was taking a journey in his river downstream and being exposed to various pollutants along the way.  Each time Freddie is exposed to a toxin, we pour a new item into the “water environment.” As we progress downstream, Freddie’s environment gets filthier and more dangerous for him.
• Throughout the activity, we can discuss how Freddie is feeling.  At the conclusion of it, we can brainstorm what could have been done differently with each pollutant so Freddie could have had a healthier environment.

                                                                    * Walking water*

         Supplies:

• At least 3 empty glasses
• Water
• Food coloring
• Paper towels

          Set up:

• Choose the colour you want to mix
• Fill a jar for each color and add food coloring
• We’ll need an additional empty glass of the same size for each pair of color
• Cut a paper towel in half and then fold it into quarters lengthwise. Stick one end of the paper towel into the colored water and one end into the empty jar
• Thanks to capillary action the water moves or “walks” up the paper towels into the empty jar. The middle jar fills up with water until the water levels of all the jars are equal
• When you start with primary colored water in the jars it also turns into a cool coloring mixing lesson

3. Pre-teens (9y-12y)

                                                              * Water cycle in a bag*

          Supplies:

• 1 ziplock plastic bag
• color markers (non-erasable ones)
• water
• blue food coloring
• packing tape

          Set up:

• Warm up the water until steam starts to rise but do not let it boil.
• Add blue food coloring into the water to represent ocean water.
• Pour the water into a ziplock bag and zip it up.
• Hang the bag upright on the window (or the door like I did) using packing tape.
• As the water evaporates, vapors rise and condense at the top of the bag. A white patch can be seen resembling clouds in the upper atmosphere.
• After a while, water droplets appear on the inside of the bag. As they become bigger, they will eventually slide downward. The sliding down resembles the flow stage that brings water back into the sea.
• If the water is still warm or if the bag is left on the window facing sunlight, it will keep cycling through the four different stages of the water cycle.Explore:Explore more about the water cycle by answering these questions.
• Can you describe the relationship between the water cycle and living things?
• How does snow fit into the water cycle process?
• What causes soil erosion?
• Have you seen the four stages of the water cycle appear in our daily lives?

                                                              * Exploring ocean layers* 

         Supplies:

• 5 small containers (like glass jars) that will easily stack.  If you don’t have small jars, try using small round food storage containers with lids
• Water
• Food coloring (you’ll need blue, red & green to make all 5 layers)
• Ocean creatures
• Paper & pen so you can label each ocean layerSet up:
• Write out the names of the 5 Ocean Layers/Zones so you can use them to label your bottles:Sunlight ZoneTwilight ZoneMidnight ZoneAbyssTrenches
• If you’re using any animal figures, be sure to put them into the containers first!  
• There is an octopus and eel in our midnight zone. Dumbo octopus lives there along with certain species of eels so we can added them.  
• Once you’ve added your animals, fill each container with water and then add food coloring for each of your ocean zones.
• Our containers used about 6 oz. of water so you may have to adjust your food coloring depending on how much water is added to your containers.  We added the following drops of food coloring to each jar:Sunlight Zone — we touched a toothpick to the blue food coloring and then tipped it into the bottleTwilight Zone — 1 drop blueMidnight Zone — 2 drops blueAbyss — 4 drops blueTrenches — 5 drops blue, 2 drops green & 1 drop red
• Now comes the cool part — stack your containers!

4. Teens (13y-16y)

                                                                *Edible water bottle*

Ecologically friendly, this method is great for cutting down on all the plastic that comes from purchasing hundreds of water bottles.

         Supplies:

• sodium alginate (we can find online)
• calcium lactate (we can find online)
• big glass bowl
• 5 cups of water
• small bowl
• another bowl for rinsing
• hand mixer
• curved spoon
• tablespoon
• slotted spoon
• shallow plate

         Set up:

• fill the big bowl with 4 cups of water.
• fill the small bowl with 1 cup of drinking water.
• put 1 gram of sodium alginate in the small bowl.
• use the hand mixer to incorporate the ingredients.
• once the ingredients are properly incorporated, set the mixture aside for 15 minutes to ensure that there are no air bubbles.
• after 15 minutes, get 5g of calcium lactate and add to the 4 cups of water in the big bowl.
• then mix well with a spoon.
• once it’s dissolved, take your curve spoon and scoop up some of the sodium alginate solution and gently plop it into the calcium lactate bath (3 spoons).
• we should see if form into a ball right away.
• make sure not to crowd the bath with too much sodium alginate.
• then with a spoon stir the solution very gently for about 3 minutes.
• after 3 minutes, take a slotted spoon and very carefully lift out the water bubbles and put them in a bath of regular water (the bowl for rinsing) to stop the reaction.
• take it out and put the bubbles on a shallow plate.
• Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YLjzsfgk198&feature=youtu.be

                                                              * Why does water raise?*

         Supplies:

• shallow bowl or dish
• water
• food coloring
• candle
• large glass jar

         Set up:

• set the candle on the middle of the plate and pour about ½ to 1 cup of water on the plate.
• light your candle and place the jar upside-down over de candle.
• then sit back and watch.
• Video on the website: https://www.steampoweredfamily.com/activities/water-rise-best-science-experiments/

5. Adults

Discussion from videos

https://www.ted.com/talks/david_sedlak_4_ways_we_can_avoid_a_catastrophic_drought?referrer=playlist-talks_on_water

https://www.ted.com/talks/michael_pritchard_invents_a_water_filter?referrer=playlist-talks_on_water

5 apps to help you save water

https://www.cnet.com/how-to/5-apps-to-help-you-save-water/

#WaterDay #EducaçãodeÁgua #AtividadesEducativas #CiênciaParaCrianças