There is much that can be learned from a curriculum developed in The Netherlands, a country famous for having been "claimed from the sea." Nothing can be truer than that, but there is more to the story than just the physical aspect of claiming land from the water. The identity of the Dutch, the history of their maritime and seafaring nation, its economy's dependence on world trade, even the existence of democracy and religious freedom--these are all related to the water that surrounds the inhabitants of the River Rhine's delta in northwestern Europe. In 2008, a survey showed that many young people in The Netherlands were not aware of the fact that they live largely below sea level and that this geographical setting entails a number of potential risks. Employment surveys also detected a future shortage of experts in the water sector. To meet these challenges, the government launched a public awareness campaign called "The Netherlands Live with Water," which aimed to raise awareness about: (1) Benefits and risks to a human society of living in a river delta; (2) Consequences of human behavior on the watery environment and for the future; and (3) Job opportunities and professions in the water sector. SLO, the Netherlands Institute for Curriculum Development, designed a curriculum framework for water education to guide teachers as they plan lessons, and to help in the development of programs in which schools and institutes work together to develop in- and out-of-school learning opportunities. (The authors were part of the curriculum development team.) In this article, the authors present examples from "Water Education: Curriculum Framework" that integrate the different subject areas and offer direction and coherence to this large topic. They intend this framework to integrate various disciplines (such as science, literature, and art), but in this article they emphasize its connection with the social studies. The topic of water can be related to just about all of the ten themes defined in National Curriculum Standards for Social Studies.