For one hour on the morning of 22 March 2022, children in all the six NurtureStars preschool centres were on high alert. Their attention was drawn to solely focus on how to help protect Singapore’s precious water resource.
Teachers read to them the “Water Wally Adventure” and had them watch videos on how they could play their part to help conserve water. They learned why they should turn off the tap when brushing their teeth, and not to play and waste water when showering or taking a bath – to make every drop count.
The children were also taught how to save water by using pails to collect a sufficient amount for flushing the toilet bowl instead of using the cistern, and using water from bottles to wash their hands/brush their teeth instead of turning on the taps.
As this year’s World Water Day theme is “Groundwater, making the invisible visible”, the teachers engaged the children in learning how to clean up dirty “ground water” in a simulated “Fish it Up” activity. Children were guided to prepare a tray and fill it with “dirty” water, observe and note what it meant to them. They were told to “clean up” the trash (leaves, twigs, paper etc) using nets and sieves and share their thoughts after the water had been “cleaned”.
The importance of the clean water message was further reinforced with a simple colouring activity of the characters from Water Wally’s Adventure.
At the end of the session, the children sang and dance to mark the completion of their learning on how to care for the environment and protect our precious water.