Lesson Ideas for Water Quality Month (August)

The month of August is known as Water Quality month. Include lesson plans, activities, and crafts into your daily lesson plans which encourage students to appreciate the environment in which they live and help them learn the importance of good water quality.

Field Trip

Take students on a field trip to a nearby water treatment facility. Students will learn how water is filtered and recycled into the environment.

Crafts

Include games, activities, and crafts that help reinforce your lessons. Encourage children to create habitats, build aquariums, and develop poster board presentations which demonstrate the water cycle. Instruct students to create seashore collages, construct rainbows from melted crayons or tissue paper squares, and "paint" with colored sand.

Videos

Show videos which teach children the importance of good water quality. Check in your local libraries, school media centers, and online for good quality videos. PBS Teacher provides great teacher resources.

PBS Teacher provides a wealth of resources for teachers and students. Teachers will find complete units containing detailed lesson plans which outline learning objectives. The site provides a complete list of materials, class organization tips for teaching the unit, a detailed lesson plan, student hand-outs, rubrics, and assessments. The unit on water quality provides teachers with eight separate lesson plans and links to great videos to aid in instruction. PBS Teacher provides everything teachers need to develop complete instructional units which satisfies state standards and provides quality instruction which makes learning fun for both students and teachers. The site is free to use.

Lesson Planet is another site which provides teachers with good quality lesson plans. Teachers can access state standards from the site. Simply click on "standards", then choose a state. Lesson plan ideas are provided for all grade levels from Preschool through Higher Education. Lesson are ranked based on the "five star" system. Teachers may browse the site for ideas, but membership is required to access complete units and lesson plans. The cost is low and Lesson Planet generally offers the first month or two for free. Teachers may easily cancel their subscription at any time.