English is fun : Recycle city game

https://view.genial.ly/5ff1d5a5a4c36c0d86000c3f/presentation-environment

https://www3.epa.gov/recyclecity/

Before Reading Water is an extremely important resource. Talk about where water comes from. Talk about rivers, lakes and groundwater Ask the children where they think the water goes after they flush the toilet or pour it down the drain. Discuss how they think the water is cleaned and if they think it can be used again even for drinking.

READ A BOOK HERE:

https://ec.europa.eu/environment/pubs/children/zoe/index_en.htm

When Zoe is magically transported down the plughole of the bath she sees some very interesting images in the air bubbles. Discuss these images. How many of the children bring a plastic bottle of water to school? How many bring a reusable drinks container?

• Fred tells Zoe and Pedro that they are partly to blame that his habitat is polluted and dirty. Discuss with the children what they think Fred could mean by this. Do they agree with Fred?

• Zoe and Pedro help Fred to clean up. Look at the different objects that they find there. How do the children think such object arrived in his habitat? Would they believe that some of them had been flushed down the toilet (eg cotton buds)? Talk about rubbish on the street and what happens to it when there is a lot of rain. • Look at the different village scenes and discuss the different ways people are polluting and wasting the water. Can you think of any other ways that people pollute or waste water?

• Sometimes the local council has to turn off the water because they need to do some repair works such as leaking pipes. Have any of the children ever experienced this? If yes, how did it affect their daily routine? How did they prepare for it? If no, can they imagine what it would be like to have a day when no water was available? What would be the worst thing about having no water?

Follow-up activities

• Try to calculate how much water you use in a day. For example, flushing the toilet uses about 7 litres of water. How much do you or your class flush away in a day? Good practice for the 7 times table!

• There are many causes of water pollution: industrial waste, pesticides, domestic detergents, chemical and oil spillages. All these can end up in our rivers and seas. Try pouring a little engine oil on some water and notice what happens. Experiment with cleaning the water by filtering it, then by using cotton wool, paper towels etc. What happens when you add detergent?

• Take the class on a trip around the school. Check out all the taps, make sure there are no leaks, make sure that all the toilets flush properly and none of them keep running after being flushed. Make a list of any problems you find and present them to the head of the school and explain why it is important that they are fixed as soon as possible.

• Take a trip to a local supermarket and show the children the organic foodstuffs that are available and why they are better for both them and the environment than those that are treated by chemicals. Look for other products on the shelves that are an environmentally friendly alternative to perhaps their more familiar brands.

• Look at some videos from other countries where there is a water shortage. Discuss the differences and draw pictures to compare how families there use water with how you use it.

• Go pond dipping! Draw creatures and plants carefully to identify later. Make sure you return all wildlife to its natural habitat. See if there are any signs of pollution in the pond?

• Marine litter (plastic soup) is a big problem. Search on the internet to find images of these floating plastic garbage patches. Working in groups or as individuals have the children make a poster to explain about marine litter. They can bring some objects from home or the beach that can be stuck on to the poster if they like such as bottle tops, plastic hoops from cans, bits of fishing nets, plastic bottles, cotton buds, etc.

• Working in groups, interview different members of the staff at your school and find out ways to save water. Make a diagram and plan to how this would work and present it to the class.

• Go on a class trip to your nearest water treatment plant.