WINTER EARTH STUDY. 463 



USEFUL PROPERTIES AND USES OF WATER. 



What Water does. 



Dissolves things. Show the children that water dissolves 

 (" Melts/' or " Makes them go away/' or " Makes them so 

 we cannot see them/' the children are likely to say) salt, 

 sugar, snow, ice, alum, and other substances. Show them 

 that heat helps the water to dissolve these more quickly. 



Have children ask about and bring some of the incrusta- 

 tion usually formed in tea-kettles, and talk about its for- 

 mation. Water may dissolve rocks, but very slowly. 

 Water is the great solvent of nature. Heat and soap aid it. 



Floats and carries things. Show children the power 

 water has to float things, wood, paper, leaves, saw-dust ; 

 to hold them in suspension, such as chalk-dust or mud ; and 

 to carry them along. Show how sand and even stones 

 can be carried along by moving water. 



Soaks into things. Show, with sponge and wood and 

 chalk and sandstone, how water soaks into objects even 

 when we can see no holes into which it can enter. This 

 helps it dissolve and carry along what is not on the outside 

 of objects. 



Review and summary. Try to have each step reviewed 

 and " clinched " before passing to next step. At the end, 

 try to have two or three children tell " the three things that 

 water does." The retention of the ideas gained depends 

 largely on the clearness, defmiteness, and frequency of the 

 summaries. 



The Uses of Water. 



Importance of " Why." This should be an application 

 of the previous work. The work will mean much more if 

 the children are constantly asked, "Why is water used 

 for this ? " and if they are led to relate each use to one or 



