AN EARTH DAY / WATER DAY NUDGE
Sometimes we need a little nudge to write. Here’s an opportunity that’s sure to nudge you into writing. Our students have placed in these contests before, so why not give it a try?
A CONTEST
What am I talking about? Click here for the rules to the Them Dam Writers Earth Day Contest.
Now that you have read the rules, what will you do?
A CHALLENGE
March 22 is World Water Day. The theme is Water in Cities. Since the earth is mostly water, and since we must have water to survive, let’s learn about water. And this is one suggestion to write about in our blogging challenge. So, what will you learn today about World Water Day? about water? about how to protect water?
A WAY TO REMEMBER
To remember the facts you will learn as you read the links below, what will you do?
- Take notes? on paper? in Google Docs?
- Use a main idea/ detail sheet?
- List vocabulary words and their connections from the text?
- List or draw images you created while reading
These are all strategies we have used this quarter. Choose one, then start learning about water.
A SET OF FACTS
Learn facts from Portland, Oregon’s Walk For Water
Read about water facts at Time for Kids here.
Learn about today’s World Water Day here.
Learn answers to water questions here.
Learn about SAFE WATER here.
A Video
A COMMENT or Two
Leave a comment today on this blog post:
1.
What did you do to remember the information about water?
Which source did you use? (Copy the URL and paste in your comment)
What did you remember about water?
What will you do next with your water information?
How could you use this information for the contest?
2.
If your information could become a poem, write your poem here as a comment.
Poetry Resources:
Blue Write Source, pages 311-319
Prewriting p. 313
Techniques p. 318-319
Free-verse p. 312
Diamante p. 316
Tercet p. 317
List p. 317
I look forward to watching you, helping you practice what we have learned:
Read, research, take notes, write gist statements, choose vocabulary, summarize ideas and details, include details and descriptions, add your own ideas, opinions, and questions.
Do you accept the nudge? I know you can do it…
Photo Credit:
NASA. earth.jpg. . Pics4Learning. 21 Mar 2011
I feel bad because i have drinking water, shower water, and water just to play in the summer. Also the more poorer countries have to walk miles to get their water. Their water isn’t even safe to drink. They have to clean it first. WE NEED WATER TO LIVE!!! The people who don’t have good drinking water can get diarrhea, malaria, malnutrition, or lead poisoning. All of us are losing water because 97.5% of water is to salty to drink and 2.5% of water is either stuck in the ground or in glaciers, and the glaciers are melting! Now there is 1.1 billion people who don’t have good drinking water and 2.5 billion people don’t have the right sanitation. People are using world water day as a bigger effort to cut the number of people who don’t have good water in half by 2015.
Elbe, You have shared some excellent facts about water and the problem earth faces if we don’t care for our people and our water. Do you know the URL(s) of the information you found? How did you take notes to remember these important facts? Ms. E
It make’s me sad that 1.1 billion people have no access to safe drinking water
http://www.worldwaterdaypdx.com/un-world-water-day-and-the-walk-for-water
URL
Yawn, I know you have more things you wanted to add, but you ran out of time. I look forward to more of your research. Can you imagine a billion people? Did you find any solutions?
We learned that in some other towns,and cities that their water could be bad for them.
I meant alka and I learned that in other cites or towns that their water could be bad for them and wouldn’t be able to drink the water.
Alka and May, Thanks for working together. Teamwork is important, and you have learned that even cities can have poor water conditions.
water is good for drinking and for fun. you can use water to cook and living and for fires and electricity. some people dig for water. and some people don’t have water at all.
Water is good for drinking and for fun. You can use water to cook, for living, and for fires and electricity. Some people dig for water, and some people don’t have water at all.
Rees, thanks for letting us know the uses of water: cooking, survival, fire protection, and electricity.
The strategy i used to take notes was to take notes on paper. In my notes I listed the important facts or I listed something I thought was important. Also I listed the stuff that IS affecting the humans.
I used This strategy because if I needed my notes I could just whip them out and not have to go to a computer. Also they would always be by me if I had to do an assignment and it’s portable.
Elbe, Thanks for sharing your research strategy and how it helped you. It’s obvious from your World Water Day comment that you learned much from the story you read and the videos you watched. Your notes helped you share what you learned with details. I hope others learn from your strategy.
Did you know about 95% of water goes down the drain? People are wasting water. They are taking it for granted. They used 4 gallons of water while brushing their teeth. Only one flush in the toilet is 3 gallons of water. Every time you wash your hands listen to the water go down gurgle gurgle gurgle, it’s being wasted. People should take shorter showers, and turn of the water while brushing your teeth. Don’t you want the world to be cleaner as well as the water?http://www.schooltube.com/video/9a70f10f0600458f9667/Water-Conservation-PSA
Lamjo, You have made it very clear that we are wasting water every day by letting water run down the drain. It’s a good idea to follow your suggestions for showers and brushing our teeth. Thanks for finding solutions to saving water for the world.
I listen to the facts on the videos. That helped me by getting to watch more videos and taking more notes.
Jamon, Thanks for sharing your research strategy. I see you like to watch videos to learn, and you linked from one video to another to discover more information. Your research shared an important fact: we waste 32 water bottles while brushing our teeth is amazing and sad. We can do better, don’t you think? Thanks for using a strategy that helped us learn a solution.
Did you know that 2.2 billion people in developing countries die from preventable water? More than 3.5 billion people die each year. Every 20 seconds a kid dies from a disease. Millions of woman and kids are exhausted from walking a couple miles a day to get water. Almost 84 percent are children in danger. If we want water for later we should do something now. While brushing your teeth you are wasting nearly 4 percent of water. Try not to waste water.So that others can have water to. Don’t you want a world where every body has clean water?
http://www.worldwaterdaypdx.com/un-world-water-day-and-the-walk-for-water
http://www.schooltube.com/video/a492b00a80509cbc4a40/Water-Conservation-PSA-Mission-Possible
http://www.schooltube.com/video/6141f33d624e4bffb68e/Water-Conservation-Video-Water-Cops-Undercover
The strategy I used to remember by writing down the info I learned while watching and reading videos. This strategy helped me because I am better at learning by vision.
Lamjo, Thank you for explaining how you researched and took notes. Many people are visual learners and videos help them understand the text. You found and shared specific solutions we can do every day, such as turning off the water when we brush our teeth. Your way of taking notes worked for you and helped us too!
Do you want to stop wasting water? the world water people want us to keep our water. I learned
that we need to take care of our water.We need
to save it or we are not going to have any more.We
need to save are water and stop polluting.I feel that
we are not going to have if we don’t stop wasting water.We need water so we can survive.Will you take care of your water.We need not to pollute water cause you are killing animals. Don’t keep water running for a long time.When you let water run you can hear it drip drip.
http://www.schooltube.com/video/9a70f10f0600458f9667/Water-Conservation-PSA
Do you want to stop wasting water? The world water people want us to keep our water. I learned that we need to take care of our water. We need to save it, or we are not going to have any more. We need to save our water and stop polluting. We need not to pollute water because we are killing animals. I feel that we are not going to have water if we don’t stop wasting water. Don’t keep water running for a long time. When you let water run you can hear it drip drip. We need water so we can survive. Will you take care of your water?
Sekin, I hope you read the other comments to see how the other students included specific facts, such as how the water is polluted, or why we need to save water. They told specific countries, such as Tanzania, with specific problems. Then, on your time, re-do your research and notes so you can return a comment with specific facts our class can use. Thank you.
I took notes by writing all the important facts
I got most of the facts from the videos
Enmo, Thanks for sharing your reading strategy. I read your notes and your comment. Your notes helped you write specific facts. Thanks.
Did you know that thousand of kid are sick because of dirty water . Did you know that the world is running out of water ? You know that you waste 750 gallons of water woossshhh if you leave the water on for an hour. you waste 32 water bottles when you leave the water on when you leave the water on when you brush you teeth how are you going to to help the word save water?
http://www.timeforkids.com/TFK/kids/news/story/0,28277,1040243,00.html
Did you know that thousands of kids are sick because of dirty water? Did you know that the world is running out of water? You know that you waste 750 gallons of water –woossshhh– if you leave the water on for an hour. You waste 32 water bottles when you leave the water on when you brush your teeth. How are you going to to help the word save water?
Jamon, You and your classmates have convinced me to watch carefully how I use water every day, especially in simple things like brushing my teeth. Thanks for helping me make better choices.
Did you know that some people don’t get water for bathing, washing their hands, or to drink? If you don’t have water you can’t live. If poorer countries do have water they probably have to walk miles to get it. While we have drinking water, shower water, water for our dishes, and our toilet water, we even have water just to play in in the summer. People with dirty water have to clean it before they can drink it. If you accidentally drink dirty water they can get diarrhea, malaria, malnutrition, or lead poising. So imagine you were a 7 year old girl and the day is so hot you can see the sun rays every where you look. Then your mother asks you to go to practice carrying jugs of water on your head. But before that you have to walk three miles before you get there, you have to walk in the sun carrying your colorful but heavy vase. Your sweating really bad but your almost there so you run as fast as you can and before you mom gets there you get a handful of smog water and toss it in your mouth. The water “swishes” all over your mouth. Then you put your vase under water and put the jug on your head and start heading back. When you get back you start to feel sick and your stomach hurts. This is one of those diseases and it probably sucks. Also if you have to walk miles to get water your probably going to try to save as much of it as you can. Today people are using World Water Day as a way to try to help theses countries. What are you going to do to help?
http://www.timeforkids.com/TFK/kids/news/story/0,28277,1040243,00.html
Elbe, Thanks for describing how hard it can be from so many people in the world to have proper access to clean water. World Water Day helps us understand how serious this issue is. Did you find any solutions?
Did you know that the earth’s water is becoming contaminated all around the world? Many people are becoming sick because they don’t have access to clean water. Tanzania, a country in Africa, has 44 million people and 44% of that does not have access to clean water. 1.1 billion people around the world doesn’t have access to water. The water people drink that is contaminated probably looks yellow. Did you know that the earth’s surface is 70% water? Imagine the percentage of the water is contaminated. It’s probably alot! We should conserve our water the best we can, because many people would be thankful to have healthy water to drink.To help people, how will you help conserve water?
http://www.safewaternow.org/
Quill, Thanks for pointing out the details about polluted water. Let’s see:
1 100 000 000 * (44%) = 484 000 000. Even one person without enough water is too many. Do you have any idea what Tanzania is doing to help it’s people? how can we conserve water?
I don’t know what Tanzania is doing but ways we can conserve water is to not waste any water we don’t need.
Did you know the world has a water problem?
More of the water on earth is contaminated, all dirty, from people throwing waste in water. Seventy percent of the earth is water and so is the human body. More people die because they get a disease from drinking unhealthy water. Water is the most precious resource on eart,h and there’s many ways to use water. I think water is life; without it people may die. I also think that every single drop of water counts. How might you help to keep the water clean so we can have more without it disappearing ?
http://vimeo.com/5860182
Loudy, You have learned much from World Water Day, and asked us a good question we should answer. Would you help us out by watching this video:
http://www.worldwaterdaypdx.com/un-world-water-day-and-the-walk-for-water
and letting us know what we can do?
in some countries the water is polluted and it can kill you.50% of water is really bad for people.i learned that water is a gift.dont treat water bad because some people wish that they can have water. they half to walk miles just to get a drink of water.there famlys are dieing because of the really bad water.thes people need some help we can give them water.what do we half to do to help thees people. there kids are dieing because of no water we need to help there familys.what do we half to do to help the people.from dieing.
http://vimeo.com/5860182
In some countries the water is polluted and it can kill you. Fifty percent of water is really bad for people. I learned that water is a gift. Don’t treat water bad because some people wish that they can have water. They have to walk miles just to get a drink of water. Their families are dying because of the really bad water. These people need some help. We can give them water. What do we have to do to help these people? Their kids are dying because of no water; we need to help their families. What do we have to do to help the people.from dying? Do you know?
Tiger, you have asked yourself and others a good question: “What do we have to do to help?” Can you search for an answer? Are there any ideas here: http://www.safewaternow.org/?page_id=17 or here? http://www.unwater.org/worldwaterday/faqs.html Come back and let us know.
did you know that 2.2 people die out there cause they dont have water.but look at us water comes easy for us cause we have water to play in every summer and we have drinking water and all that stuff.but everybody else in all the other countries die just cause they dont have clean water.some of us waste water just from leaving the water running when your brushing your teeth.because when you leave the water running during when your brushing you teeth 4 other kids could of had that water.so what are you gonna do to save water?
time for kids
Did you know that many people die out there because they don’t have water. But look at us. Water comes easy for us bcause we have water to play in every summer, and we have drinking water and all that stuff. But everybody else in all the other countries die just because they don’t have clean water. Some of us waste water just from leaving the water running when we brushing our teeth. Because when you leave the water running during when you’re brushing your teeth, 4 other kids could have had that water.So, what are you gonna do to save water?
Rex, Thanks for connecting our abundance of water to the lack of water around the world. Do you know if there are any areas of our country who lack water? Have you started turning of the water while you brush your teeth? Thanks for giving us a tip on how to save water.
Did you know Water Day is annually celebrated on March 22? Water Day was recommended at the 1992 UNCED center. Water can do so many good things to us and our land. But did you know that water can do many bad things too? The water in tsunami’s can harm many of the buildings, and and people, cars, and boats. So water can be used in many different ways. What are the ways you use water?
Water is in oceans and rivers, both places where fish and sea creatures live. But when we do bad things with the water we can kill all of those creatures. When we pollute the water and waste it, other people may need it more than we do, so if you ever waste water just think, the children in Africa need it more than we do.
Kids in Africa do need it more than we do because all of their water is polluted and dirty. When they drink it they end up getting sick or maybe even dying. So just imagine you are in Africa and you see little children running to the river, barefooted, and they do not have any water; they look really hot and tired. They are very little and sad. You see them sweating but no water to drink. They may end up dying or getting sick because of the loss of water. So just be thankful that you have water to live and be hydrated. Also in Africa the people drink so much water that there were places where there used to be deep water; it was gone because they drank it all. So just imagine that you are at you local river and it was very deep. Then in about three months, it is only about as tall as your knees. You used to be able to swim in the river and jump off a dock. But now that the people had drank it, all they have a chance to never go swimming in a long time after that. If they tried to go swimming or jump off the dock they could hurt themselves.
So when you think of water, think of it’s your whole life because, Every drop counts!
Hi Tish, I think May is checking the facts on why the water is disappearing in Africa. I wonder if we have a problem of less water in our country. How could we find out? Thanks for helping us imagine what it is like with so little water in a hot, dry country. Actually, we live in a hot, dry country in the summer. You helped us picture the problem.
Did you know many people need safe drinking water in their area, and they have to drink their own pee and poop? Over three hundred million people have little access of drinking water because it’s not good for them. Some 1.1 billion people worldwide do not have access to safe clean drinking water for their kids and themselves. Over 4 billion cases of diarrhea happen around the world each year which in about 2.2 million of deaths. Young children also have other health problems such as malnutrition. Approximately 86% of those deaths occur among children under the age of five years.
Water Day is celebrated on March 22. Children in Africa need water more than us Americans do because we have a lot of water here in our town. But I don’t get a clue: why Africa doesn’t have water? Some Africa kids don’t wear shirts when they go get water for their family. I think that because sometimes they could get hot if it was the summer time down there and didn’t have any water to swim in like we do. Africa is a very poor country because they don’t have very much food or water. But Africa’s water is very dirty and polluted. But Africa does need a lot of water for a whole lot people down there.
There is a river that can kill a whole lot of people. If you ever tried to swim in it you would get killed. So I hope you people out there try not to go into the river that can kill you.
May, I wonder if you could check your research links to see why Africa has so little water. Did any one read why? Let’s find out. Thanks for your careful research on the problem. You have included many facts; including the fact that the youngest children die (be for age 5).
Well I remembered all this stuff by writing on a piece of paper and then go back to the other tab and type it on there so i know something about water. I also used it by not wasting paper and so I wouldn’t have to go back and forth to each other tab. The strategy helped me because I can get more details in the story and not just go back and forth then put something else and not make sense in the story. Other wise people would think I’m crazy. Thanks!!!!!!!! Good bye !!!!!!!!
May, I would like you to show your strategy to the class. Many students do not know how to use the tabs to go back and forth between sites. Would you be willing to show a group how to do this? Thanks, Ms. E.
thanks ms.Edwards for commenting on my story cause that will help me.with my writing.
Rex, That is the important thing — conversations about ideas and writing. Have you added to the Blog Topic Survey to consider your next writing assignment?
Yes I would like to show some people how to switch back and forth on the tabs.
Great, let me know when you are ready.
Do you have good water? some people in the world have really bad water. some places in the world do not get good clean water. some people in Kenya do not get water to drink. a million of people die of lack of water. women and kids have to walk 3 to 5 miles to get good drinking water.would you live in Kenya? You would have to carry a big jug and carry it with you in the hot sun!! Kids under 5 die every 20 seconds from lack of water. 3.5 million people die each year of NO good water. I watched a video and there was a sign that said “NO DIVING ………. ” but there was no water at all it was gone. In Kenya there are droughts that are really bad.
Run, I like your short sentences. They are like bullets making points, hitting the target to show every one how serious the problem is. Thanks.