More Water Charades

Objective: This companion activity to "Water Charades" allows students to act out familiar
water activities.

Materials: Water Charade cards

Background: Water is the main substance in living things. Most living things are at least
one-half water. Your own body is two-thirds water. You couldn't grow and change without
water. You couldn't keep your size and shape without water. You couldn't even move without
the water in your body. Water is a molecule. It is made of two hydrogen atoms and one oxygen
atom. Water makes up 75% of the earth's surface. Water is a gas in clouds, a liquid in the pop
we drink and a solid in the ice we skate on. Without water in the environment, there would be
no life on earth.

Procedure:
Make a copy of the Water Charades cards and cut apart. Fold in half and drop into a
container (box) from which students can draw.

Divide class into several small groups of equal number. Each group will have a different
student act out the charade he/she draws from the box when it becomes that group's turn. All
students should have a turn.

To determine who goes first, have a spokesperson from each group pick a number from 1-20.
Teacher should have a number picked out that is the target number. Write each group's guess
on the board along with the target number and then rank teams placement based on their
guesses.

Have Group A draw a Water Charade card from the box. At that point, the student will have 2
minutes to act out whatever is written on the card. Only students from Group A can guess. At
the end of two minutes, if Group A has not guessed the correct answer, their turn ends and
the acting student returns to the group, after revealing the answer. The Water Charade card is
discarded and play continues with Group B. If Group A has correctly guessed the charade,
their score is posted on the board and the game continues with Group B proceeding. Teacher
is responsible for keeping score.

Students are not permitted to use sounds, props or words during their turn at acting out the
charade.

Game ends after each group has had a turn or after each student has had a turn.

Extensions:
Imagine that everyone in the United States used only three gallons less water per day. That
could save 700 million gallons each and every day. Form a poster contest based on this
concept. General rules to follow could be: each team can enter three posters; all posters
should have a water conservation theme; emphasis is on saving water at home and school;
each poster should have both a slogan and a drawing; grading will be based upon cleverness
of slogan and design of poster. Display all posters in hallway or in classroom.

Play the game "Waterspout!" Encourage your students to discuss the water surplus and deficit
cards that are part of the game.

Play "Planet Toss" using an inflatable globe. Have students stand up and form a circle.
Students play catch with the inflated globe. Whoever catches the globe announces where
his/her right thumb landed: water on land (Note: a chart to tally the results is recommended).
Students continue to play until everyone has a chance to catch the globe or until enough
passes have been made for students to appreciate the amount of water on the earth's surface
relative to land. Call students' attention to the statistic that about 3/4 of the earth's surface is
covered with water.