Unit 9: Wonderful Water

Plunge in and get ready to discover water! These hands-on activities will help you to:

• Think about how to help children get the most out of their science explorations
• Troubleshoot problems that could arise
• Learn more about the science of water

REFLECT: As you explore, reflect on how you could best introduce and adapt these activity ideas to suit your students and your environment. The questions in the following sections are intended to spark those reflections.

Activities

Outdoor Water

Educator Tip: Let parents know that their children will be exploring water. Ask them to send in an extra set of dry clothes, just in case!

Before going outdoors, gather some water containers (such as a plastic pail, watering can, soda bottles, cups, squirt bottles) and tools for painting with water (such as large paint rollers and/or brushes). Then head outside with your teaching partner and try some of these ideas.

• Pour water on different surfaces, such as blacktop, sidewalk, dirt, sand, grass, the slide, a bush, and a railing. What happens? Does the water sink in? Make a hole? Form a puddle? Make mud? Leave droplets? Flow in a certain direction? Each time, pour more water in the same spot and notice what happens.

REFLECT: What ideas do you think children will have about why water behaves differently on different surfaces? How could you encourage them to share their ideas?

• Make a puddle in the dirt. Use a stick to dig a path for the water to flow out of the puddle. How far can you make the water flow?

REFLECT: What techniques can you use to make the water flow farther? Where are some good places for your students to do this experiment?

• Find a sloping area of dirt or blacktop. Pour water from a container (or use a hose) to create a stream of water. Notice how the water moves and the path it takes. Does it move at a continuous speed? Does it form pools? Does all the water follow the same path? Try this out in a couple of different places. Does the water behave differently?

REFLECT: How could you encourage a group of children to work together on these activities?

• Use stones, twigs, and leaves to build dams that block or change the path of the stream. What materials block or turn the water?

REFLECT: Where would be the best place to do this activity with children? What do you think children would learn from this activity?

• If you have an outdoor sandbox, you can make it into a “lakes and rivers” construction site. Dig some pools and waterways, and then add water from a container or a hose. How far does the water travel down the waterways? Do the walls of your waterways hold up? Repair and improve your construction; then add water again and see what happens.

REFLECT: What ways can you and the children find to document their water discoveries to share with others? What color marker or paint would you use to draw water? Could you use ribbon, yarn, or other materials to show how water moved in your waterways?

• Collect small objects such as grass, bark, leaves, twigs, and stones. Predict whether the objects will float or sink. Place the objects, one by one, in a clear container of water. What happens?

REFLECT: How can you encourage students to make predictions based on their past experiences?

• Use paintbrushes, rollers, or squirt bottles to paint with water in the sun and in the shade. Watch the water evaporate and disappear. How long do your pictures last in the sun? In the shade?

REFLECT: Can you think of other times when you’ve noticed water evaporating? Drying off in the sun after a swim or laundry hanging on a line are two examples that may be familiar to children.

• Use your fingers to flick water on smooth surfaces, such as mirrors or panes of windows, to form “raindrops.” Can you make the raindrops race down the surfaces? Compare the paths and speed of different raindrops. What makes a raindrop race down more quickly?

WATER SCIENCE: Evaporation

When water evaporates, wet things become dry. The liquid water changes to water vapor, a gas that is lighter than air. Water vapor rises in the atmosphere and mixes with dust to create clouds. Examples of evaporation are a puddle that dries up in the sun and wet hair that air-dries on a warm day.

• Play with bubbles. Add some liquid soap to water and then a bit of glycerin or corn syrup to make the mixture stronger. Then blow bubbles and see what happens when two bubbles collide. What happens when the bubbles land? What shape are all the bubbles?

Indoor Water

Pour, Squirt, & Pump

Fill up your water table with room-temperature water, and gather some plastic cups, soda bottles, funnels, squirting tools (such as a dish detergent bottle, turkey baster, spray bottle), and toy water pumps or recycled soap dispensers.

• Start with your hands. How many ways can you use your hands to move water? Talk about how it feels, what you see, and the different sounds it can make.

REFLECT: When you do this activity with your children, what group size do you think will work best? What kinds of indoor water rules do you want to set for children?

• Fill a small cup with water. Then, pour the water into a big cup. Pour the water back and forth. What do you notice about the height of the water in the two cups? Try pouring the cupful of water into other bottles and containers. Can you guess how many cups of water it will take to fill various containers?

• Dunk bottles in water to fill them. What do you see and hear? How else can you fill the bottles?

• Experiment with different ways to use a funnel. Can you use a funnel to carry water?

• Try using a turkey baster, pumps, squirt bottles, and spray bottles. How far can you squirt water? Can you use these tools to make bubbles in the water?

REFLECT: What sort of coaching do you think children will need to use these tools?

Floating & Sinking

Gather objects to use in “float or sink” experiments. Here are some ideas for objects: a rubber band, a sponge, a pencil, a plastic bottle, a wooden block, pennies, foil, plastic straws, craft sticks, and small plastic toys.

• Predict which objects will float and which will sink. Then, test your predictions. Any surprises?

• Next, try to make the floating items sink and the sinking items float.

REFLECT: Are there classroom or outdoor materials that you might want to add or remove from this activity?

• Make boats out of recycled materials (food trays, aluminum foil, craft sticks, pieces of sponge, etc.). See how many pennies a boat can carry before it sinks.

REFLECT: Think of stories to motivate your children to build boats, for example, “These little plastic bears need to get to the other side of the ocean. I wonder if we could build a boat to help them get across.”

WATER SCIENCE: Water Shape?

Water takes the shape of the container it is in. A cup of water will always fill the same container to the same height. A cup of water will fill containers of different widths and shapes to different heights.

WATER SCIENCE: Sink or Float?

Through their experiences, children will discover that some objects float and others don’t. At this age, children are not ready to understand the science behind floating and sinking. Instead, have children talk about why they think each object floats or sinks. For example, a child might say, “I think it floats because it’s round.” This is a valid hypothesis if it is based on that child’s experiences—all the round objects she or he has tested have indeed floated. Further experimentation may help the child rethink that theory.

Water Drops

Gather a small container of water, a plastic pipette or eyedropper, wax paper, and a toothpick.

• Use the pipette to make water drops on wax paper. What happens when you squeeze the pipette gently? When you squirt it forcefully? What happens when you change the angle, holding the pipette straight up-and-down or at an angle?

• Take a toothpick and push the water drops around. What do you notice? Hit the big drops with the toothpick. What happens? Make up a story about the water drop as you move it. (“My little drop is moving around looking for a friend…”)

REFLECT: How can you use stories or other techniques to help focus children’s attention on how the water drops behave?

• Use the dropper to make water drops on other surfaces, such as a dry sponge or a piece of construction paper. What do you notice?

• With the dropper, make “raindrops” on a window, mirror, or other smooth vertical surface. Have a raindrop race with your partner. What do you notice? Why do you think that happens?

WATER SCIENCE: Water Sticks Together

Water forms rounded half drops on some surfaces but does not on others. When two drops touch, they merge to form a larger drop.