Worksheet Grade 5 Art & Music
Redesigning a Dry-Summer Indoor Water-Use Poster
A grade 5 art worksheet where students critique and improve a town's poster about indoor water use and argue for the change that helps families most.
Objectives
- Students will find design problems in a poster and suggest specific fixes.
- Students will state an opinion about the best design change and support it with reasons.
- Students will weigh the benefit and the cost of redrawing the poster.
Vocabulary
Key words: infographic, contrast, title, message
Teacher overview
Marren is a fictional town in the middle of a dry summer, so it has asked families to use less water indoors. To help, the town made a poster that shows where indoor water goes. The poster gets the facts right, but it is hard to read. This worksheet has students find the design problems, fix them, and argue for the one change that would help families most.
Student Worksheet
Here is what Marren's poster shows. A chart uses numbers from a 2016 Water Research Foundation study of single-family homes. It tells you that in those homes, toilets used about 24% of indoor water and showers used about 20% of indoor water. But on the poster, every bar is the same gray. The title is tiny and sits at the bottom. A long paragraph of text fills the middle. Use these facts and the poster description to answer the items.
The chart shows toilets at about 24% of indoor water and showers at about 20%. Which of the two uses more water indoors?
All the bars on the poster are the same gray. Why does that make the chart hard to read? Suggest one color change that would help.
The title is in tiny letters at the bottom of the poster. Where should the title go, and why?
Name one way to show the 24% and 20% numbers so a viewer sees them right away.
The poster has a long paragraph in the middle. Rewrite the main idea as one short line a family could remember.
A family wants to save water indoors. Based on the chart, name one use worth cutting first, and give a reason.
In your opinion, which single change would help families most: brighter bar colors or a much bigger title? State your opinion and give two reasons.
Redrawing the poster costs the town time and money. Name one benefit of a clearer poster that could be worth that cost.
Add one icon idea, a small picture, that would help a viewer understand the chart without reading any words.
Explain why a clear poster matters even more during a dry summer when the town has asked families to use less water.
From Water for Schools (waterforschools.org). This material is in the public domain (CC0) and may be copied, edited, and shared freely.
Answer Key
Answer: Toilets. The chart shows toilets at about 24% of indoor water, which is more than the showers' 20%.
Answer: Same-gray bars blend together, so a viewer cannot tell them apart or see which is largest; a fix is to give each bar a different, bright color, or to make the largest bar the boldest color. Accept any clear contrast fix.
Answer: At the top, in large letters. A title belongs where the eye lands first, so a viewer learns what the poster is about before reading the chart.
Answer: Any of: print the number right on or next to each bar, use large bold digits, or add a small callout label. The number should be easy to find without hunting.
Answer: A short line such as "Cut back indoors to save water this summer." Accept any brief, clear message that a family could remember.
Answer: Toilets, because the chart shows they use the largest share of indoor water at about 24%, so a change there saves the most; a reasonable answer could also name showers with a reason. Accept any use named with a reason drawn from the chart.
Answer: Either opinion is acceptable if supported. A strong answer states one choice and gives two reasons, such as "brighter colors, because they help the eye compare the bars and they grab attention from across a room." Look for a clear opinion plus two reasons.
Answer: A benefit such as more families understand the message and save water, which can lower the strain on the town's supply during the dry summer; that benefit can be worth the cost of redrawing. Accept any named benefit tied to the cost.
Answer: Any relevant icon, such as a toilet, a showerhead, a faucet, or a water drop, placed next to the matching bar so the picture carries the meaning without words.
Answer: During a dry summer with limits, families need to act fast, and a clear poster tells them where to cut back at a glance, so more people follow the request. Accept answers linking clarity to quicker, wider action.
Differentiation
Support
Give students a simple two-column sheet, one column for the problem and one for the fix, and fill in the first row as a model. Provide a short word bank of design terms such as contrast, title, and label.
Extension
Ask students to sketch a full redesigned poster on the back of the sheet that uses their fixes, then label each choice with the design reason behind it.
ELL supports
Provide the design words, title, color, bar, and label, with a small picture for each, in the student's home language alongside English where possible. Allow students to answer items 2 through 4 with labeled sketches instead of full sentences.
Extensions
Collect two or three real public posters from the school or community, and have students rank them from easiest to hardest to read, naming the design choice behind each ranking.