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The Wonder of Water

Exploring Sustainability and Literacy through "The Waterhole" by Graeme Base

Learning Module

Abstract

Year 1 and 2 students learn about water as a resource, the different forms of water, how we use water and how we can save water. They also focus on literacy through studying 'The Waterhole' by Graeme Base, write sentences, and create persuasive texts and posters to persuade others to save water.

Keywords

Science, English, Environmental Studies, Water, Sustainability, Literacy, English

Knowledge Objectives

As a result of completing this learning module, students will be able to:

EXPERIENTIAL OBJECTIVES

English - Literacy

Comprehension strategies (Year 1)

  • Understand and recall literal information and ideas in texts.
  • Interpret and make inferences about texts.

Comprehension strategies (Year 2)

  • Use comprehension strategies when listening to, viewing and reading texts, including making connections between their own knowledge and the content of texts, making informed inferences, summarising and visualising.

Literature (Year 1)

  • Discuss characters and events in a range of literary texts and share personal responses to these texts, making connections with students' own experiences.

Science Inquiry Skills

Questioning and predicting

  • Respond to and pose questions, and make predictions about familiar objects and events

Planning and conducting

  • Participate in different types of guided investigations to explore and answer questions, such as manipulating materials, testing ideas, and accessing information sources

Processing and analysing data and information

  • Use a range of methods to sort information, including drawings and provided tables

CONCEPTUAL OBJECTIVES

Science Understanding

Earth and space sciences

  • Local environment (year 1): Identify physical features of the local environment, including the sky and landscape. 
  • Earth's resources (year 2): Identify Earth's resources, including water, and the ways they are used. 
  • Understand where tap water comes from.
  • Understand water is a resource.

ANALYTICAL OBJECTIVES

English - Language

Text structure and organisation (text innovations, exposition, poster)

Year 1

  • Understand patterns of repetition and contrast in simple texts.
  • Recognise that different types of punctuation, including full stops, question marks and exclamation marks, signal sentences that make statements, ask questions, express emotion or give commands.
  • Identify the parts of a simple sentence that represent 'What is happening?', 'Who or what is doing or receiving the action?' and the circumstances surrounding the action.
  • Explore differences in words that represent people, places and things (participants/nouns and pronouns), actions (processes/verbs), and details like when, where and how (circumstances/adverbs).

Year 2

  • Understand that different types of texts have identifiable text structures and language features that help the text serve its purpose.
  • Understand how texts are made cohesive through resources, for example, word associations, synonyms and antonyms.
  • Understand the use of vocabulary about familiar and new topics and experiment with and begin to make conscious choices of vocabulary to suit audience and purpose.

APPLIED OBJECTIVES

Science Inquiry Skills

Communicating

  • Represent and communicate observations and ideas in a variety of ways such as oral and written language, drawing and role play (ACSIS029)

English Literacy

Creating texts: Year 2

  • Create a short persuasive text using growing knowledge of text structures and language features for familiar and some less familiar audiences, selecting print and multimodal elements appropriate to the audience and purpose (ACELY1671)
  • Reread and edit text for spelling, sentence-boundary punctuation and text structure (ACELY1672)
  • Write legibly and with growing fluency using unjoined upper case and lower case letters (ACELY1673)

General Capabilities

  • Literacy
  • Critical and creative thinking
  • Ethical behaviour
  • Personal and social competence

Cross Curriculum perspectives

  • Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander histories and cultures
  • Sustainability

1. What Watery Things Can you See?

For the Student

Learning Intention: To understand where we use water in our lives.

In this learning module we will investigate:

Why is water an important resource?

Why is conserving water so important?

How do I create a persuasive text?

How can I write interesting sentences?

1. Look at the picture:

What can we see happening?

Where is the water coming from? Water is found in the ocean too. Where else can you find water?

Fig. 1: Where does the water come from?

2. What other activities and things do we use water for at home?

As we brainstorm a list, let's sort these into groups/categories.

3. We are going to use a journal to track how many times we use water for different activities at home and at school.

We will use a tally mark to keep track of each time we use water for the various activities.

 

For the Teacher

Establishing Prior Knowledge on Water Usage

Purpose: In this update students investigate:

  • Where does water come from?
  • How do we use water?
  • Where do we use water at home?

Students develop an understanding of all the different uses of water in the home, from brushing teeth to watering the garden.

Use visuals of water sources to engage discussion about sources of water and how and where we use water.

Use Worksheet 2 for students to sort water uses into three categories:

  • To Keep Me Clean
  • For a Healthy Body
  • For a Healthy Environment

Then set up a journal for students to keep track of their water usage at home and school.

Resources

Worksheet 2

Journals

2. The Shape of Water

For the Student

Learning Intention: To understand that water changes shape.

We are going to explore whether water can have different shapes or not.

In small groups we are going to use a measuring cup and fill each of our containers with one cup of water.

Answer the following questions:

  • What happens?
  • Do the containers look like they have different amounts of water in them?
  • What is the shape of the water in each container?

Now we are going to draw and colour the shapes of water that we can see.

Fig. 2: What happens to water when you pour it into these shapes?

 

For the Teacher

Water Changes Shape

Using a simple experiment students discover that the same amount of water can hold a different shape.

For this experiment students will need to bring in a variety of clear, unbreakable containers that are different shapes and sizes.

3. What does Water Feel, Taste, Smell and Look Like?

For the Student

Learning Intention: To understand how fresh and salt water are the same and different.

We are going to use a simple experiment to investigate what water:

- feels like

- looks like

- tastes like

- smells like

Have a look at the water in the glass? What does it look like? What words can you think of to describe the water? Let's write those words down on our worksheet.

Bring the glass of water up to your nose, take a big sniff? What does it smell like? What are some words you can think of to describe how the water smells? Let's write those words down on our worksheet.

Now let's take a sip of the water. What are some words we can think of to describe how the water tastes? Let's write those words down on our worksheet.

Now place your finger into the water? What does it feel like? What are some words you can think of to describe this? Let's write those words down on our worksheet.

Now we are going to add some salt to the water. Repeat the above process using the salted water, writing down observations after each step.

Let's have a look at the last part of our worksheet? What was the same and what was different about each glass?

Fig. 3: Use a glass of tap water for your experiment and then repeat it with salt water.

 

For the Teacher

Some Properties of Water

Students experience what both fresh water and salt water feels like, looks like, smells like and tastes like using this simple experiment.

Students explore the above features of fresh water first and note down their observations.

Salt is then added to the water and students repeat the same process as above, noting down their new observations.

Resources

Water Observation Worksheet

Water Observation Worksheet

 

4. What Types of Water do you Know?

For the Student

Learning Intention: To identify different forms of water.

Think about what different kinds of water water sources you know. Partner up and share. Then share with the whole class.

Fig. 4: Gordon Pond is a form of water near our school

Using a Google Map of Canberra, let's label the various water sources in our region.

 

For the Teacher

Forms of Water

During share time, record all student ideas of forms of water they know. Define or explain any new vocabulary or forms of water. Add to vocabulary wall.

Teaching Tips

Refer to earlier activity (Establishing Prior Knowledge) to help engage discussion about forms of water and with naming and locating the various water sources in and around Canberra.

Use Google Earth to locate waterways in Canberra.

5. What can Water Do?

For the Student

Learning Intention: To understand what happens to water when you add cold or heat.

We know that water can change its shape, now let's see if water can change between a liquid and solid.

With your teacher, fill up an ice cube container and place it into the freezer.

Record the changes you see.

Share your observations of what was happening to the water with the class.

Take the ice cube tray from the freezer and continue watching.

Let's use a kettle to warm up some water. What can you see happening out the spout of the kettle?

What is happening to the cardboard above the kettle and why?

Share what you have seen happening to water during the day.

What have you learnt today? Write about this in the Reflection box on your worksheet.

Fig. 5: What happens to water when you heat it?

 

For the Teacher

Warming and Cooling Water

Having previously looked at water being to change its shape students will now look at how water can transform between a solid and liquid.

Use an 'observation sheet', to note the changes to the water in the ice cube tray at 45 min intervals throughout the day (or until the water has frozen). Model this first.

Warming Cooling Water Observation Worksheet

Through cooling and freezing water and by documenting their observations, students will see that water can become a solid.

Using a kettle to warm water students will see that can water boil, create steam and also condensation.

Place a piece of cardboard just above the spout of the kettle and ask students what they can now see happening out of the spout of the kettle.

Engage students in a discussion about what water can do, from what they have observed. Use a Think-Pair-Share or Round Robin structure to ensure all students participate in the discussion.

Model how to record their observations then guide students to complete the reflection section of their observation worksheet.

6. The Water Cycle

For the Student

Learning Intention: To understand how rain is formed in the water cycle.

Watch How rainfall is formed. It will show you how water is always being cycled around the environment.

Media embedded September 21, 2016

Let's look at a Kids Zone website about the water cycle

Look at the water cycle poster to see some of the new ideas about water and the water cycle.

Make your own water cycle diagram by arranging pictures in the right order. Explain your water cycle diagram to a partner.

For the Teacher

Where does Water Come from? (Water Cycle)

The purpose of this lesson is to view the water cycle so that children have a better understanding of where our water comes from.

After having watched and discussed the clip, go through the website withy the students, linking what students see to what they learned about water in their water experiments, e.g. links between steam from kettle and condensation. Use a class water cycle poster to clarify some of the technical terms used.

Students will then go back and do an individual task of sequencing pictures of the water cycle, using The Water Cycle Picture Sort. Students can cut out the imag s and then glue them on the correct place. Encourage them to use the correct terminology as they explain the water cycle to their partners.

Water Cycle Picture Sort

 Note: This picture sort is scaffolded for students to develop their technical vocabulary as well as their understanding of the water cycle. In the next update, they will be challenged to sort with pictures only.

7. How Water Gets to our Taps

For the Student

Learning Intention: To understand how water comes out of our taps.

Let's look at the water cycle again. Reorder them into the correct sequence

At what point of the Water Cycle do you think it would be easiest for us to get the water to use it? 

How is the water saved so it flows into our taps at home?

Fig. 7: Water travels by pipes from a dam to our taps.

For the Teacher

Where does Water Come from? (Dam to Tap)

Having learnt about the water cycle the purpose of this lesson is to explain how the water gets from the rivers and dams into our homes.

This lesson combined with the previous lesson should be building on the students' understanding of the importance to conserve water, that it doesn't just appear magically out of nowhere.

Review Water Cycle lesson by using pictures of the Water Cycle with which the students have to put in correct order.

Whilst reviewing the Water Cycle draw particular focus to the rivers, lakes and streams of the Water Cycle.

8. Questacon

For the Student

Learning Intention: To experience interesting things as you learn about water.

Let's have some fun learning at Questacon.

At the Questacon, let's get hands on and boil water, launch a hydrogen rocket, pump water towards the ceiling, find out how much water is used to manufacture food and clothing, or design a water-efficient city.

Fig. 8: Let's experiment at the Questacon

 

For the Teacher

Excursion to Canberra's Questacon

This is a hands on, engaging experience for students to learn some important facts about water.

H2O—Soak Up the Science is Questacon's new permanent exhibition about water, with 16 interactive exhibit s about how water behaves, how it shapes our world and how we use this precious resource.

Purpose

This excursion will allow students to interact with a variety of exhibits about how water shapes our world and how we use this precious resource.

Teaching Tips

Whilst in the Water Expo, focus students' attention on the following exhibits:

  • Boil Water
  • Evaporation
  • Future Cities
  • Groundwater
  • Hydrotram

9. How is Water a Resource?

For the Student

Learning Intention: To understand why water is a resource.

What is a resource?

What are some of the features of a resource?

Let's make a class definition of a resource.

How is water a resource?

Fig. 9: A potato crop

For the Teacher

Naming Resources

The purpose of this lesson is to build a class understanding of a resource. This understanding is the basis for students taking action to conserve water in the updates that follow.

Students will list the resources that they know (and think are). Lead a class discussion about the similarities and differences between the things listed to come up with a common thread of features. Shorten the list down as a result of the discussion around what a resource should be.

As a class come up with a class definition of a resource. (Display in class)

Teaching Tips

In brainstorming possible natural resources, consider: coal, oil, trees, rock, land, fresh water, air, gold, iron, copper, silver, wind, sunlight, solar power, oceans, soil, rivers, natural gas, food - fish, birds etc.

Students could record their idea from the Think-Pair-Share on post-it notes and then put them on the whiteboard, grouping and sorting as they place them. Students could then see what ideas were most popular.

10. Is Water the Most Important Natural Resource?

For the Student

Learning Intention: To understand why water is so important.

As a class make a list of all the natural resources you can think of.

With a partner or in a group of three, rank them from most important to least important.

Discuss where you have ranked water. Why?

Share your ranking of water with the whole class.

Reflect: Is water an important resource. Why?

Fig. 10: What if there was not enough water?

 

For the Teacher

Purpose

This activity enables students to draw together a lot of their learning from the texts, experiments and excursion, and develop their understanding of the importance of water by comparing it to other resources.

Teaching Tips

In brainstorming possible natural resources, consider: coal, oil, trees, rock, land, fresh water, air, gold, iron, copper, silver, wind, sunlight, solar power, oceans, soil, rivers, natural gas, food - fish, birds etc.

Encourage lots of discussion as students rank the resources and justify their rankings. Support underperforming students by placing them in a group of three which also includes more able students. In this way they can piggyback on their ideas.

Students should rank water highly but not necessarily as Number 1.

In the reflection, co-construct a class reflection on why water is an important resource. Take the opportunity of modelling the PEC structure of Point, Example/Evidence/ Elaboration/Conclusion to prepare students for later activities when they write their own persuasive texts, following the PEC structure.

11. What is a Waterhole?

For the Student

Learning Intention: To understand why a waterhole is important.

Look at the front cover of The Waterhole by Graeme Base. What do you see?

With a partner count up and name all the animals you can see. Would you expect that they would all be at a waterhole together? Why or why not?

Create a class display of animals at waterholes. Use images from the Internet and also draw some so you can show animals from all over the world.

Fig. 11: Waterhole by Graeme base

 

For the Teacher

Introducing The WaterHole

The Waterhole can be studied in a literacy session concurrently with the science study.

Purpose

In this activity students are introduced to The Waterhole by Graeme Base. The front cover is used to show that while the story focuses on one waterhole, it really is about waterholes all over the world. This will help students to understand the importance of water to the survival of all animals.

Teaching Tips

There are images of animals at waterholes, mainly in Africa at Fotosearch. Students could use these and draw their own to add to a class mindmap of a waterhole. Place an image of a waterhole in the centre of the display and then student glue images around it, recording the names of countries where the animals live.

12. The Waterhole

For the Student

Learning Intention: To read and respond to The Waterhole.

Look at The Waterhole by Graeme Base. What do you think the story will be about?

Share your prediction with a partner, using a Think-Pair-Share.

Now listen and look at the pictures as your teacher reads the story to you.

What was your favourite part? Why? Share your ideas with a partner.

Let's read it again and see if you can make some of the funny sounds the animals make like 'Prrrrrrr.

Now watch some real animals at a waterhole. Is the book the same or different to the videoclip?

Media embedded September 21, 2016
 

For the Teacher

Book Orientation and Reading

Flick through The Waterhole by Graeme Base and invite students to predict what the story will be about. Prompt them to draw on what they already know about water and waterholes.

Purpose

The purpose of this activity is to engage students in the story The Waterhole and to enable them to become very familiar with the text, enjoying its repetition and rhythm, and predicting what will happen to the water in the waterhole.

Teaching Tips

Read the story quite a few times so students can continue over time to take in more information from the images as well as the language of the text. Do choral readings with students making all the sounds of the animals and counting the animals. Also act out what the animals do at the waterhole and make predictions of what is happening to the water as the story progresses.

13. What Happens to the Water?

For the Student

Learning Intention: To understand why water is important to the survival of animals.

Make a class story map of what happens to the water.

The animals are happy because there is water.

Animals drink it.

Animals swim in it.

Animals play in it.

The heat of the sun makes it evaporate.

The rain brings it back.

The animals are happy.

Look at the diagram of the water cycle again. Is this story the same or different to what happens to the water in the water cycle?

Fig. 13: The water cycle

 

For the Teacher

Science and The Waterhole

Purpose

The purpose of this activity is to link the literacy study to the science understandings in this learning element and to draw out the importance of water to the survival of animals.

14. Water and Survival

For the Student

Learning Intention: To understand the importance of clean water for survival.

In a Think-Pair-Share, discuss why it is important for the animals to have water.

Is it important for humans as well as animals? Use a Think-Pair-Share to explain why to your partner.

Is it important for animals all over the world? How do you know? Think-Pair-Share with your partner.

If we could write one important message from the story, what would it be. Use a Think-Pair-Share to discuss your ideas.

Then we will share them with the whole class and record them. What was the most popular idea? Do we agree?

Fig. 14: Flamingoes at the waterhole

 

For the Teacher

Water is Necessary for Survival

Purpose

In this activity, we use pair discussion to draw out the main idea in The Waterhole about the importance of clean water for survival no matter where you live in the world.

Teaching ips

Pair up your students so that all students can piggy back on each other's ideas. By repeating the Think-Pair-Share strategy students will become more confident to think and share their ideas.

Students could vote on which ideas they agreed with in the final Think-Pair-Share. Use dots or ticks so students actively make a choice. Ask them to justify their choices to you or to a partner.

15. Writing at The Waterhole

For the Student

Learning Intention: To understand that writers use patterns in their writing.

Look at a picture of the rhino drinking at the waterhole. Let's add a speech bubble and write in the sounds that the rhino makes - 'Snort, splosh!'

Let's draw a thought bubble and write in it what the rhino was thinking: "Mmm, delicious!'

Now imagine the rhino can speak in English. Let's write the sentence:

One rhino drinking at the waterhole said, 'Mmm, delicious!'

Choose another animal in the story. Draw a picture and write what the sound the animals make in the speech bubble and what the animals are thinking in the thought bubble.

Now write a sentence about what the animals said. Look at the sentence about the rhino to guide you. Make sure you follow the punctuation in the sentence. Use a capital letter at the beginning. Include speech marks and the exclamation mark too.

Can you see how the author uses the same sentence throughout the book? This pattern helps to connect the story and the reader can guess or predict what might happen next. Predicting is what good readers do.

Let's write another sentence following the same pattern.

Now look at the sentence about the rhino again. This time we are going to label it together on the SMARTboard.

One rhino - who (participant/noun)

drinking - what (process/action verb)

at the waterhole - where (circumstance/adverb)

said - what (process/saying verb)

'Mmm, delicious!' - (process/what the animal said - tell's us what's going on)

Our sentences are made up of where, what, who and when (this sentence does not have a when). Now take the sentence that you created and label it in the same way.

The sentence is made up of action verbs and saying verbs. Verbs are also called processes because they tell us what's going on. Let's make a class list of all the action verbs/processes in the book. Add to the list with other actions the animals could do. Then make a list of all the saying verbs/processes you can think of.

action verbs/processes saying verbs/processes
drinking, lapping, squawking, gazing, wallowing, floundering, sipping, meeting, lumbering said, asked, whispered, yelled, called, sang, shouted, cried, roared, sighed, exclaimed, mumbled

Choose 1-3 sentences and rewrite them with new 'saying' verbs/processes. Act out the new sentences you created by saying what the animals said with the new saying words - you can whisper or shout or sing or mumble. You can also practise reading the sentences aloud which will help you to improve your reading.

Fig. 15: Toucan squawking

For the Teacher

Text Innovations and The Waterhole

Purpose

In this activity students recognise the patterning in the text and create other patterns to write and understand sentences.

Teaching Tips

Model the text innovations as many times as necessary for students to be able to understand the new pattern and then create their own sentences.

Use Functional Grammar terminology of processes to explain verbs and participants to explain nouns.

Encourage them to copy the punctuation in the text.

Maintain a sense of fun through the drama activities and continue to reread the text if the students are enjoying it.

In a final reflection point out to students that 'ing' words can help them to write interesting sentences. It is not important to use the correct metalanguage of a participle phrase. A participle phrase can come at the beginning of the sentence, or in the middle as in The Waterhole. Sometimes they come at the end of a sentence. For example:

  • Lapping at the waterhole two tigers said, "Grrrrrr!'
  • Two tigers lapping at the waterhole said, 'Grrrrrr!'
  • Two tigers said, 'Grrrrrr!' while lapping at the waterhole.

16. What Were they all Doing and Thinking at the Waterhole?

For the Student

Learning Intention: To understand why water is important to people too.

What would the actions be of other participants such as people like farmers, children, Indigenous people, scientists, hikers, fishermen and firefighters if they saw the water disappearing at the waterhole?

Complete the sentences by choosing action verbs/processes from the class list or making up new ones. You can also choose 'at the waterhole' or 'around the waterhole' or 'by the waterhole' or 'in the waterhole' to show 'where' in your new sentence. Read your new sentence aloud to a partner to make sure it makes sense!

One farmer __________ at the waterhole said, 'Where is the water for my cows to drink?'

Two people __________ at the waterhole said, 'Where is the water for my dog to swim in?'

Three fishermen __________ ___ the waterhole said, 'Where is the water for me to fish?'

Four family members ________ ____ the waterhole said, 'Where is the water to have our picnic next to?'

Five fire fighters ___________ ____ the waterhole said, 'Where is the water to put the fire out?'

Six children _____________ ____ the waterhole said, 'Where is the water to paddle in?'

Seven Indigenous people ____________ ___ the waterhole said, 'Where is the water for us to meet at?'

Eight hikers _____________ ____ the waterhole said, 'Where is the water to fill our drink bottles?'

Nine scientists ____________ ____ the waterhole said, 'Where is the water to test it is safe for drinking?'

Ten humans looking at the waterhole, said....... There was nothing to say. The water was all gone.

In a Think-Pair-Share discuss why water is so important.

Draw a picture to illustrate one of the sentences.

Finally reflect on what you have learned about why water is important from doing this activity. Discuss it with a partner and with the whole class before you write your sentence.

Fig. 16: What happens when the waterhole starts to disappear?

 

For the Teacher

Exploring other Perspectives

Teaching Tips

In this activity students select verbs/action words from the class list which is displayed prominently. Students could also add to the list and make up new words.

Use the 'worksheet' so students can focus on thinking and creating interesting sentences rather than copying out the whole sentence. Ensure that you model how to complete the first sentence.

One Farmer Worksheet

For extension students could vary the phrases by adding circumstances to the verb group - when and where (start with the prepositions by, at, in, near, over, through and around). You could also include some drama activities to reinforce the understanding of prepositions. For example, students could create freeze frames to demonstrate their understanding of each preposition. Students could also label their sentences with who, where, when and what.

Collate all the sentences and illustrations to make a class book of what people can do at the waterhole. Alternatively students could make mini-books in their table groups or in pairs.

Include a reflection at the end so students link what they have been learning about grammar to the key ideas about water and its importance.

Useful reference for Functional Grammar: A New Grammar Companion For Teachers by Beverley Derewianka (PETA, 2011).

17. Tiddilik and Conserving Water

For the Student

Learning Intention: To read and respond to Tiddalik the Frog.

Let's read Tiddalik the Frog which is a traditional story from the Dreamtime. The Dreamtime is very important to Aboriginal Australians and Dreamtime stories tell us about how the world was created.

After reading the story, use Think-Pair-Shares to talk about:

  • What was your favourite part in the story?
  • Does it remind you of other stories you have read?
  • What did you think about Tiddalik drinking all the water?
  • Which animal was your favourite animal? Why?
Media embedded September 22, 2016

For the Teacher

Dreamtime Story

Purpose

The purpose of this activity is to introduce the idea of water conservation and to enable students to practise a reading strategy of connecting self to text. This is an important way of addressing diversity.

Teaching Tips

Encourage students to discuss their reactions to the text with a partner before calling on individual students to share their ideas with the whole class. This is also important to address diversity.

18. Saving Water

For the Student

Learning Intention: To undersatnd how conserving water can look after the environment.

Let's do some shared writing and write a sentence to describe what you think the land was like after Tiddalik drank all the water.

This was a drought.

Now let's write a sentence to describe what you think the land was like after Tiddalik laughed.

This was a flood.

With a partner discuss what you know about floods and droughts in Australia.

Water is an important resource.

  • When we save or conserve water we can avoid droughts and look after the environment.
  • Conserving water in dams can also help us to avoid floods.

Look back at our class map of the dams and lakes in Canberra and see how these can help us to conserve water and avoid floods and droughts.

Fig. 18: Drought

 

For the Teacher

Water Conservation

Purpose

The purpose of this activity is to develop an understanding that water is a resource and how conservation helps us to manage droughts and floods. It also enables students to reinforce their understanding of participants and processes through the sentences they write.

Teaching Tips

Co-construct the sentences through a shared writing activity. Use the language of participants and processes to build on what students learned about grammar in "The Waterhole" writing activities. Display the sentences so students can refer to them in future activities.

It will be important to allow students to share their experiences of current floods and to compare and contrast it to before the floods when Australia was in drought.

Use the study of this story as an opportunity to reinforce what students have learned about Canberra's dams and lakes in the activity about "Water Forms". Refer back to the class map.

19. Who Gains and Who Loses When we Conserve Water?

For the Student

Learning Intention: To understand why water is an important resource.

Look at the 'picture of the drought'. Then use the box below it to draw a picture of the land after the water flowed out of Tiddalik's mouth. Colour both pictures.

Before and After Drought Drawing

Now think about who gains and who loses when we conserve water by completing the table.

  Advantages + Disadvantages -
Animals    
People    
Trees    
Lakes    
Towns/cities    
Dams    
Lakes    
     
     

Reflect:  Look back at the retrieval chart. When we conserve water who gains the most? Who loses the most?

Talk to your partner about why you think water is an important resource.

Now write your sentences about why it is important to conserve water. Follow the PEC structure. For the "E" sentence, give one reason for why it is important to save water.

Fig. 19: Conserving water is good for cities and the countryside.

For the Teacher

The Effects of Conserving Water

Purpose

The purpose of this activity is deepen students' understanding of water as a resource and the importance of water conservation. By examining the significance of water conservation on people and the environment, students also see the relevance of water conservation to their own lives.

They demonstrate their understanding through a PEC paragraph.

Teaching Tips

As students complete the advantages and disadvantages table, they should see that there are far more advantages than disadvantages. This should reinforce the key concept of this learning element of water as a resource that must be conserved.

Reinforce that this information is the Evidence required when arguing a point of view about water as an important resource.

PEC: Provide extra scaffolding for students who require it.

Point sentence: Water is an important resource. 

E (example/evidence) sentence; One reason is because........; Another reason is........

Conclusion sentence: Everyone should..........

20. What Makes an Effective Poster?

For the Student

Learning Intention: To understand what makes a persuasive poster.

Look at the four posters and read the information and pictures.

What are the posters telling you? Who are the posters made for?

You be the judge. Which poster works best? Share your opinion with a partner and give reasons for your choice. Come to an agreement about the best one with a partner.

Put a dot on the poster that you think is the best.

Share your reasons with the class and help make a class chart about What makes a good poster.

Poster 1
Poster 2

 

Poster 3
Poster 4

 

For the Teacher

Visual Grammar

Show four samples of posters.As the students share their reasons compile a list of 'tips' or 'rules' for an effective persuasive poster.

Create a class chart of these rules with examples or illustrations.

Purpose

The purpose of this activity is to scaffold students' understanding of what makes an effective poster and to record explicit criteria for students to refer to when they create their own persuasive poster.

Resources

First Steps Writing Resource Book (2nd edition, 2005, Rigby) p 34

Teaching Tips

Use the Multi-Text Model to introduce this new form of writing. This model has students analysing four examples of posters. Students rank the samples according to effectiveness, justify their ranking and devise 'rules' or a framework that explicitly describes how to create an effective poster.Consider:

  • Slogan - catchy
  • Message - relevance, interest
  • Image - colour, layout/placement, humour

More posters are available at 55 Examples of Catchy Water Conservation Slogans and Taglines.

21. What I have Learnt about Water

For the Student

Learning Intention: To apply what you have learned about a persuasive poster.

Design and publish a poster that persuades others to save water.

Consider the message you want to get across to others. Think about who your audience will be and what will persuade them.

In your design include any information that will help you to convince others to save water.

Use what you know about making an effective poster and the class chart to design a great looking poster.

Share your poster in a group of 4, explaining your message and what choices you made to create an effective poster.

Think-Pair-Share: What will you now do to save water? Then, we will make a class list of all the actions we will take.

Fig. 21: Water conservation is in your hands

For the Teacher

Water Saving Poster and Reflection

Students design and create a water saving poster using what they have learned about conserving water.

Students also use their understanding of what makes a good poster, including structure and visual appeal.

Teaching Tips

For information on using the writing processes (Planning, Drafting, Conferring, Refining and Publishing) go to the First Steps Writing Resource Book (2005, Rigby) Chapter 4 p.197.

Applying Creatively: Display the class list of actions to take and encourage students to report on actions they take.

22. Acknowledgements

The original version of this learning module was written by Michelle Hodge, Rita van Haren and Sue Gorman.

Title: (Source); Fig. 1: (Source); Fig. 2: Bottles (Source); Fig. 3: (Source); Fig. 4: Photo by Tayla Zanotto; Fig. 5: Kettle (Source); Fig. 7: Water pipeline (Source); Fig. 8: Boil water (Source); Fig. 9: Irrigation (Source); Fig. 10: (Source); Fig. 11: The Waterhole (Source); Fig. 13: (Source); Fig. 14: Flamingoes (Source); Fig. 15: Toucan (Source); Fig. 16: Lion (Source);  Fig. 18: Drought (Source); Fig. 19: (Source); Fig. 20: Poster 1: (Source); Poster 2 (Source); Poster 3: (Source); Poster 4: (Source); Fig. 21: (Source).