Reading passage Grade 1 Careers & CTE
Measuring Killdeer Creek: A Grade 1 Read-Aloud About a Water Job
A grade 1 read-aloud about the worker who wades into a creek with a measuring rod to check the gauge house numbers, with seven questions and a key.
Objectives
- Students will retell three steps the creek measurer takes on a weekly visit.
- Students will explain why the worker stays on the bridge after a big rain.
- Students will write one fact about a job that measures water outdoors.
Vocabulary
Key words: creek, float, rod, gauge
Teacher overview
Small white boxes sit beside creeks and rivers all over the country, and inside each one a machine writes down how high the water is, hour after hour, with nobody watching. Somebody still has to drive out and check that the machine is telling the truth, which means putting on boots and standing in the creek with a measuring rod. This read-aloud follows that worker at the fictional Killdeer Creek through one weekly visit, a visit after a storm, and a visit in a dry month. Read the passage twice, and if a yardstick is handy, hold it upright during the second reading so students can picture the rod.
Passage
Read aloud to the class. Read it twice.
Wes works for the office that keeps track of creeks. His job is to find out how much water is in Killdeer Creek.
There is a small white house by the creek. It is not for people. It holds a machine. A pipe runs from the house down into the water. Inside the pipe a float rides up and down. When the creek rises, the float goes up. The machine writes a number all day and all night.
Wes drives out to the creek each week. First he reads the numbers the machine wrote. Then he checks them himself.
Wes pulls on tall boots. He takes a long metal rod and walks into the creek. He sets the rod on the bottom. He reads the mark where the water comes up to. Then he writes it in his book.
The two numbers should match. When they do not match, Wes fixes the machine.
After a big rain the creek runs fast and brown. Wes does not walk in. He stands on the bridge and lowers the rod on a rope.
In a dry month the creek gets low and slow. Wes still comes out. A low number matters as much as a high one.
The town uses the numbers Wes brings back. They tell the town when the creek is high and when it is low. Rain and dry weeks change the creek, and the creek changes what the town can do.
Questions
The teacher reads each question aloud.
- Where does Wes go each week?
- What is inside the small white house by the creek?
- What does Wes put on before he walks into the creek?
- What does Wes do after he reads the mark on the rod?
- After a big rain, Wes stands on the bridge. Why does he not walk in?
- Why does the town want the numbers Wes brings back?
- Name Wes's job. Write or dictate one fact about it. End with one sentence about the town.
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 Killdeer Creek. The passage says he drives out to the creek each week to check the machine.
- Answer: A machine with a float in a pipe. The passage explains that the float rides up and down and the machine writes a number all day and all night.
- Answer: Tall boots. The passage says he pulls on tall boots and then takes the long metal rod.
- Answer: He writes it in his book. The passage gives that step right after he reads the mark where the water comes up to.
- Answer: The creek runs fast after a big rain. The passage says it runs fast and brown, so he lowers the rod from the bridge on a rope instead.
- Answer: So the town knows when the creek is high and when it is low. The passage says rain and dry weeks change the creek and the creek changes what the town can do.
- Answer: Answers vary. Accept "he measures the creek" or "the person who checks the gauge," one fact such as "he stands in the creek with a long rod," and a closing sentence such as "The town needs his numbers all year."
Differentiation
Support (below grade level)
Read the passage a third time in two halves, stopping after the sentence about the book to ask questions 1 through 4. Offer two spoken choices for each of those four, and accept a pointed finger or a single word.
Extension (above grade level)
Ask these students to write what the machine's numbers would look like on the day of a big storm and on a day in a dry month, and to explain in one sentence how Wes could tell those two days apart without leaving the white house.
ELL supports
Hold up a yardstick and a small cup that bobs in a bowl of water so rod, float, and rises attach to objects students have watched. Pre-teach creek, boots, and mark with a simple drawing of the bank, the bridge, and the white house. Accept single-word answers for questions 1 through 4.
Extensions
Put a ruler upright in a shallow tray outside and read the water level after the next rain, then again three days later. Comparing the two readings gives the class a reason to talk about why one reading is not enough and why somebody has to keep coming back.