Session #1 : Water – What is it ?

(Sensory workshop – discovering water)

Whatever students’ abilities, introducing or revising key vocabulary is essential and should be done throughout the sequence.

Introduction: water is shown to the students in a container large enough that the students may put in their hands to touch. The teacher may start by pouring some water from a larger container into a smaller one while questioning the students:
What is it? The question is accompanied by actions: pour, touch, shake the container, pretend to drink… etc.

Once the matter has been named the teacher may propose a game to consolidate by placing different objects in different containers (one container has water). He then asks the students to find the matter: Is it water? Which one is water ?

The teacher may then ask students to describe the matter in several stages. Notes are taken as the students advance:

• Touch - (water is light/heavy/hard/soft/liquid/solid) – pour bien établir la différence entre liquide et solide, l’enseignant peut verser l’eau d’un récipient à un autre en soulignant qu’on peut verser l’eau qui est liquide mais pas le livre (ou un autre objet) qui est solide.
• Feel – (water has no smell) – To facilitate language acquisition, the teacher can compare water to other things that the students may already know).
• Taste – (Water has no taste) – The teacher may do as in the previous stage and compare: water tastes like…. The teacher may also add mint or strawberry syrup to the water. Students then say whether the water has changed taste and colour, and if so what it looks/tastes like.

This sensory activity may be followed by one similar: students pass through the previous stages to find water but with their eyes banded/closed (certain younger children do not like having a bandanna over their eyes). Students touch, smell and taste several substances (sugar, salt, syrup, jus) and say whether it’s water or not: It’s water; it’s not water; It’s syrup.
See Document 1_Songs