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GAMES & ACTIVITIES
STUDENT PLAYBOOK

STUDENT ACTIVITIES  

The Winning Water Tales of Tarrant County student activities page features games, videos, educational lessons and more. Access in the classroom or at home to learn more about how to conserve water and protect the environment in your community.

savetarrantwater.com

Kids, you can teach grown-ups how to conserve water too!

Ask your parents and care-givers to visit SaveTarrantWater.com to learn how to save water at home!

They can learn how to find and fix water leaks, check out free gardening classes, and sign up for weekly watering advice and free sprinkler evaluations!


DIGITAL GAMES  

You’ve watched the show and learned all about water conservation. Now you can play these fun, educational games. <!– and become a member of The Aqua League yourself!–>

Play the games below with your class or friends and family for an exciting way to learn more about our most important natural resource.


Friendly Feud

Classroom trivia game based around the content in the program that can be played one-on-one or team versus team. High score wins!

Play Now (English)
Play Now (SPANISH)

Quizzer

A classic multiple choice and true/ false quiz game based around the content in this program. You can play and review individually or learn together as a class.

Play Now (English)
Play Now (SPANISH)

Memory Mayhem

A memory game to test your skills at finding and matching informational icons.

Play Now (English)
Play Now (SPANISH)

DIGITAL ACTIVITIES  

These fun, engaging activities can be enjoyed alone, with your class, or with friends and family on any compatible device. Complete the activities along with the online games for a fun and interactive way to learn even more about water conservation and pollution prevention.

Access the Activities (English)

Access the Activities (SPANISH)

STUDENT PLAYBOOK  

This downloadable PDF features colorful artwork, entertaining games and activities, and expanded information to complete your understanding of water conservation. Read on your own, with your class, or with friends and family and get to know the characters of Winning Water Tales of Tarrant County.

Explore the Student Playbook (English)
Explore the Student Playbook (SPANISH)

E-book

Explore this colorful, illustrated e-book in the classroom or at home with friends and family. Students can read to themselves or with others, and younger students can use the read-along option.

Access the E-book

Graphic Novel

Flip through this colorful graphic novel for a new and engaging story. With fun artwork, entertaining characters and expanded information, The Aqua League graphic novel offers a page-turning experience.

Access the Graphic Novel

SMART SPEAKER ACTIVITY

The Showdown at Dry Gulch smart speaker app will run on any Amazon or Google smart speaker or any device with the Amazon Alexa or Google Assistant app.

Simply say “Alexa, open Showdown at Dry Gulch” or “Hey Google, talk to Showdown at Dry Gulch” and have fun!

HANDS-ON LESSONS

You can enhance the learning from the program video with these fun, hands-on lessons and experiments. These lessons can be done in the classroom or at home with your family.

The materials needed for these lessons are basic supplies that most people have at home. They’re a fun and educational way for you to learn with family members.

Lesson 1:

Lesson 1: The Water Cycle

plants
Objective

Make a miniature environment to see the water cycle at work.

Purpose of Activity

Apply Skills, Create

21st Century Skills

Critical Thinking

Cognitive Level

Strategic and Extended Thinking

Class Time

45 minutes over three days

Materials
  • Soil
  • Water
  • Small plastic bowl
  • Large, clear plastic container or an old aquarium
  • Plastic wrap
  • Plastic trees, animals, boat, etc. (optional)
  • Tape or large rubber band
  • Bag of ice (optional)
  • Heat lamp (optional)
Procedure
  1. Arrange the soil in the container to make mountains, plateaus, hills and a lake basin. Place the small plastic bowl in the lake basin. Fill the bowl with water. Add any plastic animals, trees or boats to the environment. Cover the container tightly with plastic wrap and secure it by means of tape or the band. Place the container near a sunny window.
  2. Discuss what is expected to happen in the container.
  3. Depending on the amount of sun, the project may take one to three days. In order to speed up the process, a bag of ice may be placed on one end of the covered container, while a heat lamp is focused on the other.
  4. Watch for condensation on the plastic wrap “sky” of the container. When enough moisture collects, it will fall onto the landforms as precipitation.

Where is water collecting?

  • It is collecting on the inside of the plastic wrap cover.

Why is it collecting there?

  • The water is evaporating and that is what is causing it to condense there.

What happens to the water after it evaporates?

  • It precipitates back down into the aquarium.

Lesson 2:

Role of Plants in Water Filtration

Turbine
Objective

This experiment is a very simplified way to show whether plants will take up certain kinds of materials from water moving relatively quickly through their root systems.

Purpose of Activity

Review, Identify Details, Communicate, Create

21st Century Skills

Critical Thinking

Cognitive Level

Strategic and Extended Thinking

Class Time

45 minutes

Materials
  • Six potted plants in 6-8" diameter pots with holes in the bottom; soil needs to be moderately dry
  • Six clear containers, such as cups, which will support the plants and allow drainage to be viewed
  • Soil
  • Unsweetened powdered drink mix, grape or cherry for color
  • Vegetable oil
  • Two different household cleaners; one should be liquid and the other powder
Preparation

Set up the potted plants, each in its own cup. Slowly pour 6-8 ounces of clean water through the pot. Adjust the soil so that water percolates through at about one ounce per minute.

Procedure

Divide the class into teams. Teams of three or four work best.

  1. Place the potted plants into the top of their cups. Pour clean water slowly through one of the pots and watch it percolate through the bottom of the pot. The water should look as clean as what was poured.
  2. Add a gram or so of soil to 6-8 ounces of water and stir. Pour slowly into the second flower pot. The “dirty” water should look much cleaner once poured.
  3. Add about one ounce of vegetable oil to 6-8 ounces of water, stir (they won’t mix completely) and pour into a third pot. See if the vegetable oil percolates through.
  4. Add some powdered drink mix to 6-8 ounces of water and pour through a fourth pot. See if the water retains the color.
  5. Add some powdered cleanser to 6-8 ounces of water and pour through a fifth pot. Is the cleanser retained in the soil?
  6. Add some liquid soap to 6-8 ounces water. Does the soap percolate through the soil?
  7. Using the “contaminated” plants, pour some clean water at the same rate through each one. Is more of the “pollutant” rinsed away from the soil by the clean water?

In what ways can plants and soil help improve drinking water quality?

  • They filter out some pollutants.

Can plants and soil remove any type of impurity from water?

  • No.

What is the role of rainwater moving through contaminated soil?

  • It washes the pollutants through the root system as well as deep underground.

Lesson 3:

Write a Water Poem

OBJECTIVE
Students will read poems about water. Then they will draw a picture inspired by the poems as well as write their own.

PURPOSE OF ACTIVITY
Read or Listen, Apply Skills, Create

COGNITIVE LEVEL
Strategic and Extended Thinking

CLASS TIME
1 class period

MATERIALS

  • Pencil
  • Drawing utensils
  • Paper

PROCEDURE

  1. Have students read one, two or all of the water-inspired poems below.
  2. Discuss the poems.
  3. Prompt students to reflect on a memorable experience involving water.
  4. Have students create a drawing demonstrating a memorable experience about water.
  5. Explain that the students will also be writing a poem about water.
  6. Have students create a poem next to the drawing.

Suggestion: if students have trouble creating a poem, they may want to try writing a word that describes or relates to water and assigning an adjective for each letter of the word.

Drinking Fountain
– Ethel Jacobson
At first just a trickle,
Two drops splash and tickle.
And then there’s a spurt,
A sudden big squirt,
Right smack in my eye:
The fountain must think
That I need a face-wash
More than a drink!

Flow
– Aldo Kraas
Water from the Sea
I hope that
You flow
Back and forth
Because I want to hear
The sound of the water
I find the sound of the water
So soothing

Water is a Lovely Thing
– Julia W. Wolfe
Water is a lovely thing—
Dark and ripply in a spring,
Dark and quiet in a pool,
In a puddle brown and cool;
In the river blue and gray,
In a raindrop silver gray,
In a fountain crystal bright;
In a pitcher frosty cold,
In a bubble pink and gold;
In a happy summer sea
Just as green as green can be;
In a rainbow far unfurled,
Every color in the world;
All the year from spring to spring,
Water is a lovely thing.



Critical Thinking Questions

What kinds of words did you use to describe water?

  • Adjectives are words that describe other words. Wet, cold and frozen are all examples of adjectives that could describe water.

What are the differences between some of the poems written by the students?

  • Some may rhyme, others may not. Some may be long, others short. Some may have complicated rhythms, others may be simple. Discuss the effect each poem has on the students.

Help us save and
protect water!

Visit SaveTarrantWater.com to learn more

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