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FIFTH GRADE’S LONG WALK TO WATER

Source/Author: Sandy Janack, Fifth Grade Social Studies Teacher

November 01, 2019

Middle School News

Fifth graders embarked on a Long Walk with Water around campus. Students are learning about the many women and girls in South Sudan who have limited education and job opportunities because of a lack of clean, running water in their communities. They have been reading “A Long Walk to Water” by Linda Sue Park in English class. The book’s main character is Nya, a girl who must trek to collect water daily for her family’s survival. The other main character is Salva Dut, one of the Lost Boys of Sudan, who escaped the massacre in his South Sudanese village as a boy. He became a refugee for over a decade in Ethiopia and later Kenya.

As students walked around campus, they carried gallons of water, symbolizing the long walk Nya made to a pond twice daily to fetch water for her family’s survival. Students gained empathy with Nya as they walked, marveling at challenges she may have faced. They shared that they were so happy to have shoes on that protected their feet as they walked, and to have running water at home.

Some fifth graders carried large jugs filled with 5 gallons of water for the length of their walk. Students took turns carrying the 40 pound jug with a partner as far as they could to gain an understanding of what many women and girls are carrying by themselves twice a day, often for miles.

Many students were shocked at the weight! Tyler B and Max M said, "I could only carry it about 10 yards and that was with a partner! I can't imagine doing that every day for so much further."

Fifth grade teachers have collaborated across the curriculum during this unit. Students have been learning about Africa in Social Studies, focusing on how humans adapt to the many challenging environments there. They gained an almost first-hand experience of how precious water is in Africa by using new Virtual Reality headsets. They viewed the 360 VR experience "My Africa" about a family's daily life in a village on the savanna. Having dozens of goats and other animals to take care of, the family must dig a well deeper and deeper every year to meet the needs of their family while they wait for the rainy season. Fifth grader Sloane W. said, "I understand so much more about what we're reading in English, seeing it up close like that!"

In Science, students have been researching waterborne illnesses and water filtration systems. They created their own water filters, scientifically testing the water quality before and after it ran through the filters.

In Math, students will calculate and compare the rate of speed of the main character's journeys.

This experience and the study of Salva Dut’s organization Water for South Sudan opened the students’ eyes to water quality issues that exist in the world. They gained both empathy and an appreciation for the many organizations that are making a difference in this area of the world. Watch a video clip of their reactions here.