In Oak room we have been learning about our right to have clean water, which is article 24 of the rights respecting schools award that we will be trying to gain this year.

In Oak room we have been experimenting with water by adding soil, sand and flour.

Bottle one contained flour and water, bottle two contained sand and water, bottle three contained soil and water and bottle four was tap water.

As a group we had a discussion about the UNICEF posters about how children collect and drink water in different countries around the world. Children were asked which water they would rather drink and I think you could probably guess their answers!

Mrs Thompson then spoke to the children about how we could make the water clean and safe to drink. Most children thought that by adding more water to the bottle it would make it cleaner so we decided to be Exploraptor’s and experiment ourselves.

We used coffee filter paper, white cotton material and funnels to try and make the water safe again. Children were surprised at how long it took for the water  to filter through the coffee filter paper and the same with the material. When we looked at the dirt that came out of the water on the material children were talking about how they wouldn’t like dirt like that on their clothes. You could try this at home using kitchen roll.

All children were reminded about how lucky we all are to have clean, safe drinking water in out taps and also in our water machines in Cherry room and Oak room.

Why don’t you talk about this with your children at home and try and think of the many ways we use water every day and see if you can think of any other ways of cleaning water.

Here are some useful websites:

•  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reservoir
• https://www.unicef.org.uk/
• http://www.enviroscapes.com/drinking-water-wastewater-treatment-model.html