Wednesday, August 10, 2016

It's Water-Wise Wednesdays with Frannie the Fish {Water Use Collage}

This week Frannie wants to share a fun art project you can do at home to explore how you use water every day and how you can conserve it - by making a water use collage!

Here's what you'll need:
  • A writing utensil
  • A piece of paper
  • Poster board
  • Scissors
  • Glue
  • Magazines, newspapers, etc. that you can cut up

Here's what you do:

1. Every day we use water - for drinking, bathing, cooking, washing our clothes, etc. Water is also "hidden" in the items we use every day - for example, it takes water to grow the cotton in our t-shirts! 

Start by making a list on the piece of paper of all the ways you use water every day, include water activities as well as items that contain "hidden" water. Check out The Groundwater Foundation's 30by30 app to help you create your list.



2. Now that you have your list, look through magazines and newspapers for images of those activities and items.


3. Glue the images to the poster board. Feel free to draw the activities if you can't find a picture. Leave enough space to write a sentence or two by each of the images you glue or draw.

4. Next to each activity or item, write easy ways you can reduce water while doing the activities featured on your collage. For example, next to the image of a toothbrush or toothpaste, you could write "Turn the water off when brush your teeth." Or next to the image of a t-shirt, you could write "Shop at a thrift or consignment store for clothes." According to the Water Footprint Network it takes over 2,000 gallons of water to make a pair of jeans. That's a lot of water that can be saved by simply buying used! (A friendly tip: 30by30 has lots of fun, easy suggestions for reducing your water use!)


5. Teach others the importance of conserving water by sharing your masterpiece, either by hanging it in a public place, like a library or a school, or sharing it at a public meeting, like a city council or village board meeting.