The last three weeks of school before Christmas break my 5th graders spent raising money and awareness in our school for the international water crisis. We read a book aloud about a girl who lived in Southern Sudan who had to spend all morning walking for water, read Time for Kids articles about clean water problems worldwide, used water words for vocabulary, talked about how it made us feel, and made a plan to raise some funds to provide clean water to kids who needed it. It was a really beautiful time and we ended up raising over 200$ which we will donate to Living Water International (http://water.cc/)
Here are some shots of all of our fun!
Making posters to put up around the school
We had a little competition for which of my classes could raise the most money
I stayed WAY too late after school one day making this bulletin board
This is an excellent book to read if you want to learn about the way that access to clean water affects communities. It's a dual story of a boy growing up in Sudan as a child soldier and a girl also in Sudan whose family suffers from lack of water. It's a really beautiful story and to all my teacher friends, would be a great addition to your classroom libraries. I cried at the end...while reading it out loud!
Spanish and English versions of the TFK articles are available here:
http://www.timeforkids.com/TFK/kids/news/story/0,28277,2027478,00.html
