First Nation Connection

"I like crossing water!"

We continued our Musqueam Creek exploration by crossing 41st Avenue 

to where the creek comes out and followed along.

"Push me please!"

"How did all these trees get knocked down?"

The first thing we came upon was a swing tied to a tall branch in a tree, of course everyone wanted a turn! When we finally reached the creek the first thing everyone noticed was the many fallen trees and the damaged dock. Esme was very concerned with the idea of storms strong enough to knock these massive trees down and was relieved to hear there were no storms in the forecast today.

"Oh oh water went in my boot!"

"Where does the water go?"

We followed the creek until we could go no further and stopped to watch it go under the road and continue on to the Fraser River.

We noticed a sign that labelled the area as an ecological sensitive area. I explained that long ago salmon would travel from the ocean up Fraser River then up Musqueam Creek to spawn but had stopped and people were trying to help them come back. The children were very curious!




"Why did the salmon stop coming?"
"Why do we want the salmon to come back?"
"How many eggs do salmon lay?"
"Why do people want salmon?"

To the people in nearby Musqueam Village salmon are very important for food and lively hood. The children have decided that they'd like to see the Fraser River where salmon travel and people fish and they'd like to do a dance to represent animals that need water "With masks so we look real!"

Musqueam Creek

An adventure in the forest brought the children to explore Musqueam Creek!

Bridges are not the only way we can cross water! 

We carefully balanced across, thankfully no one fell in!

As the children investigated many questions came up:

"Why is this water moving so fast while the last water we saw wasn't moving at all?" I asked

"Maybe it's down hill." thought Johnathan, but the ground was flat. 

"Maybe it's the wind." he guessed again, but there was no wind today. 

I told them that currents make the water move.

"What's a current?" they all wondered - something we'll explore further. 

In any case they enjoyed throwing sticks in the creek and watched the current carry them away. 

Where does the creek start and where does it end? Are there animals that live in the creek? They really wanted to keep walking and follow it but we ran out of time. Tomorrow we'll cross 41st Ave and continue following the creek and see what other questions come to mind. With the beautiful weather we will have a picnic on our trip tomorrow!

Animals and Water

 The children have shown care for sea creatures by being concerned that water pollution might hurt them. Who's responsible for keeping the oceans clean?

"We are!" said everyone. "My dad is!" said Esme

Using books to research!

What animals live in water and what animals drink water?

On a chart I used a red marker to collect the children's prior knowledge.

Then the children used non-fiction books to research more animals and an orange marker was used to add these animals to the chart.

This process illustrated for the children how their knowledge can grow with research.

Here's a link the children enjoyed featuring a song about keeping the ocean clean.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1vyHtYwQz-0

The children concentrated as they coloured pictures of sea creatures and created their own ocean scene.

Water Model Presentation

The model of Vancouver's water system was finished today. The children added the final details; snow, reservoirs, rivers, the ocean, pipes and labels to explain what everything is.

The children are pleased with their work and I noted that the other children are going to be very curious about what it's all about and I wondered if they'd like to present the model. Everyone thought that was a great idea. Next came the decisions: who would speak in front of the others, what would each person say, and who was not comfortable speaking in front of others. Alfie and Johnathon chose to be on 'stage' for the presentation but not speak. Simone, Esme and Sofia chose to share in speaking about the model and Bela chose to be in the audience to field questions at the end of the presentation.



The children had to think about what they're responsibilities are when it comes to giving a presentation:

• speak clearly and loud enough to be heard
• give the other presenters their time to talk
• make eye contact with the audience

The children in the audience have responsibilities too:

• make eye contact with the presenters
• listen and don't talk
• wait until the end to ask questions
• clap at the end to show your appreciation

The children did a wonderful job!

Vancouver's Water System Model

Today we continued with our project of building Vancouver's Water System including Capilano and Seymour reservoirs. A Sesame Street clip on water reinforced the idea that every living thing needs water. "Water is important." concluded Esme.

Everyone took a part in the project: Julia and Alfie painted the mountains, Bela painted the land, Esme and Sofia painted houses and Simone painted a water treatment plant. While they worked I began the discussion of how important it is that we take care of our reservoirs and not pollute them "Ya, I don't want yucky water" said Sofia.

Next week we'll add snow on the mountain tops, rivers and streams and a pipe system for the water to travel through. Many of the children in other groups are curious about what we're doing. The Fire Group will present their model and practice talking in from of a group and share their knowledge.

Where does our drinking water come from?

Today we continued investigating the child's question "How does water get to our taps?" 

Mixing flour and water for paper mache

We started building a model of where Vancouver gets it drinking water which will provide a way for the children to show what they've learned.

Together we did some research on the computer and learned that there are 3 reservoirs we get our water from, our model will include two of them: Capilano and Seymour.

Making Seymour Mountain and Capilano Mountain

Johnathan and Sofia helped me paper mache two mountains. Simone said that ballerinas do not get their hands gooey so she opted to be the photographer and take pictures of the process. The smell of the paper mache made Alfie gag so he opted to give us moral support out of nose's reach rather than risk disaster!

The book "A Cool Drink of Water" by Barbara Kerley illustrates how everyone all over the world needs clean water to drink. Sofia noticed that not everyone got their drinking water from taps.




This led us to wonder about "What needs fresh water?" The children are very knowledgeable about this and made a information poster to share their knowledge.

Child's Question

Child's Question: Where does the water in our taps come from?

The children can see water coming out of the tap but where did it come from? "Pipes" many of them knew. We had a look and indeed there are pipes connected to the tap.

Looking at the pipes

Where does the water in the pipes come from? "The stream" thought Julia. We watched a video explaining the water treatment process http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tuYB8nMFxQA. Esme heard a familiar word - chlorine - "You have to wash it off your body." (after swimming) Chlorine is used to killed germs and bacteria and helps make our water clean to drink.

To watch the filtration system in action we built one to show the process.

First a layer of cotton, then a layer of sand

Then a layer of gravel

Making dirty water

Pour in the dirty water

Clean water comes out the bottom!

After group time I observed Sofia explaining the filtration system to a child from another group - great communicator Sofia!

Where is water found?

To check the children's prior knowledge the children told me where they knew water was found and I drew it on a poster. Then we used the book Water by Frank Asch to add information to the poster.

While we gathered information the children came up with questions to lead our inquiry:

• Is snow and ice water?
• What is dew?
• Where does the water in our taps come from?
• Do you need water to make paper?

During this process Alfie was chewing on his sleeve and when he leaned on our poster he made it wet . . . with saliva! An exciting discovery! Water can be found in our bodies! The children thought of two sources: tears and saliva. We'll investigate this further.

I shared with the children something I knew about water - the water we find in oceans is different than water we find everywhere else. The children taste tested fresh water and salt water.

Salt water

Fresh water
Experiment: Is ice water? Some thought yes and some thought no. We let an ice cube melt in a bowl and concluded ice is water and we talked about two forms of water: liquid and solid. The children discovered that their hands and mouth made the ice melt faster.