This document summarizes a class' inquiry into water. The students learned about the water cycle and where their water comes from through experiments, a field trip to a dam, and website research. They discovered how water is cleaned at treatment plants. To apply their knowledge, the students made posters about water conservation and donated money they raised to help provide clean water globally.

1. Room Three Year 0/1

2. 2007 School wide theme: Windows Rain on the window Water goes around Colour ‘ Cool schools’ The Tangata Whenua

3. Rain on the window

4. Tuning In What do you know ? What questions do you have ? How could you find information out?

5. We shared all the things we knew about water Water has a surface and when we swim it breaks

6. Where does the water go that goes down a drain? (Mitchell) How does the tap stop the water from coming out? Why do we have a dam? Where does the water from our taps come from? (Marie) How does dirty water get clean? (Jeremiah) Where does the water from puddles go?

7. To show the children that water had a surface we did an experiment with a paper towel and paper clip.

8. The paper soaked up the water and sank and the paper clip stayed on top of the water . Wow !

9. Marie was right – water has a surface and its thin and stretchy. That’s why the paper clip floated on the top

10. We had so much fun we shared our experiment with room two

11. In maths we Made temperature gauges Sorted containers of water from freezing, cold , warm, hot Melted ice cubes in different parts of the classroom

12. By boiling water we turned water from a liquid to a gas.

13. We made ice blocks – by turning a liquid into a solid.

14. The ice blocks were yummy. slippery cold delicious smooth freezing

15. We filled two balloons with water. Left one in the classroom and put one in the freezer. We took great delight in looking at the patterns of the frozen ball and watching it melt.

17. We looked at the bbc website that reinforced our understanding that water is the only thing in the world that can be a solid, liquid and gas .

18. In answering our question about where the water in puddles goes to we learnt about the water cycle.

19. We made our own terrariums and watched the water cycle first hand.

20. A trip out to the Upper Nihotupu Dam enabled us to see where our water comes from.

21. Back at school we made dam’s and waterfall’s with blocks and explored the notion that water always flows downwards.

22. Finding out What would you like to learn more about ? Do you have any new questions?

23. Now we knew where our water came from we wanted to know how the water is cleaned. We explored the Metrowater website and discovered that it is cleaned at treatment stations. Aluminium sulphate is added to water and any dirt clings to the particles of alum. The water is then set to settling tanks where the dirt and alum form a layer of sludge.

24. We found a book that showed us how to make ‘sludge’ and sludge we made using flour and milo. The milo clung to the flour and sank.

25. A visit from Sally from watercare reinforced that water flows down hill and that all drains lead to the sea. She stressed that we have to be very careful about what goes into our drains

26. Sorting out What have you learnt ? How will you record this information ?

27. We decided to make posters to show that water is precious and that we must look after it.

28. We had so much fun taking a lot of photos.

29. We were very proud of the posters we made

30. Going Further What would you like to learn more about? Why ?

31. We know our water is clean but we wanted to know if everyone in the world had clean water ? We looked at the photos from the WaterAid website

32. Action What have you learnt that you can use in your everyday life ? How can you apply this knowledge in every day life

33. Dressed in blue the kowhai team met in the hall. Every class shared something they had learnt during the inquiry and placed a gold coin in the wishing well. A celebration of our learning

34. Judy Bailey came to school on behalf of world vision to accept the money we had raised. She told us about the work of world vision and the difference their work is making to people.

35. In the last week a rainbow was seen out of the window. It was a fitting end to our inquiry .