Water Blogged

Free lesson plans for busy teachers

Posted by Joe Kuzelka on April 15, 2019

Are you hard-working, busier than heck, and totally dedicated to your students?

H2O for Life offers free programming for educators. We help teachers integrate global service projects into their classroom and clubs. How do we do this?

  1. We prepare teachers with free curricular resources and support to implement service within their classrooms.
  2. We design curriculum one to one for educators based upon their own learning targets/standards (including cross curricular units).
  3. In addition to the free educational resources, we provide a school to school partnership. Each participating school has the opportunity to bring safe water to a global partner school by engaging in this service project.

Whether you’re a kindergarten teacher looking for a new book to read during story time or a high school science teacher trying to prove that you can make water using a solar still, then you’ve come to the right place.

H2O for Life’s online platform for lesson plans is separated into respected academic groups: elementary, middle, and secondary school. Within each academic group, the lesson plans are organized by topic:

  • Science
  • Technology
  • Geography and social studies
  • Art
  • Math
  • Health
  • Language arts
  • Music

 

To start, you can find an accessible introduction to the water crisis. This introduction will help your students understand the scope of the issue and develop an appreciation for the importance of clean, accessible water to people around the world.

I used the worksheet “How Much Rainwater Can You Catch” with my 6th grade students in March.  I taught this lesson in conjunction with the literature and global studies teachers on my team.  Students were reading The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind in literature, and beginning their study of Africa in Global Studies.  What a perfect fit for their curriculum! We had just completed a study of finding area, surface area and volume in math, so it was also a meaningful real life application.  It was a wonderful learning experience as we had great discussions about water usage in the US vs Africa. I challenged my students to conserve water, and will have them report back on their efforts at the end of the school year.

– Suzanne Schwarz, 6th grade teacher at Wichita Collegiate School.

Here is the list of our ever-evolving lesson plans. Each and every one is free for you to use.

Elementary lesson plans

Introduction to the Water Crisis
Global Water Crisis Overview
Intro to the Water Crisis (Gr. K-1)
Intro to the Water Crisis (Gr. 2-3)
Intro the Water Crisis (Gr. 4-5)
The Disappearing Water (Gr. 4-5)
Walk for Water

Art
Global Art
Make Your Own Music

Geography and Social Studies
Country Study
Design a Family Compound
Don’t Fence Me In
Geographic Impacts of the Global Water Crisis
Wants and Needs

Health
Disease!
Waterborne Diseases

Language Arts
A long walk to water
Amal Unbound – Take Action!
My Water Notebook
The Water Princess (Gr. K-2)
The Water Princess (Gr. 3-5)
Walking Home by Eric Walters
Water Poetry and Flipbook

Math
All the Water in the World
How Much Rain Can You Catch?
How Much Water Do I Use?

Music
Connecting with Water Issues Through Music

Science
Build an Aquifer
Do Living Things Need Water?
Exploring Solubility
Freshwater and Saltwater
Pollute Your Water
The Water Cycle
Water Cycle Experiment

Technology
Rain Barrels

Middle School

Introduction to the Water Crisis
Compare and Contrast Water Usage
Global Water Crisis Overview
Walk for Water

Art
Women in STEAM – Susan Hoffman Fishman

Geography and Social Studies
Country Demographic and Geographic Comparison
Design a Traditional Home
Public Service Announcement
The Ripple Effect
U.N. Sustainability Goals: Making Connections

Health
Safe Water Lesson 1: Consequences of Drinking Unsafe Water
Safe Water Lesson 4: Making Water Safe to Drink

Language Arts
A long walk to water
Water, Poetry and Perspective

Math
How Much Rain Can You Catch?
How Much Water Is There?
Pondering Pennies
STEM – Rain Gardens
STEM – Storm Pollution
STEM – The Truth Behind Bottled Water
STEM – Waterway Cleanup
Women in STEAM – Cynthia Koenig

Science
Design Process Water Filtration
How Much Rain Can You Catch?
How Much Water Is There?
Importance of Snowpack
Rain Barrel Creation
Safe Water Lesson 1: Consequences of Drinking Unsafe Water
Safe Water Science Lesson 2: Water Treatment
Safe Water Science Lesson 3: Availability of Safe Water
Safe Water Lesson 4: Making Water Safe to Drink
STEM – Rain Gardens
STEM – Storm Pollution
STEM – The Truth Behind Bottled Water
STEM – Waterway Cleanup
Water Doesn’t Grow on Trees
Water Monitoring Activity
Water Treatment and Conservation
Women in STEAM – Agnes Pockels
Women in STEAM – Godliver Businge
Women in STEAM – Lalita Prasida
Women in STEAM – Wangari Maathai

Technology
Public Service Announcement
STEM – Rain Gardens
STEM – Storm Pollution
STEM – The Truth Behind Bottled Water
STEM – Waterway Cleanup

Secondary School

Introduction to the Water Crisis
Global Water Crisis
Walk for Water

Art
Visual Poetry and Water (Project-Based Learning)

Geography and Social Studies
Beyond our Borders
The Effect of Culture on Society
The Ripple Effect – AP
U.N. Sustainability Goals: Making Connections

Language Arts
Advocacy – Letter Writing
They Poured Fire on Us from the Sky
Visual Poetry and Water (Project-Based Learning)

Math
How Much Water Do I Use?
Tracking Pollution: A Hazardous Whodunit

Science
IYC Experiment 1 – PH of the Planet
IYC Experiment 2 – Salty Waters
IYC Experiment 3 – Solar Still Challenge
IYC Experiment 4 – Water: No Dirt, No Germs

Technology
Rain Barrels

 

 

 

 

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