Lesson plan Grade 1 Careers & CTE
The Drain Marker Crew on Hobnail Street: A Grade 1 Lesson
A 35-minute grade 1 careers lesson about the water department worker who glues signs beside storm drains, ending with each student designing a marker.
Objectives
- Students will explain where the water in a storm drain goes after a rain.
- Students will name two tools the drain marker crew carries and what each is for.
- Students will design a drain marker and write two facts about the job.
Vocabulary
- Storm drain
- A storm drain is the grate at the edge of a street that swallows rainwater and sends it through pipes to the nearest creek or river. That water is usually not treated, so only rain belongs down the drain.
Also: marker, creek, map
Teacher overview
Water that runs down a storm drain does not go to a treatment plant; in most towns it runs to the nearest creek with nothing done to it first. Some water departments pay a worker to walk the streets and glue a small round sign beside every drain saying where that water ends up. This lesson follows Ada, who does that work in the fictional town of Hobnail, and closes with each student designing a marker of their own. Teaching note: ask students where the water goes before you tell them, and write the guesses where the class can see them corrected later in the lesson.
Procedure
Hook (5 min): Ask what happens to rain that runs off the school parking lot and down the metal grate at the curb. Write every guess on chart paper. Expect answers such as "it gets cleaned" and "it goes to a pipe." Leave the guesses up.
Meet Ada (7 min): Tell the class about the job. Ada works for the water department in the town of Hobnail. She drives a small cart with a bucket in the back. In the bucket she carries round metal markers, a tube of strong glue, a wire brush, and a clipboard with a map. At each storm drain she brushes the pavement clean, glues a marker beside the grate, and colors in that drain on her map so the department knows it is done. When somebody walks by and asks what she is doing, Ada tells them: the water that goes down that drain runs to the creek, so nothing but rain belongs in it. Say that Ada started at the water department right after high school and learned the outreach work from the person who did it before her.
Follow the water (5 min): Draw the path on chart paper as a class: rain falls on the parking lot, runs to the curb, goes down the grate, travels through a pipe, and comes out at the creek. Cross out any earlier guess the class now knows is wrong, and circle any guess that was right. Pass the wire brush around so students feel how stiff it is, and show the school map with two spots marked where a drain sits.
Make a marker (8 min): Each student gets a paper circle. They draw a picture and write words that tell a neighbor where the water goes. Read three finished markers aloud as students work so others can hear what is possible.
Handout (6 min): Students complete items 1 through 5, writing or dictating, while you circulate and scribe.
Share and close (4 min): Tape the circles around the school map. Ask each student to name one tool Ada carries. If more than five students cannot name one, list the four tools on the board and say them together.
Student Handout
The teacher reads each item aloud.
- Rain runs off the parking lot and down the grate at the curb. Where does that water go next?
- Ada carries four things in her bucket. Name two of them and tell what each one is for.
- Why does Ada color in each drain on her map?
- A neighbor was going to pour a bucket of paint water down the drain. Ada's marker is glued beside it. What might the neighbor do instead, and why?
- Name Ada's job. Write or dictate two facts about it. End with one sentence telling why the town needs somebody to do it.
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: To the creek. The water travels through a pipe from the grate and comes out at the creek without being cleaned first.
- Answer: Answers vary. Accept any two of the markers (the round signs she glues down), the glue, the wire brush (to clean the pavement first), and the map and clipboard (to keep track of finished drains).
- Answer: So the water department knows which drains are done. The map keeps her from missing one or marking the same drain twice.
- Answer: Answers vary. Accept "pour it in a sink instead" or "not pour it at all," with a reason such as "the paint water would go straight to the creek."
- Answer: Answers vary. Accept "drain marker" or "the worker who puts signs by the drains," two accurate facts such as "she brushes the pavement clean" and "she glues a round sign down," plus a closing sentence about the creek.
Differentiation
Support (below grade level)
Give these students a picture strip of the four tools and let them point and name for item 2 rather than writing. Provide the frame "The water goes to the ____" for item 1, and let the paper marker itself, with one word scribed on it, stand in for item 5.
Extension (above grade level)
Ask these students to write what Ada should say to a neighbor who asks why one small bucket of paint water matters, and to plan where on the school grounds the next two markers should go, using the map.
ELL supports
Pre-teach drain, grate, glue, and map with the brush, a paper circle, and the drawn path on the chart paper kept in view. Accept a drawing with one labeled word for item 5, and let students answer item 1 by tracing the path on the class chart with a finger.
Extensions
Walk with the class to a storm drain near the school, keeping everyone on the sidewalk, and look for a marker beside it. If there is none, students can write a class letter to the town asking whether markers are available, since some water departments supply them to schools that ask.