Water We Waiting For

Grade: 5th and 6th grade unit

Topics: Environmental Justice, Water
Social Justice Skills: Critical thinking, advocacy, protest, fairness, letter writing
Created by: Madeline Della Pesca, Rachel Hartman, Alejandro Hernandez. Nicole Larsen, Hayley Smith

The “Water We Waiting For” unit helps students explore whether clean drinking water is a resource that should be provided by the government as an unalienable right. Students will research the topic and investigate inequality, access to resources, injustice, human rights, and some of the political aspects of the water crisis, as well as the detrimental effects contaminated water has on our health as individuals and as communities. To do so, lessons have been crafted that span a cross curricular approach, through reading and language arts, science, social studies, math, health education, physical education and the arts. The unit will culminate in the cultivation of a protest in which students will explore methods of political expression that can be used not only to advocate for the access to clean drinking water, but also protest tactics that can be used in the face of injustice and oppression anywhere.

Download This Unit: Water Unit Fifth Grade