Being able to stay afloat, especially after a while in the water, gets harder and tiring for people.
Accidental immersion, where people didn’t intend to be in the water, but ended up in the water is a major cause of preventable drowning fatalities. This activity helps tamariki learn about traditional floatation materials and about modern day items including regular household items.
Oral - Can converse and order conversations to achieve a desired outcome.
Written - Can find meaning in a piece of writing and can understand the writers intention. Language strategies.
Written - Can use strategies to find meaning in stories and presentations that are new to them.
Can describe links between people and environments.
Technological Features can discuss the relationships between people and their environment.
Explain the rules around the uses of certain objects.
Test and evaluate.
Objects that have been studied.
Can present rules and safety practices to do with staying safe in a variety of contexts.
Students learn:
Students are able to:
Inquiry question - What strategies could our tūpuna have used to help them survive in the water?
Brainstorm with students
Discussion of different survival strokes such as:
Use the web link below to watch videos and practical activities that could be completed with the children. Water safety for children
Pātai: What did our tūpuna use to help them float and what could we use?
Teacher retells the story of Hinemoa and Tutanekai.
https://whakarewarewa.com/how-hinemoas-unrelenting-love-for-tutanekai-conquered-all/
Ask, what materials are these floatation aids made from?
Examples may include plastic, light weight wood such as cork or balsa, air (in inflatable devices), different fabrics, rubber, closed-cell plastic foams (PVC) and kapok.
Teacher places students into groups of four (or models with whole class). Each group has a bucket of water and is provided with samples of different materials and items to test for their ability to float for one minute or more (a piece of wood, pumice, hue, or wood samples with different densities, plastic, tin foil/aluminium, small plastic bottle, seaweed, denim fabric, other fabric samples such as polyester, wool, polar fleece and neoprene wet suit material). Tamariki record their predictions, carry out the testing then record their results. Tamariki then make suggestions as to why some materials are better in the making of floatation aids than others.
Tamariki are put into peers. Each group are given a number of items such as plastic bottles, denim clothing, wetsuits, polyester, wood etc. In peers the tamariki are to try and use these items to help them float. Tamariki record which items help them to float.
