It's Water-Wise Wednesdays with Frannie the Fish! {Safety First!}

It’s hotter than blazes outside! For Frannie, this is the perfect time to head to the nearest beach with all of her friends.  River, lake, ocean, even sitting pool-side – it doesn’t matter!

But while Frannie grew up in water, some of her friends may not be as familiar as she is with basic water safety.  To make sure they can have good, safe fun all day long, let’s review a few safety tips to remember when we’re playing by the water.

1. Use the buddy system. Stay near your buddy and be sure to let someone know if you or your buddy is lost or needs help. 
2. In the same track as using the buddy system, make sure you stick together and stay close to the beach or shore where family, friends, or other adults can help you if you need it.
3. Never drink the water from a stream, lake, river, or other water body you are playing in or investigating.  Even if it looks clean, it might not be healthy to drink.
4. When playing on the banks of rivers, streams, ponds, and lakes, make sure the ground is sturdy and won’t give way. Look for signs of erosion that might indicate loose ground.
   
5. Pay attention to your surroundings. Is the ground or the bottom of the lake or river rocky?  Is the current strong?  Is the water level high or low?  What is the forecast supposed to be today?  Are there any fast moving boats nearby? These are very important questions that only take a few minutes to think about but can make all the difference.
6. There’s no such thing as bad weather, just bad clothing. Wear socks, long sleeves, and pants for hiking out to your favorite river or lake spot. Hats can protect you from the sun and bugs. Closed toed shoes can prevent rocks from cutting your feet. Flip flops are okay for the pool, but leave them at home for outdoor adventures.
7. Know which plants are poisonous. Poison ivy, poison oak, and stinging nettles can all make you feel uncomfortable or make you really sick. Poison sumac and hemlock are not as common, but can also be a threat.
   
8. Certain insects, such as ticks, mosquitoes, flies, bees, and hornets, can also ruin your nature experience.  Dress properly and wear insect repellent.
9. Respect the environment. Remember that you are a guest. Take nothing but pictures and leave nothing but footprints.

With these safety tips, Frannie hopes you’ll have a great time on the water this summer.  See you out there!

BLOG: 6 Fun Ways to Learn About Groundwater This Summer

by Jennifer Wemhoff, The Groundwater Foundation

Are you looking for some fun and different things to do with your kids this summer? Here are six ways to have fun learning about groundwater:

1. Dig in the dirt.
Kids love dirt and getting dirty! Find a good spot for them to go nuts and dig a hole. Have them notice how the soil gets wetter the deeper they dig, and talk about the water table, saturated and unsaturated zones. After they're good and dirty, hose them off and talk about how groundwater is recharged.

2. Make an edible aquifer.
There's not much better than a cold treat on a hot summer day! Build an edible aquifer out of ice cream or sherbet, ice cubes, sprinkles, and clear soda and learn about groundwater while eating your yummy creation.

3. Go on a water drop hike.
Explore a park, recreation area, nature center, or other outdoor space and visualize the path a water drop can take when it falls from the sky. Where does a water drop move to after falling on a tree? Or a slide? A roof? The ground?

4. Try out an Awesome Aquifer Kit.
The Kit comes with instructions and materials to do six cool experiments that teach about groundwater terminology, groundwater's role in the hydrologic cycle, the makeup of an aquifer, groundwater contamination, and clean up.

5. Visit a river or stream.
Talk about the connections between groundwater and surface water and gaining and losing streams while enjoying the river view or safely wading in and splashing around.

6. Pick an activity from our online activity library.
We have a library with a ton of fun hands-on, brains-on activities to get kids excited about water. Search the library by age group, key topic, and category to find the perfect fun and educational activity.

It's Water-Wise Wednesdays with Frannie the Fish! {Mulch}

Evaporation happens when water is heated enough to turn into a gas and expand into the atmosphere.  When Frannie is gardening, she wants to make sure that her plants get enough water but that it’s not wasted by evaporating in the hot summer sun.

In the past, she learned the best times of the day to water are dawn and dusk when it isn’t so hot.  But there’s another common and inexpensive option that she’d like to share with you: Mulch.

Mulch is a material that you use to cover the soil around your plants. Many people use it in landscaping because it comes in a variety of colors and textures, but it also does several important things to help keep your plants healthy and strong.

1. Evaporation Prevention. This is one of the most important purposes mulch serves in this hot weather. Mulch absorbs the heat from the sun and prevents it from reaching the soil that the plant is growing in. Because the soil is cooler, it is able to take in and retain more moisture than it would were it exposed.
2. Weed Prevention. No one likes weeds.  They take up all the water and good nutrients in the soil that we want for our own flowers and food.  Mulch, by stopping the sunlight from reaching the ground, starves out weeds and they are unable to grow in that area. It also stops any new seeds from landing in your garden.
3. Soil Improvement. Ok, so we know that the soil in our garden is cooler with more moisture and fewer weeds, but it also builds up the soil.  All types of mulch prevent the wind from eroding the soil but organic or natural mulch can go one step further by enhancing the soil with nutrients as they decompose.  An area mulched with pine needles, for example, becomes acidic as the mulch decomposes and becomes suited for acid-loving plants like azaleas. 
   

Try using mulch this summer and let us know how it goes on our Facebook, Twitter, or send us an email. Happy Gardening!

BLOG: 7 Fun Ways to Teach Your Kids About Groundwater This Summer

by Jennifer Wemhoff, The Groundwater Foundation

Summer is a time for fun and adventure. Combine those with some hands-on learning about groundwater and you've got a win-win summer activity! 

Mini-terrarium

1. Build a mini-terrarium with a clear plastic cup, gravel, potting soil, a few seeds, plastic wrap, and a rubber band (get full instructions here). Learn about groundwater's role in the water cycle and in helping plants grow. It also gives kids a plant to nurture over the summer.

2. Dig a hole. Kids love dirt. Ask them to explore the hole. Is the soil warm or cool? Is it damp or dry? How does the soil change the deeper you dig? Pour a bucket of water in the hole - where did it go? It became groundwater, filling the cracks and crevices beneath the earth's surface.

Betty Crocker website

3. Make a contamination cake. Start by baking a white cake, then turn it into a poke cake (here's a recipe for a strawberry poke cake, but you can use any flavor gelatin you want). Cut a piece of cake, and talk about how the gelatin is like contaminants in groundwater, seeping into the ground (or cake). What happened to the gelatin when it was poured onto the cake? How is this like a contaminant being poured on the ground? Talk about these things while digging into a yummy piece of cake.

Edible Aquifers

4. Another yummy - but educational - dessert activity! Make an edible aquifer. Build a simple aquifer out of ice chips, cereal, ice cream, sprinkles, clear soda, and a straw. Find the complete instructions here. Have fun and be creative! Of course, the final step is to eat your aquifer creation.

5. Build an aquifer in a cup (get full instructions here). All it takes is a clear plastic cup, rock/gravel, and water. For more fun, add a clean soap or lotion pump to simulate a well and pump the groundwater out of the model aquifer.

Visit a water body

6. Visit a local lake, river, or stream. Talk about the connections between groundwater and surface water. Groundwater contributes to stream flow, and stream flow recharges groundwater. Add a community service project to your visit and clean up litter around the water body.

7. Find a cool spot in nature. What can you discover by simply looking around and listening to the surroundings? Imagine the path taken by a drop of rain from the time it hits the ground to when it reaches a river, groundwater, or the ocean. Draw a picture and/or talk about the paths it might take.

Keep the fun and learning going this summer! For more fun educational ideas, visit www.groundwater.org/kids.