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Lesson plan Kindergarten Health & Consumer Science

Fountain Water or Juice Box: A Kindergarten Drink Choice Lesson

A 35-minute kindergarten lesson tracing hallway fountain water from the town tank to the spout, then sorting drink cards and stating one opinion with a reason.

Objectives

  1. Students will describe how water travels from a town tank through pipes to the school fountain.
  2. Students will sort drink cards into plain water and sweet drinks and count each group.
  3. Students will draw and dictate one opinion about the best drink for a thirsty body, with one reason.

Vocabulary

Key words: fountain, pipe, tank, sort, thirsty

Teacher overview

The hallway fountain is the water children meet most often at school, and this lesson gives it two plain explanations: the cold water in the spout arrives from a tank the town built up high, and it is the drink their bodies handle best when they are thirsty. The sort in the middle of the lesson keeps the health message concrete, because children handle pictures of real drinks instead of listening to a rule.

The teaching note is to run the walk to the fountain in the middle of the lesson rather than at the end. Children who have just touched the button and watched the arc of water come up will sort the cards with far more interest than children who have only heard about it. Quill Street School is the name printed on card 2, and swapping in your own school's name works better.

Prepare by drawing or printing twelve simple drink cards and by stacking a tall block tower before the class arrives, which stands in for the town's tank on its legs.

Procedure

Opening at the carpet (5 min): Hold up a cup of water and ask, "Where was this water before it was in our school?" Take three or four answers. Build the chain out loud with the block tower in view: a tall tank up on legs, a big pipe under the street, a smaller pipe in the school wall, the fountain in our hall. Say the sentence twice together: Our water comes down from a tank, through pipes, to our fountain.

Walk to the fountain (10 min): Take the class to the hallway fountain in two lines. Let each child press the button and take a drink. Point out where the pipe enters the wall. Ask three questions on the spot: Is the water warm or cold? Does it cost anything to drink here? Who do you think keeps it working? Name the answer to the last one plainly: people who work for the town check the water and fix the pipes, and that is their whole job.

Drink card sort (12 min): Back at the carpet, set out two hoops labeled plain water and sweet drinks. Hold up each of the twelve cards, let one child name it, and let the class vote with thumbs for the hoop it belongs in. Place the card and move on quickly. Two of the cards belong in neither hoop, and children usually say so before you do; set those on the floor between the hoops and come back to them at the end. Count the cards in each hoop with the class and ask which hoop has more, then count the two set aside. This is the formative check: watch for children who place the flavored, sweetened water card by the word water on its label rather than by what is in it, and stop to talk about that card with the whole class if more than a few do.

Opinion drawing (6 min): Ask the question plainly: "You ran hard at recess and you are thirsty. Which drink is best for your body?" Each child draws their choice and dictates or writes one reason. Scribe for children who dictate.

Closing (2 min): Read four drawings aloud, including any that chose something other than water, and repeat the sentence from the opening.

Fountain Water or Juice Box: A Kindergarten Drink Choice Lesson — Kindergarten Health & Consumer Science
Name: ____________________________ Date: ______________

Student Handout

The twelve drink cards. Draw or print one simple picture per card. Numbered here so the answer key can be checked card by card.

  1. A paper cup of water from the tap.
  2. The hallway fountain at Quill Street School.
  3. A juice box with a straw.
  4. A clear water bottle with a blue cap.
  5. A can of orange soda.
  6. A glass of milk.
  7. A puddle in the parking lot.
  8. A sports drink in a bright green bottle.
  9. A pitcher of ice water on a lunch table.
  10. A cup of lemonade with a slice of lemon.
  11. A garden hose running into the grass.
  12. A pink flavored water with sugar listed on the label.

Read aloud for the drawing: You ran hard at recess. You are hot. You are thirsty. Draw the drink that is best for your body. Then tell me why.

From Water for Schools (waterforschools.org). This material is in the public domain (CC0) and may be copied, edited, and shared freely.

Answer Key
  1. Answer: Plain water.
    Tap water in a cup is plain water with nothing added to it.
  2. Answer: Plain water.
    Fountain water comes from the same town pipes as the tap water at home.
  3. Answer: Sweet drink.
    Juice has sugar in it, even when the sugar comes from the fruit.
  4. Answer: Plain water.
    A refillable bottle holds the same plain water as the fountain.
  5. Answer: Sweet drink.
    Soda is sugar water with bubbles, and it does not take the place of water.
  6. Answer: Sweet drink.
    Milk tastes a little sweet and it is not plain water, so it goes in this hoop, though it is a good drink at meals rather than one to cut back on. Accept a child who argues for a third pile here and use it to talk about why sorting into two boxes is hard.
  7. Answer: Not safe to drink.
    Parking lot puddles carry dirt and oil. This card belongs outside both hoops, and it is placed there on purpose so the class has a reason to name a third choice.
  8. Answer: Sweet drink.
    Sports drinks have sugar added, and the bright color is a clue that something was added.
  9. Answer: Plain water.
    Ice water in a pitcher is still plain water.
  10. Answer: Sweet drink.
    Lemonade is water with sugar and lemon stirred in.
  11. Answer: Not safe to drink.
    A garden hose is for plants and washing, not for drinking.
  12. Answer: Sweet drink.
    Flavored water with sugar on the label belongs with the sweet drinks even though the word water is on the front.

Differentiation

Support

Sort only eight cards, leaving out the two tricky ones (milk and the pink flavored water) and the two that belong outside both hoops (the puddle and the hose). Give the child the card to hold and walk with them to the hoop rather than asking for a thumb vote from the carpet. For the drawing, offer a choice of two pre-drawn outlines, a cup and a bottle, to color and caption by dictation.

Extension

Hand the puddle card and the hose card to two confident children and ask them to explain to the class why those two do not fit either hoop. For the opinion drawing, ask them to write the caption themselves and to include the word because before their reason.

ELL supports

Pre-teach water, sweet, thirsty, and pipe with the object or a photo in hand. Use the thumb vote for every card so children can take part without speaking. Accept dictated reasons in the home language and add one English word together during scribing.

Extensions

Ask the custodian or a visiting town water worker to show the class the pipe where water enters the building, which takes about five minutes and settles the question of where the fountain water comes from better than any drawing. Repeat the card sort in the spring with three hoops instead of two, adding a hoop for water that is not safe to drink.