Earth Science: Water and Water Purification Part One

 Learning about purifying water is a lot more fun than you might think.  We started by reading the material in our actual science book and then we filled out a worksheet about the earth's water resources.

 After that we read a bunch of supplemental books.  How Did That Get to my House?: Water by Nancy R. Masters was probably the most pertinent of the books we read.  It was a really good overview of water, the water cycle, why we need water, and how you access water and clean it.  Excellent book to read if you are studying water.

 Our World of Water: Children and Water Around the World by Beatrice Hollyer was by far my children's favorite.  It showcases six children who live in various places around the world and discusses how each child gets water.  This was perfect for reading around Thanksgiving.  I think access to water is blessing many of us take for granted but not after reading this book.  At least, not until we forget again.  My children loved this book and really came away with a sense of gratitude for water.  I highly recommend.

Why Living Things Need . . . Water by Daniel Nunn was a very basic introduction to why water is important.  It took five minutes to read, it had nice pictures, and my children liked it.

Nature's Cycles: Water by Dana Meachen Rau is another super-simple book. I really liked it though because we have talked about the water cycle numerous times and my younger kids still don't have it down.  This was a good review.

Follow the Water from Brook to Ocean  by Arthur Dorros was perfect for what I needed.  It discusses how snow melts and trickles into brooks that trickle into streams that flow into rivers that wind up in the ocean.  This book provoked a lot of good questions and helped the kids understand sea level and things like that.  

 Later that night, when Dad came home, we pulled out a science kit.  It was only $11 so you can imagine that it wasn't the highest quality.  However, it did a good enough job that I think it was well worth the money.

 First you put your little tubes together filled with carbon, sand, gravel and a little paper filter at the bottom.

 Then you make some dirty water.  I think that was the kids' favorite part.

 Then you pour the dirty water through your filter and see what comes out at the bottom and what gets stuck in the filter.  The box specified that the filter doesn't work well enough to drink the results but that was pretty obvious by the end result (I didn't take a pic of the filtered water--oops).  It was a lot cleaner than it started though.

 We had a lovely time watching the process and it led perfectly into the field trip we went on the next day.  Pics of that soon to follow.  Happy drinking.  :)