This holiday season, make water the star of the show! We’ve created a fun and engaging package with 4 interactive games and 4 surprising water facts to bring this vital resource to your dinner table. Learn about the hidden water footprint of your favorite holiday items, explore famous bodies of water, and test your water vocabulary in “Just a Minute.” Download the free PDF below, including game instructions and fun facts to share with your loved ones. Let’s make this holiday season a little more water-conscious!
Intructions for games
Higher or lower
To play this game, one person (reader) should follow the script below. Everyone else can play!
Reader: Given that it takes up to 190 liters (50 gallons) of water to fill a standard bathtub, do you think it takes more (higher) or less (lower) water to make a holiday, woolen sweater? Ask each player for their guess, higher or lower.
Reader: The answer is Higher. It takes approximately 1,500 liters (about 396 gallons) of water to produce a woolen sweater. OK, a Christmas tree? Higher or lower than a holiday sweater.
Reader: The answer is Higher. It takes about 10,000 liters (2,640 gallons) of water to grow a 1.5-meter (5-foot) Christmas tree. OK, a smartphone? Higher or lower than a Christmas tree?
Reader: The answer is Lower. A smartphone requires approximately 3,000 liters (790 gallons). This includes the extraction of materials, manufacturing, and assembly. OK, a holiday dinner with 10 guests? Higher or lower than a smartphone?
Reader: The answer is Higher. It will depend on the menu, but for a typical meal including meat, vegetables, and beverages, it can be estimated at about 5,000 to 10,000 liters (1,320 to 2,640 gallons), considering water for food production, processing, and preparation.
Guess that water body
Describe a body of water without using its name. Provide one clue at a time, starting ideally with more difficult clues. For example: 1) I was “cleaned” for the Olympics. 2) I can see the Louvre. 3) I flow through Paris. Answer: I am the Seine.
Just a minute
Try to speak about water for one minute without:
—Repetition (saying the same thing about it),
—Hesitation (pausing or stumbling)
—Deviation (talking about something unrelated to water).
One person will need to time and stop if the speaker repeats, hesitates or deviates. With multiple people, time who can speak for the longest amount of time.
Water charades
Act out water-related scenes from movies. Example: Act out a ship hitting an iceberg (Titanic).
Did you know facts?
In a 100-year period, a water molecule spends 98 years in the ocean, 20 months as ice, about 2 weeks in lakes and rivers, and less than a week in the atmosphere.
Source: https://www.cleanwaterways.org/ as seen in https://www.seametrics.com/blog/water-facts/
While it may appear colorless, pure water is actually slightly blue. This is due to the way water molecules absorb the red end of the spectrum of visible light.
Source: https://www.usgs.gov/special-topics/water-science-school/science/water-color
Up to 50% of water is lost through leaks in cities in the developing world.6
Source: www.cnn.com as seen in https://www.seametrics.com/blog/water-facts/
Roughly 0.4% of the earth’s water is drinkable and accessible to humans.
Source: World Atlas, 2018.
