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Splish-Splash: Daily Use of Water
Description Time Frame Curricular Areas Grades Essential Questions Materials Standards Demonstrates competence in the general skills and strategies of the writing process Language Arts Standard 2:Demonstrates competence in the stylistic and rhetorical aspects of writingBenchmark—Uses general, frequently used words to convey basic ideas Language Arts Standard 3:Uses grammatical and mechanical conventions in written compositionsBenchmark—Forms letters in print and spaces words and sentences Benchmark—Uses complete sentences in written compositions Benchmark—Uses nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs in written compositions Benchmark—Uses conventions of spelling, capitalization, and punctuation in written compositions Language Arts Standard 4:Gathers and uses information for research purposesBenchmark—Generates questions about topics of personal interest Benchmark—Uses books to gather information for research topics Language Arts Standard 5:Demonstrates competence in the general skills and strategies of the reading processBenchmark—Uses picture clues and picture captions to aid comprehension and to make predictions about content Benchmark—Decodes unknown words using basic elements of phonetic analysis Benchmark—Uses self-correction strategies Benchmark—Reads aloud familiar stories and passages with attention to rhythm, flow, and meter, prose and difficulty of the material Language Arts Standard 7:Demonstrates competence in the general skills and strategies for reading a variety of informational textsBenchmark—Applies reading skills and strategies to a variety of informational books Benchmark—Summarizes information found in texts Benchmark—Relates new information to prior knowledge Language Arts Standard 8:Demonstrates competence in speaking and listening as tools for learning
Procedure As a product of this unit, each of the students will make a book comparing daily uses of water in America, Kenya, and Ghana. Each time they study a new country, they will write a narrative and draw illustrations. The narratives are revised and edited. This process will take place throughout the unit. Optional: Before beginning the unit , send a letter home to parents communicating information about the Splish-Splash learning unit, including a summary of goals and activities. Include the Water in Africa website URL. Encourage parents to connect to this unit on the Peace Corps website at home or at the local public library. Communicate with your local public library about creating an educational link to the Water in Africa website as a resource for parents and students in the class. 1. Write "Daily Use of Water" on the blackboard and ask the students what they think this means. Talk with the students about their daily uses of water and generate a list of their experiences. Write the list on large chart paper and keep it hanging in the classroom as a reference for the students. Explain that they will be learning about how people in the African countries of Kenya and Ghana use water each day in their communities and homes, and will be comparing it with their own use. 2. Using the list the class generated, have the students start on the product they will be making—a book about daily use of water. Have them write or dictate stories and draw pictures about how water is used in their own daily lives and in their communities. Help the students revise and edit their work.
Day 2 Explain to students that they will be learning about ways people in countries of Africa use water in their communities and homes. Tell them that they will be seeing photos and reading stories from Peace Corps Volunteers in the countries of Ghana and Kenya. Write “Peace Corps Volunteers" on the board and ask the students what those words mean. Help students define each of the words individually and their meaning together. The goal is that the students understand that the United States has an organization called the Peace Corps, which sends volunteers to countries around the world to help others and learn from them.
Day 3 2. Show the students the location of the continent of Africa. Show them Kenya, in the region called East Africa, and Ghana, in the region called West Africa. Have a few students take turns showing the location of these countries and naming the regions of Africa in which each is located. Write the names of the two countries and the continent of Africa on the board for students to reread. Day 4 Print the images from Kenya from your browser or print each separately from your saved collection and put them in a three ring binder notebook with the accompanying Kenya narrative (PDF or RTF). Make this available for students to use on their own after the initial introduction on the computer.
1. With the whole class or with small groups gathered around the computer, show the students the set of Kenya images that show daily use of water: KE0101, KE0210, KE0226, KE0229, KE0307, and KE0335. As each image is shown, ask the students to describe what they see. Then read or have a student read the narrative descriptions for each photo. Take time to have the students ask questions and make comments about the images. Use prompting questions such as: 2. Write down and define any words that are not familiar to the students. This can be their vocabulary list for the week. Write the words on chart paper or on the board for students to see throughout the unit.
Day 5
Day 6 2. Provide reading instruction to students. Check students' comprehension by having them restate what they have read, relate what they have read to their own experiences, and share their own ideas, reflections and responses about what they have learned from reading. 3. Have students dictate the ways the Kenyan communities use water, how often it is available, and how that availability affects the Kenyans' daily life. Write what students say on large chart paper and hang it in the classroom.
Day 7 2. Have the “Daily Use of Water stories from Kenya" available in the classroom library for students to independently reread and practice reading with one another beyond instructional reading times. 3. Have students write a narrative and draw pictures from their understanding of water use in the Kenyan communities they learned about though the photos and stories. Point out the charts that are hanging around the room and tell students that they may use these for reference. These narratives will be revised, edited, and published in the book they are making about daily water usage. 4. Have each student share his or her writing with the whole class and then add the writing to his or her book about daily use of water. Provide opportunities for questions/comments from classmates.
Days 8–11 2. Explain that the students will begin to study daily use of water in Ghana. Follow the procedures from Days 4 through 7, using the images of Ghana(GH0101, GH0203, GH0329, GH0412, GH0418, GH0423, GH0424, GH0622, GH0624, and GH0726). 3. Use the "Daily Use of Water" stories of Nell Todd, Amy Wiedemann, and Molly Campbell from "Ways With Water: Stories from Ghana." Day 12 2. Draw a three-ring Venn diagram on the chalkboard with each circle labeled for a country. Explain how to use it by beginning a discussion of the daily uses of water that they have read about and written about in the past two weeks. When students mention an activity from one country, ask them whether it is similar to or different from what is done in the other two countries. Write the activity in the correct area of the Venn diagram. Demonstrate one or two activities in this manner. 3. Break the class into groups of two or three and distribute copies of the Venn diagram. Give the students 15–20 minutes to record as many similarities and differences in water use as possible. Move around to mentor the students in their work. For primary students, an option is to have parent volunteers or have older, intermediate students assist each group. Provide copies of the reading booklets for each group for reference. Have printed copies of the country images and image narratives available for reference also. 4. Bring the whole class together in front of a writing board with the three-ring Venn diagram on it. Have each group share their answers while you record them onto the large Venn diagram on the board. 5. Collect the Venn diagrams for assessment purposes and to be used by the groups when they complete their writing assignment. Assess their Venn diagrams for number of ideas and accuracy of content.
Day 13 2. Elicit statements and write them down as samples for the students; for example: “People in our community, in Kenya, and in Ghana all wash their clothes. People in some communities in Kenya and Ghana wash their clothes in buckets of water because they don't have much water." 3. Have students work with a partner to write more about similarities and differences. If possible, have parent volunteers or intermediate grades students assist the pairs of students. This will be the last part of the book on daily use of water. 4. Tell each student to draw a picture to illustrate his or her comparison page. Day 14 2. Help each of the children bind their books.
3. Have students read their books aloud to each other. Arrange for them to read them to other audiences in the school, home, and community. Assessment
Writing Assessments Follow-up Activities 2. Art Lessons: Using the visual images and descriptive narratives in the reading booklets of the Ways With Water unit, have students use crayons, watercolors, markers, and colored pencils to make their own illustrations.
3. Presentations: Have the class present their books, or parts from them, to other classes in the school. Students can choose to show images from the website that they think are relevant to their books. About the Author
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