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.
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.
