Activities
In the first activity students will get background information about climate change. The teacher will read “We Are Water Protectors.” This book will be an opener to explain causes that affect our water. The teacher will have a set of questions that will open up a discussion about what they know about water. They will receive their KWL charts and the 3 Whys question to start thinking about why water is important. Students will also begin to keep a journal about the weather conditions and describe what they see every day. Students will begin to see the types of weather their environment is having in their climate. Teacher will give the culture stories of how water and agriculture came to be for the people. They will discuss the “3 Sister” and how it is important to their People. Students will turn in their KWL chart.
The second activity will focus on the geography of where water comes from for the community of Chinle. The teacher will open up the lesson with showing pictures of watersheds, windmills, people hauling water, the farm lands and the low levels of water happening on the reservation. The teacher will ask the question, “Why does this matter to the people around me?” The teacher will then show students maps of the Navajo Nation and the geography of where water comes from and how it makes its way into their home and school. Students will locate on the maps where their home is and where their water source is coming from. They will then be given data on precipitation, temperature and water levels on the Navajo Nation that they will chart. They will also get a completed chart of the Midwest where there is more rainfall. From the charts, students will have a discussion about what the data is telling them. The teacher will then present what other communities have done during a drought to plant. They will begin thinking about what they would do and how they would plant in conditions like this. Students will turn in a concept map where they will give their ideas they discussed with one another.
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