Water Is Wonderful!
Considers the charity, WaterAid, and our need for water
by Helen Redfern (revised, originally published in 2010)
Suitable for Whole School (Pri)
Aims
To encourage us to consider the importance of water and to take responsibility for looking after this valuable resource.
Preparation and materials
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You will need a leader and eight readers.
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You will also need time to practise the presentation prior to the assembly.
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More information about WaterAid is available at: http://www.wateraid.org/uk
Assembly
Leader: Ask the children to guess the theme of today’s assembly. Give them clues such as the following.
- It covers 75 per cent of the Earth’s surface.
- We could not live without it for more than a week.
- Two-thirds of your body is made of this.
Explain that the answer is ‘water’.
Ask the children what water means for them. Tell them that you are now going to hear how some people would respond to that question.
Reader 1: I love water. I love going swimming with my friends. We do handstands in the water and swim through each other’s legs. I love using my goggles to see underwater.
Reader 2: I hate the water. I’m really scared to put my face in the water. I will never be able to take my feet off the bottom of the pool. I’m so afraid of drowning.
Reader 3: My mum loves her bath. Every night, she spends ages soaking in the bubbly water. She says it gets rid of the stresses of the day and makes her feel relaxed and happy.
Reader 4: My sister drinks eight glasses of water a day. She says it makes her body and skin more healthy.
Reader 5: My dad is a farmer in Africa. He works really hard to grow food for our family. But if the rains don’t come, the crops don’t grow. Then, we don’t have enough food and we get hungry and sick. For us, water means rain, which means food.
Reader 6: I live in a small village in India. I have to walk for an hour to the river to get water for my family. It is very heavy to carry and I get very hot, but I have to do it every day. This is all the water my family has for the whole day.
Reader 7: We have a well in our village in Kenya. The water looks good, but sometimes, there are bugs in it that we can’t see and they can make us sick. We have to drink it, but we never know when we may get sick.
Reader 8: In our house, we save all our pennies for WaterAid, which works in poor countries all over the world to provide safe, clean water.
Time for reflection
Leader: We all think of water in different ways, yet it is very important to all of our lives. Let’s think about the importance of water as we reflect on these words.
Reader 1: Let us be thankful for the fun that we can have in the water.
Pause to allow time for thought.
Reader 2: Let us be aware of the dangers of water and be considerate to those who are not confident in the water.
Pause to allow time for thought.
Reader 3: Let us be grateful for the way water cleans and makes us look and feel better.
Pause to allow time for thought.
Reader 4: Let us remember how important water is for our bodies and to drink plenty of it.
Pause to allow time for thought.
Reader 5: Let us think about those who need water to grow their crops.
Pause to allow time for thought.
Reader 6: Let us think about those who have to walk miles to fetch water.
Pause to allow time for thought.
Reader 7: Let us think about those who do not have safe drinking water.
Pause to allow time for thought.
Reader 8: Let us support agencies like WaterAid, which help people all over the world to get the water that they need to survive.
Pause to allow time for thought.
Leader: Now listen to the words of this prayer.
Prayer
Dear God,
Water is wonderful and we thank you for it.
Water can be fun, but it can also be dangerous.
Help us to take water seriously.
Water can be all around us, yet it can be hard to find.
Help us not to take water for granted.
Water is free, but it is also precious.
Help us not to waste water.
Thank you again for the gift of water.
Amen.
Song/music
‘Water of life’ (Come and Praise, 2)