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Lesson plan Grades K–1 Science

Water Savers: Where Our Water Goes and How We Help

A 30-minute kindergarten lesson where students discover how much water a running tap wastes, sort water-saver from water-waster cards, and make a class promise poster.

Objectives

  1. Explain in their own words that clean water comes from somewhere and can be wasted.
  2. Sort common actions into water savers and water wasters.
  3. Communicate one water-saving action through drawing and dictated or written words.

Teacher overview

This lesson introduces two ideas that kindergartners are fully capable of understanding: our water comes to us from a real place, and what we do with it matters. Both are built with materials you already have in the classroom. The anchor demonstration, in which a cup fills while the class counts to ten, makes the idea of wasting water visible and countable, which gives young students something concrete to attach the word conservation to.

The lesson runs in four short segments and ends with a class artifact, a Water Savers promise poster, that can stay on the wall all year. Every child contributes one drawn promise with a dictated or written caption, which can also serve as an opinion-writing sample for your records.

No prep is needed beyond gathering the materials list. If you cannot use a real faucet for the demonstration, pour from a pitcher into a bowl; the counting works the same way.

Procedure

Minutes 0–5 — Where does our water come from? Hold up the bottle of water. Ask: "Before this water was in our classroom, where was it?" Take three or four answers (expect "the store," "the sink"). Follow the chain backward together: sink, pipes under the school, the town's water tank or plant, a river or well. Land on one sentence the class repeats: Our water comes from far away, and people work hard to bring it to us.

Minutes 5–12 — The counting cup. At the sink (or pouring from the pitcher), turn the water on gently and hold a cup under it. Have the class count out loud how long it takes to fill: usually under ten seconds. Then ask: "When we brush our teeth, we brush for two minutes. That is like counting to sixty, and then counting to sixty again. If the water runs the whole time, how many cups is that?" Fill and empty the cup a few times while they count so they feel the repetition. The exact number matters less than the impression of how much water passes by. Introduce the words saver and waster: a saver turns the water off while brushing, while a waster lets it run into the drain where nobody uses it.

Minutes 12–20 — Saver or waster sort. Show the picture cards one at a time (see the handout section). For each, students show thumbs-up for saver or thumbs-down for waster, then one student says why. Move quickly; the reasons matter more than the count. Cards that spark disagreement (a bath, watering flowers) are the best ones. Let two students state both sides, then agree it depends on how much.

Minutes 20–28 — Promise poster. Each student draws one thing they will do to be a water saver and dictates or writes a caption ("I will turn off the tap"). Circulate and scribe captions for students who dictate. Glue or tape all drawings to the poster titled Room ___ Water Savers.

Minutes 28–30 — Close. Read three or four captions aloud. Repeat the class sentence from the opening. Tell students their homework is to notice one way a grown-up at home saves water, and start tomorrow's morning meeting with their reports.

Water Savers: Where Our Water Goes and How We Help — Grades K–1 Science
Name: ____________________________ Date: ______________

Student Handout

Saver-or-waster cards. Draw or print simple pictures of the following on cards; clip art or quick whiteboard sketches work equally well:

  1. Water running while a child brushes teeth (waster)
  2. Tap turned off while brushing, cup of water beside the sink (saver)
  3. A dripping faucet at night (waster)
  4. A grown-up fixing the dripping faucet with a wrench (saver)
  5. A full watering can watering flowers at the roots (saver)
  6. A hose left running on the sidewalk (waster)
  7. A short shower with a timer on the wall (saver)
  8. A cup of drinking water poured out half-full into the sink (waster; talk about pouring only what you will drink)
  9. A full load of laundry in the machine (saver)
  10. Washing one sock alone in the machine (waster)
  11. A child in a bath (it depends on how full the tub is; use this card for discussion)

There is no printed worksheet for students at this age; the poster is the product.

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

Differentiation

Support (below grade level)

Pair each card with a single word (off, drip, full) and have students echo it during the sort. For the poster, offer a choice of two pre-drawn outlines (a faucet, a watering can) that the child colors and captions by dictation.

Extension (above grade level)

Give confident students a two-sided card (the bath) and ask them to argue both sides in one breath: "It is a waster if… but a saver if…" For the poster, challenge them to write the caption independently using the word because.

ELL supports

Pre-teach water, on, off, save, and waste with gestures the whole class adopts (tap-turn motion for off). The thumbs-up sort is language-light by design; accept captions in the home language with an English word added together during scribing.

Extensions

Walk the school with a clipboard as "water inspectors": the class checks fountains and bathroom taps for drips and reports findings to the custodian with a thank-you card. If your water utility offers classroom visits, as many do, invite a real water worker to answer "where does our water come from?" as a follow-up to this lesson.