There are certain questions kids like to relentlessly occasionally ask over and over from time to time in the classroom.
“Can I go to the bathroom?”
and
“Can I get a drink of water?”
Can you relate?
We tackled our bathroom procedure {here}, so today we’re taking on the H20. We know full well that this is a loaded question and one that will most certainly cause an avalanche of askers…It’s called the “Domino Effect” and primary students are experts…Olympians…World Champs, really. We are certain they wait with parched tongues waiting for us to exclaim, “Free Drinks for All!”, but mostly we sort of just want to channel our inner Seinfeld and exclaim, “No Soup Water For You!”.
We’ve battled with this procedure in our own class for quite some time. We truly believe there is a time and a place for fulfilling their basic necessities during the school day, but we also realize that we are the Keepers of those needs, dictating when and where they can partake.
So this year, we decided to implement a strategy of our own and end this lil’ game once and for all…or at least try. 🙂 On the first day of school, we provide each student with their own reusable water bottle to be kept on top of their desk. We usually pick these up at the local dollar stores, and believe us…We have shopped water bottles.
We highly suggest using the “pop top” style bottles, rather than the open, “I’m going to spill all over your desk and classroom floor” model. Trust us…It’s not pretty. 🙂 We found the above and below water bottles at the Dollar Tree last year. They came with a little snack cup on the bottom, which we quickly removed and created a class set of math manipulative containers. Cha Ching! We always pick up a few extras for new students or the very rare bottle breakage.
We put each student’s name on their bottle and they keep them up on top of their desks at all times. Though they are not free to drink whenever and wherever they’d like, they have learned to be responsible with their water bottles in class. We teach them appropriate times to drink (like when we are headed out to recess or in transition between activities) and inappropriate times to drink (like when we are all sitting on the rug in the middle of a lesson). They learn quickly what their privileges and limitations are with their class water bottle.
When we are working at our tables, we encourage them to stay hydrated and drink their water as they need. As time allows, we give them permission to refill their water bottles at the class water fountain.
Our main concern when starting this new procedure, was the spills. We began the year by stocking up on paper towels and making at least 10 extra copies of every worksheet, just in case. But, they really surprised us. Aside from the occasional dribble, we have only had 1 major spill all year. That’s a pretty good track record, we think!
We also debated about the cleaning procedure. Surely, we weren’t going to bring them home each week and clean them! So we came up with a Water Bottle Clean Up system for the class.
You can grab your own copy or our Water Bottle Clean Up routine too.
Each student is responsible for and very capable of washing their own water bottles. We stick this sign up by our sink each time, post a class list for the kids to cross off as they go and call the next friend…It pretty much runs itself. It does take some time to get through everyone’s water bottle, but the few minutes the kids take to wash their bottles are well worth the time wasted getting up in the middle of lessons to quench their thirst.
