Water Scarcity and the Economy Unit Activities by Gloria Hernandez

Activity 1: Unit Introduction

ghernandez2310 — 2024-04-20 16:59:50 UTC

The unit will be introduced by guiding students through a discussion on what

money is, what items they like to buy and what are some things that others have done

for them. As students answer questions and engage in discussion, I will guide them

through filling out a graphic organizer (pictured above). This graphic organizer will

support students to better understand the key vocabulary and it is a tool that they can

always refer back to during other activities throughout the unit.

Activity 3: How does water get to you tap?

ghernandez2310 — 2024-05-02 19:45:37 UTC

The main objective of this activity is for students to understand that water is an important

product in our economy. A second objective for this activity is for students to learn how water is

taken from nature and transported into their homes. I will have the above poster in front of the

class and through a short direct instruction teach the students the path of water from nature to

their homes. I will also present students with a pop page from the book "The Ultimate Book of Water" that describes how water gets treated as it makes its way towards our homes. Afterwards, I will have students create their own maps based on their learning. The will be available to them throughout the unit as a reference.

Activity 2: Sort it!

ghernandez2310 — 2024-05-02 20:58:38 UTC

In this activity students will get the opportunity to practice what producers and consumers are through a matching game. In pairs students will get a set of header cards that read "Producer," "Consumer," or "Both." Pairs will also recieve a set of picture cards. Their job will be to sort the picture card under the header card that they feel it belongs too. This will support students in their understanding of what producers and consumers are and will give them the opportunity to practice the unit vocabulary with their partners as the work through the game.

Activity 4: Read Aloud and Inquiry Introduction

ghernandez2310 — 2024-05-02 21:01:57 UTC

This book dives into the consequences of not saving water at home. As I read it aloud to the students I will ask them to make predictions about what will happen in the book. I will also encourge them to make connections to thier personal lives by asking them what are the things that they use water for at home and what will happen if they lost that clean water. I will introduce the inquiry task by asking students to think about the businesses that they visit or see in their neighborhood and how they use water. I follow that by asking them to predict what would happen to those buisnesses if clean water was not available. These answers will be added onto an anchor chart for students to revisit throughout the unit.

Activity 6: Build your Store

ghernandez2310 — 2024-05-02 21:04:13 UTC

This will be one of the culminating activities for the unit. Student will decide on a product that requires water to be prodcued. They will then be tasked to create storefront for thier shop that must include:

A shop name
Product description and price
Commerical script
Slogan
Drawn images of thier product

Once students are done creating their shop, they will engage in a role-play where they sell and buy products in the classroom with play money

Activity 5: Conducting the Inquiry

ghernandez2310 — 2024-05-12 06:55:57 UTC

Small Group Discovery Task - In small groups students will use their Chromebooks to access a Padelt (just like this one) explore two primary sources and three secondary sources. As a team students will fill out an "Investigating like a Historian" worksheet for each of the sources. Because the articles are not written for a second grade audience, I will add the only the most relevant parts of the articles and summarize it using grade level language. After students have finished exploring the sources, I will guide them through a whole group dicussion where they will share what they learned. As we go through the discussion I will be recording important and relevant information on an anchor chart to support visual and English learners. To help bridge the connection between the sources and the inquiry question, I will ask students the following supporting questions during our discussion:

What are some goods and services that require water for their production?

What would happen to those goods and services if we don’t have access to safe, clean water?

Activity 7: Water Tiles

ghernandez2310 — 2024-05-12 07:28:10 UTC

As a second culminating activity, I will have students create water tiles using a resist art technique. Although this unit focus on the econonmics discipline of Social Studies, it lends itself to have converstations about water conservation and how we each can do our part to save water. I have chosen this activity as a way to incoportate more art more art and consciousness about water conservation into the unit. To create their water tiles, students will use a white crayon to create a design on card. After, students will use water colors, primarily cool colors like blues and greens, to cover the card and create a water effect on top of the white crayon. The white crayon will resist the water colors, making the design visible against the blues and greens. I will put together a beautiful collage with all the cards and pin it to one of our boards.