Toilet Paper & Non-Toilet Paper A hands-on workbook for pre-school to middle schoolers, demonstrating through experimentation the difference between flushing toilet paper and other kinds of paper.
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Toilet Paper & Non-Toilet Paper Hi Kids! I’m Toot the Toilet. I’m a Pipe Protector! You know, people flush lots of different things down the toilet. Some things are supposed to go down the drain and others are not. But it can be really difficult to tell the difference. It’s especially hard to know what happens to all that stuff after we flush it. That’s because we never get to see that stuff again once it goes down the drain.
Here’s an activity you can do that is designed to help us actually see what happens to our toilet paper (and other kinds of paper) after we flush them.
FIRST, make sure you have all of the items you will need for this activity:
2 clear plastic or glass containers with lids. Recycled food containers work great! You can use a cleaned jar of: peanut butter, or salsa, or jam, or tomato sauce, or milk, or juice.
1 square of toilet paper.
(optional) Scissors. You may want to cut your paper towel, napkin, etc. so that it’s the same size as a square of toilet paper.
Water.
1 equal-sized piece of paper product that is not designed for the toilet. This could be a tissue, a napkin, a paper towel, a disinfectant wipe, etc.
Pen, colored pencils, crayons, or markers for sketching.
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Getting Set Up NEXT, prepare your materials for the activity:
Prepare your containers.
To prepare your containers, wash them and remove enough of the label so that you can see clearly into them.
Check for leaks.
Make sure they are watertight. Give each container a shake to make sure that water does not spill out of them.
Fill your containers.
Fill both containers half-way with water and seal with the lid.
Collect your things.
Gather your Toilet Paper, your “Non-Toilet� Paper, and your sketching supplies.
Toilet Paper Activity
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LET’S BEGIN: What happens to Toilet Paper in water?
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Take one of your jars and open the lid. Take your piece of Toilet Paper and put it inside the jar and close the lid tightly.
Put both hands on the jar and give it a little shake. This is like what happens when we flush the toilet, so you can make a flushing sound while you do it (if that feels appropriate).
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Tilt the jar slowly with your hand underneath just to make sure that no water is able to spill out.
Put your jar down in front of you and look closely at what happened to your Toilet Paper.
Toilet Paper Activity
4 DRAW WHAT YOU SEE:
Sketching is a tool that scientists use to pay close attention. It helps us focus on details we might miss. Feel free to use colors and labels and words in your sketches. The more detail the better!
WRITE WHAT YOU SEE: You can do that right here on this page!
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...You can write things
that you notice about your Toilet Paper. ...You can write
questions that you have about your Toilet Paper. . You can write what
your Toilet Paper reminds you of.
EXAMPLE
Here’s one way a drawing might look. Use your own words and drawings to describe what you see.
Non-Toilet Paper Activity
REPEAT STEPS FROM PAGE 3: Take your paper towel or other Non-Toilet Paper product and follow all the steps found on Page 3.
DRAW AND WRITE WHAT YOU SEE:
Just like you did on Page 4.
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Compare & Contrast
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Now let’s compare what happened to our Toilet Paper and our Non-Toilet Paper. Put your jars side by side so you can see them both.
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Write or draw some of your thoughts here on the page.
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Look closely at both of your jars. What’s different about the Toilet Paper and the Non-Toilet Paper?
Why Are the Differences Important?
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Why are the differences between Toilet Paper and Non-Toilet Paper important? In order to answer that question, there are a few pieces of information we need to know first.
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There is a sewer pipe that runs underneath the street where you live.
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All the dirty water that you use from toilets (and your sinks, and your bathtubs, and your showers) all goes to that same sewer pipe.
Actual size 6” pipe
Actual size 4” pipe
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That sewer pipe is much smaller than you might think. It’s only about 4-6 inches in diameter, the same size as these circles.
Every home on your block sends its dirty water to that same sewer pipe. That’s probably true of everyone who lives up and down the street from you, too. All the dirty water in your whole neighborhood goes to the same sewer pipe.
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What Might Happen? Since all of our dirty water goes to the same, small sewer pipe: What do you think might happen if everyone started flushing lots of Non-Toilet Paper down the drain?
DRAW OR WRITE WHAT YOU THINK MIGHT HAPPEN:
What Should We Do?
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What should we do Instead of flushing things that aren’t Toilet Paper? Here’s a great place to start:
You are going to need to clean out your jars after you are done with them. Should you just dump the contents of your jars into the toilet and flush them away? What might you do instead?
Read the sentence in the box below, then write and send us your answer.
Cut this page along the dotted line and fold it and send it to us. In return, we’ll send you a token of our appreciation and we’ll post pictures of our favorite answers on our website at: centralsan.org/learn
THE NEXT TIME I USE A (TISSUE, PAPER TOWEL, NAPKIN, WIPE, OR OTHER PIECE OF NON-TOILET PAPER) I’M GOING TO PUT IT IN THE:
BECAUSE:
Return Address:
Fold Here
Place Stamp Here
Education Department Central Contra Costa Sanitary District 5019 Imhoff Place Martinez, CA 94553