Water Is My Home by Nicole Rodier

We often take our access to water for granted. We’ve become accustomed to the

privilege of turning the tap and knowing clean, safe drinking water will flow out. However, due to natural disasters and climate change, people are being forced to leave their homes and relocate, taking with them their current relationship with water.

This project can be adapted to all grade levels but was designed with Middle School

students in mind. The main goal of this project is to build an understanding of the important role water plays in our individual lives, and to reflect on how the relationship with water changes if we are forced to relocate. We will start by exploring local circumstances of relocation, like the wildfires affecting large portions of Manitoba, and boil-water advisories across the province. We will then shift to the global perspective, where we can gain a better understanding of our privilege and position of influence with regards to clean, safe drinking water.

Project Summary

As a class, we will read aloud the book titled We Are Water Protectors by Carole

Lindstrom. This will help stimulate ideas and get students reflecting on their relationship with

water. To do this, students will embark on a creative writing journey following the Individual

Writer’s Workshop, developed by Felicia Rose Chavez. The prompts will have the learners

thinking about how water impacts their everyday choices, and ask them to imagine how that

would change if they were forced to relocate due to circumstances outside of their control.

We will invite our local Knowledge Keeper to share with us her water teachings so that we

may gain a greater appreciation for this gift of nature from an Indigenous perspective.

The students will be asked to return to their own homes and capture through photos and

videos the various ways they use water in their homes. They will also be challenged to showcaseany ways in which they protect water, again using photos and videos. Using online tools, they will turn these media into statements of meaning, pairing them with stories and poems of their own making. These photos will then be placed throughout the school to encourage others to notice their own relationship with water.

Finally, we will come together to create a class pledge where we make individual

promises to better care for our water. Once finalized, we will place this in the entry of the school, surrounded by our photos, and invite other classes to add their own affirmations to our pledge. This will be open to the larger school community, in hopes that by seeing the promises made by our young learners, it will inspire others to make even the smallest of changes. Because even the smallest ripple can have a big impact.