Living Water Program Script for your water party. Places to personalize are in RED. Welcome 1. Pray 2. We are excited that you and your family could come tonight! Tonight we will be exploring and learning about water and why it is important in our everyday lives. We ll also help you discover the way that you can use water to make a big difference in the lives of people in a little country called Laos, which is far away from us near a big country called China. 3. We re going to get started with our first experiment as you sit at your tables. Find a clear plastic cup that is filled with warm water. Now, find and pass around the packet of small, clear colored Poly-acrylamide crystals that are on your table. Take one or two crystals out and put them on the table right in front of you. When you look at the crystals, notice their size. They are pretty small right now, but wait until you see how big they get over the next hour. Polymer crystals like these can absorb 300 times their own weight in water. They are actually used all over the world for a lot of different things. Farmers mix them in with their soil to help keep the soil moist. That way, the farmer can water less, and the plants still have moist soil. Golf courses use polymer crystals to help keep the grass green. And those of you with baby brothers and sisters might also be surprised to know that polymer crystals are also used in baby diapers! They absorb all the stuff that goes into the diaper so mom and dad don t have to worry about accidents! Now, everyone grab your crystals and plop them into your water glass. Be sure to put your name on the glass and when we come back to the room at the end of the night, we ll see what has happened with our crystals. 4. I d like to introduce you to two friends of mine, who you might already know. This is Ned and Ted and they are the local Mountain High Kids Experimenteers. They are here to help us with our first game, called sink or float!. (Ned and Ted call a volunteer up to help put the items in the water and have the kids make guesses beforehand if they will sink or float) Sink or Float game (10 minutes) 5. Wasn t that a fun game? One fun part about being a scientist is that you get to make guesses and then see if your guesses are correct.
There are lots more fun things we can do with water, so we re going to get started with those. As you came in, you were given a colored card. We re going to split up into 4 color groups and head upstairs for our next activities. Parents, we need you to stay with your children to help them at each station. We ll let you know when it is time to switch activities and then we ll meet back downstairs afterward for some experimental snacks and the results of our polymer crystal experiment. It s going to be a really fun night! Living Water Relay Instructions The purpose of the relay is to explain to the kids how important clean water can be. Split the kids (and adults if there are not too many people) into 4 groups. Place two groups on one side of the room, and two groups across from them on the other side. The goal is to carry both water jugs back and forth across the room (handing off to the next person in line) until everyone in line has made it across once and then returned to their original side of the room. The winning team gets a 2 liter bottle of dirty water. When they say they don t want it, just tell them that this is what all the water looks like in the area of Laos where missionaries Tony and Mae live. Only 11 out of every 100 people have access to clean water. The rest have to get their water from dirty streams and lakes that are full of bacteria and other things that contaminate the water and make the people sick. Those people must carry their dirty water from those lakes and streams into their villages in the mountains. They have to drink it, cook with it, bathe in it, and feed their animals with it. The good news is that WE can help get them clean water filters so they don t have to use water like this! The kids can trade their water for candy (and then you can give the losing team candy too, as a consolation prize.) Test Tube Experiment (20 minutes) The purpose of this experiment is to help you learn about the properties of water and find out what will mix with water, and what will not. First, if you are 5 years old or under, you will need an adult to help you with this project.
Everyone take your test tube and fill it a little less than than halfway with the oil in the cup on your table. Be sure to hold your test tube steady so it doesn t spill. Next, add just about the same amount water, until the test tube is almost full. The water should NOT go to the top, you should have some space. Now, we re going to make lava. Take the colored tablet on the table and hold on to it until everyone has one. When I count to three, drop it into your test tube and watch what happens. The wetness of the water is causing the tablet to release a gas called carbon dioxide. The carbon dioxide bubbles are taking the food coloring and the water to the top, and when it touches the air, the bubbles pop. Next, we are going to do some observation. If you put the test tube lid on and screw it on tight, you can look carefully at how the water and the oil don t mix together very well. Also be sure to notice which part of the test tube absorbed the coloring the oil or the water? Now, tip your test tube so the cap is on top, and we are going to add some glitter to make a glitter wand. Take a pinch of glitter in your fingers and put it into your test tube. Does it sit on top of the liquid or does it drop? Screw the lid back on tightly and tip your test tube upside down and right side up to see if the glitter mixes evenly or if it stays more in the water or the oil. The water and the oil have different densities, which means one weighs more and pours slower. Which one do you think is heavier? The oil or the water? The oil! You ll notice that the glitter moves faster through the water than it does in the oil. This glitter wand is yours to keep, just be sure to keep the cap on tight so it doesn t spill at home. ***test tubes and color fizzer tablets can be ordered through www.stevespanglerscience.com Did everyone have a fun time learning about water? Final Session: I m wondering what the water did to your polymer crystals? If you look at your cups, you might think your crystals disappeared! That s because they absorbed so much water, that they are almost invisible!
If you reach into your cups don t spill you can find your crystals and examine them. They look a lot different than when you first put them in, don t they? They have lots of edges and bumps and they aren t hard anymore. There is a bag of crystals for each of you to take home so you can try this experiment with other liquids like soda or milk and see what happens. You can also put the crystals out to dry on some wax paper and they will shrink back in just a few days. We have one last experiment to do, but the best part about this one is you get to drink it! On your table, grab a clean, empty cup and have your parents help pour some water into it. Now, everyone take the fizzy tablet on your table and open it up. When you drop this solid tablet into the water it will start to dissolve and there will be a chemical reaction. The bubbles you see are gas bubbles, reacting to the water. The chemical in the tablets is called sodium bicarbonate. This experiment is safe to drink because it s actually just Kool Aid! Parents, FYI, there is artificial sweetner in this drink. [missions emphasis] While you sip your Kool Aid, I want to tell you a little more about our missionaries who are helping to bring clean water to the country of Laos. [talk about your water project here; show video if you have one] Now, If you pick up the globe on your table, see if you can find the [the area of the world you re talking about]. If you can, pass the globe around the table so everyone can find [the area of the world you re talking about]. You might also want to find [your state] on the globe, so you can see where we live, too. (3 minutes) There are also little globe keychains on your table, which will be for each of you to take home, to remember where our missionaries live and how we are helping them help others. Jesus says in the Bible that HE is the living water and if we drink of him, we will never be thirsty. What he means is that if we believe in him and accept his free gift of eternal live, we can live forever with him in heaven. [talk about how your project helps spread the truth of God s love and grace.] If you have some money or a check that you would like to donate, you can put it in the water pitchers that you will see people holding at the door, or you can collect it in the little boxes on your table that you decorated, and bring them to church. You can do chores around the house to raise money, or you can turn in your cans and bottles to the recycling center. Get creative! There are lots of ways to help!
We d love any donation you feel led to give toward this project. December 4 th is the last day we ll be collecting. And if you want to know more about Jesus s living water, and how you can go to heaven and live forever with him, come on up; we d love to help you understand more. Thank you for coming tonight! We are so glad that you are here! Good night!