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Worksheet Grade 3 Art & Music

Cindergrove Park Recycled-Water Signs: A Grade 3 Design Worksheet

Grade 3 students read a town's design brief and make color, contrast, picture, size, and placement choices for purple recycled-water signs in a drought-hit park.

Objectives

  1. Students will use a written design brief to identify who a sign is for and what it must say.
  2. Students will choose letter colors, a picture, a size order, and a placement that make a safety sign easy to read and understand.
  3. Students will apply the idea of contrast to a sign for a new place.
  4. Students will write an opinion with two reasons about how a park sign should be designed.

Vocabulary

Recycled water
Wastewater that has been cleaned and used again, often to water parks, golf courses, and crops instead of being thrown away. Purple pipes usually carry it.
Drought
A long stretch of drier-than-normal weather that leaves too little water for people, farms, and nature. Droughts build slowly and can last for years.

Also: design brief, contrast, symbol, placement, audience

Teacher overview

The town of Cindergrove is a made-up town in a long drought. To save its drinking water, the town now waters the grass in its park with recycled water, which is used water that has been cleaned at the town's plant well enough for lawns but not for drinking. The recycled water travels in purple pipes, and the town needs purple signs at every sprinkler box and hose tap that tell park visitors, including small children and families who speak Spanish, not to drink it. Students read the town's short design brief and then work through the decisions a sign designer makes: which color the sign must be, which letter color gives the strongest contrast, which picture carries the right message, what should be biggest, and where the sign should go.

A common misconception is that "recycled water" means dirty water, or the opposite, that any water a plant has cleaned must be safe to drink. The brief makes clear that this water is cleaned for a particular use, which is why the sign exists at all. A second misconception concerns design: students often assume that a sign becomes better as it gains decoration and color. Items 5 through 10 are built to show that clear contrast, one strong picture, and a size order that puts the main message first matter more than decoration.

Across the United States, pipes that carry recycled water for lawns and parks are commonly colored purple, and many cities mark the matching sprinklers and signs the same way. Cindergrove follows that practice in this scenario.

Cindergrove Park Recycled-Water Signs: A Grade 3 Design Worksheet — Grade 3 Art & Music
Name: ____________________________ Date: ______________

Student Worksheet

Cindergrove Park Sign Brief

The town of Cindergrove has had a long dry time. A long dry time like this is called a drought. To save drinking water, the town now waters the park grass with recycled water. Recycled water is used water that was cleaned at the town's plant. It is clean enough for grass. It is not safe to drink.

The recycled water runs in purple pipes. The town wants the signs to be purple too. Then people will learn that purple means "do not drink this water."

Many small children play in the park. Some of them cannot read yet. Many families in Cindergrove speak Spanish at home.

The sign must:

  • say DO NOT DRINK in English and NO BEBER in Spanish
  • have a picture that a small child can understand
  • be easy to read from across the path
  • go next to each sprinkler box and each hose tap

Use the brief to answer items 1 to 4.

  1. Why does Cindergrove now water its park grass with recycled water?
  2. What color must the signs be?
  3. The pipes that carry the recycled water are purple. Why does the town want the signs to be purple too?
  4. Which part of the sign will help a child who cannot read yet?

Contrast means the letters look very different from the background. Dark letters on a light background have strong contrast. Light letters on a dark background also have strong contrast.

  1. The signs will be dark purple. Which letter color will be easiest to read from across the path: black, white, or dark blue?
  2. Why would black letters be hard to read on a dark purple sign?

Three picture ideas for the sign:

  • Picture A is a smiling water drop.
  • Picture B is a cup with a thick line across it.
  • Picture C is a sprinkler spraying grass.
  1. Which picture best tells a small child "do not drink"?
  2. What might a small child think the smiling drop in Picture A means?

Two drafts of the sign:

  • Draft 1 has the words CINDERGROVE PARK in big letters at the top. It has DO NOT DRINK in small letters at the bottom.
  • Draft 2 has DO NOT DRINK in big letters at the top. It has NO BEBER right under it. It has the park name in small letters at the bottom.
  1. Which draft makes the most important words the biggest?
  2. Why should the most important words on a sign be the biggest?
  3. One sign goes next to a hose tap. A small child might turn on the tap to get a drink. Where should that sign go so the child sees it: up high, or down low near the tap?
  4. The art room at your school has a sink where students rinse paint brushes. The teacher wants a sign that says the paint water is not for drinking. Which idea from this page would help that sign the most? Tell why in one or two sentences.
  5. Draw your own sign for Cindergrove Park on the back of this page. Make it purple. Add a picture, the words DO NOT DRINK and NO BEBER, and make the most important words the biggest.
  6. Some people say the sign only needs a picture. Other people say it needs a picture and words. What do you think? Write three sentences to the town. Give two reasons.

From Water for Schools (waterforschools.org). This material is in the public domain (CC0) and may be copied, edited, and shared freely.

Answer Key
  1. Answer: To save drinking water during the drought.
    The first paragraph of the brief says the town waters the grass with recycled water to save drinking water.
  2. Answer: Purple.
    The second paragraph says the town wants the signs to be purple too.
  3. Answer: So people learn that purple means "do not drink this water."
    The second paragraph gives this reason. Accept answers that say the matching color shows the sign and the pipe carry the same water.
  4. Answer: The picture.
    The brief says some children cannot read yet and that the sign must have a picture a small child can understand.
  5. Answer: White.
    White letters on a dark purple background are light on dark, which gives strong contrast.
  6. Answer: Black and dark purple are both dark, so the letters blend into the background.
    Accept any answer that says there is not enough contrast or that the colors are too alike.
  7. Answer: Picture B, the cup with a thick line across it.
    Many signs use a cup or a tap with a line through it to mean "do not drink." The line across the cup shows "no."
  8. Answer: That the water is good or happy to drink.
    A friendly, smiling drop sends the opposite message from the one the sign needs. Accept "the water is fine" or "the water is friendly."
  9. Answer: Draft 2.
    Draft 2 puts DO NOT DRINK in big letters at the top, while Draft 1 makes the park name the biggest.
  10. Answer: People see and read the biggest words first, even from far away.
    Accept any answer that says big words are noticed first or can be read from across the path.
  11. Answer: Down low, near the tap.
    A small child's eyes are low, so a sign down near the tap is where the child will look before turning it on.
  12. Answer: Accept any idea from the page with a clear reason.
    Strong answers include a crossed-out cup picture so younger students understand it, white or black letters chosen for strong contrast against the sign color, the most important words made biggest, or the sign placed right next to the sink where students look.
  13. Answer: Accept any sign that meets the four checks.
    Check that the sign is purple, has a picture, shows both DO NOT DRINK and NO BEBER, and makes those words bigger than anything else. White or other light letters are a strength to note, because they give strong contrast on purple.
  14. Answer: Accept either opinion with two reasons in three sentences.
    Sample: "I think the sign needs a picture and words. The picture helps small children who cannot read yet. The words help grown-ups who might not know what the picture means." A student who argues for a picture only might say it is faster to understand and works for people who speak any language.

Differentiation

Support

Read the brief aloud with the class before students start, and pause after each paragraph to point out the sentence that answers items 1 through 4. Provide color swatches of black, white, and dark blue on a strip of dark purple paper so students can see the contrast in item 5 rather than imagine it. For item 14, give the frame: "I think the sign needs ___. One reason is ___. Another reason is ___."

Extension

Ask students to design a second Cindergrove sign for the gate of the park's recycled-water pump house, where the readers are adult workers rather than children. Students list two ways their design choices would change for that audience, such as smaller pictures or more words, and two choices that would stay the same, such as the purple color and strong contrast.

ELL supports

Pre-teach "recycled," "drought," "contrast," and "placement" with a quick sketch for each on the board. Spanish-speaking students can serve as language experts for the NO BEBER line, and the class can discuss why the town chose to include both languages. Allow students to answer items 5 through 11 with a circled choice and a single word or short phrase.

Extensions

Take a short walk around the school and look for signs that use a picture with a line through it, such as no-smoking or no-dogs signs. Students sketch two of the signs they find and note which colors give the strongest contrast.