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Lesson plan Grade 1 Careers & CTE

The Diver Inside Bobolink's Water Tower: A Grade 1 Lesson

A 40-minute grade 1 careers lesson about the diver who cleans a water tower from the inside, with a dry-hand demonstration and a four-card sequence.

Objectives

  1. Students will name three things a tank diver does during a water tower cleaning.
  2. Students will explain why the diver's suit never lets skin touch the town's water.
  3. Students will retell two events of the diver's morning using the words first and then.

Vocabulary

Key words: tank, diver, hatch, hose

Teacher overview

A water tower holds the town's drinking water, and every few years the inside of the tank has to be cleaned out. Draining a full tank wastes what is in it, so a diver goes in instead, wearing a sealed suit that is scrubbed clean before she enters and breathing air through a hose from the hatch. This lesson introduces that job in the fictional town of Bobolink through a short read-aloud, a dry-hand demonstration with a sandwich bag, and a four-card sequencing task. Teaching note: the sealed suit is the most concrete part of the job at this age, so introduce it early and tie the other steps back to it. The diver in the story trained at a diving school, while her helper at the hatch learned the work on the job at the water department, and the lesson presents both routes as ordinary.

Procedure

Hook (5 min): Point out the window in the direction of any tall tank students know, or draw one on chart paper. Ask what is inside it. Once the class agrees on water, ask who cleans the inside of a thing that is full of water and has no door at the bottom. Take guesses and write them down.

Read the diver's morning aloud (8 min): Read this twice, slowly.

"Iris is a diver. She does not dive in the sea. She dives in water towers. On Tuesday her truck came to the tower in the town of Bobolink. First the crew washed her suit with the same clean stuff that goes in the water, so nothing dirty would go in with her. Iris put on the suit. It covers her from head to boots. Her air comes down a long hose from the top. Then Iris climbed the ladder up the outside of the tower. Marc climbed with her and stayed at the hatch. Iris learned to dive at a diving school. Marc learned his job at the water department, working next to older crew members. Marc holds the hose and talks to Iris the whole time. Iris went in through the hatch and sank slowly to the floor of the tank. On the floor there was a thin layer of soft grit that had settled out over the years. Iris ran a vacuum hose over the floor and sucked it up. She looked at the walls with a light and told Marc what she saw. After an hour, Iris came back up through the hatch. The crew rinsed her suit and put it away. The water in the tower stayed in the tower the whole time."

Ask: "Who stayed at the hatch?" and "What was on the floor of the tank?"

The dry-hand demonstration (7 min): Put the sandwich bag over your hand and seal it at the wrist with the rubber band. Dip your hand in the bowl. Pull it out and dry the outside with the paper towel, then pull the bag off and show a dry hand. Say that the diver's suit does the same thing, only better, so no part of her touches the town's drinking water and no part of the water touches her.

Sequence the cards (10 min): Give each pair the four cards from the handout and read each label aloud twice. Pairs lay the cards left to right in the order the events happened, then check against the pair beside them before gluing them down.

Retell and write (7 min): Students complete handout items 4 and 5, writing or dictating. Circulate and scribe.

Closing check (3 min): Ask the class to show thumbs up if they can name one thing Iris did inside the tank. If more than five thumbs stay down, walk the four cards again together in order.

The Diver Inside Bobolink's Water Tower: A Grade 1 Lesson — Grade 1 Careers & CTE
Name: ____________________________ Date: ______________

Student Handout

Cards to cut apart. The teacher reads each label aloud.

  • Card A: Iris climbs the ladder. Marc stays at the hatch with the hose.
  • Card B: Iris comes back up through the hatch. The crew rinses the suit.
  • Card C: The crew washes the suit clean. Iris puts it on.
  • Card D: Iris sinks to the floor of the tank and vacuums up the grit.

Questions. The teacher reads each question aloud.

  1. Put Card A, Card B, Card C, and Card D in the order the events happened. Write the four letters in order.
  2. Who stayed at the hatch and held the hose?
  3. Why does the crew wash the suit before Iris puts it on?
  4. Write or dictate two sentences about the diver's morning. Use the word first in one sentence. Use the word then in the other sentence. Add one more sentence about the crew driving away.
  5. Name one way this crew's work helped the town of Bobolink.

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: C, A, D, B. The suit goes on first, the ladder comes next, the vacuuming happens inside the tank, and the crew rinses the suit last.
  2. Answer: Marc. He held the hose that carried Iris's air and talked to her the whole time she was inside.
  3. Answer: So nothing dirty goes into the town's drinking water. The suit touches the water the town drinks, so it is cleaned first.
  4. Answer: Answers vary. Accept any two events from the story in the right order with first and then used correctly, plus a closing sentence such as "Then the truck drove away."
  5. Answer: Answers vary. Accept "the tank is clean now," "the water stayed in the tower so none was wasted," or "the town's drinking water is better."

Differentiation

Support (below grade level)

Hand these students Cards C and B first so the beginning and the end are settled, then add A and D. Provide the frames "First, Iris ____." and "Then Iris ____." for item 4 and accept dictation for item 5.

Extension (above grade level)

Ask these students to write a fifth card showing what Marc did while Iris was down in the tank, and to explain in one sentence why the crew would not send Iris in alone.

ELL supports

Pre-teach tank, hatch, hose, and suit with the bowl, the bag, and a drawing of a tower with a small door on top. Let students point to a card for items 2 and 3, and accept an oral retell in the home language for item 4 with first and then added in English during scribing.

Extensions

Ask students to look for the small door on top of any tank or tower they pass. Utilities that keep a photograph of their last tank cleaning will often share it with a first grade class, and a picture of an actual diver at an actual hatch gives students a real image to set beside the story.