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Classroom activity Grade 1 Careers & CTE

Ask the Water Crew: A Grade 1 Partner Interview on Pipit Row

A 35-minute grade 1 careers activity where partners take turns being a water worker and a reporter, asking three questions from a card and reporting back.

Objectives

  1. Students will answer three interview questions in the voice of a water worker, using facts from a job card.
  2. Students will ask three questions of a partner and listen for the answers.
  3. Students will report two facts about one water job to the class.

Vocabulary

Valve
A valve is a device in a pipe that operators can open or close to control where water flows. Valves let crews shut off one street for repairs without turning off the whole town.

Also: interview, reporter, inspector

Teacher overview

Asking a worker what they do is how most people find out what a job actually is, and first graders can run that conversation themselves if the questions are printed and the answers are on a card. In this activity, partners take turns being a water worker from the fictional town of Pipit and a reporter with a microphone, working from four job cards that each carry three plain facts. The interview itself does most of the teaching, because a student answering "what do you do all day" in a worker's voice has to hold the whole card in mind while speaking. The activity ends when every student has been interviewed once and has reported one job to the class.

Activity Directions

  1. Before class, copy the four job cards from the Student Handout, one set per pair, and cut them apart. Copy one reporter question card per student.
  2. Gather the class and read all four job cards aloud, twice each. Vala turns the valves that shut the water off on one block. Ori checks that a garden hose cannot pull dirty water back into the clean pipe. Bex plants trees along the creek so the dirt stays put in a storm. Nan watches a screen at night and sees when the tower needs more water.
  3. Read the three reporter questions aloud: "What do you do all day?" "What tool do you use most?" "How does your job help Pipit Row?" Have the class say all three back to you together.
  4. Model one interview with a student. Wear a job card, hand the student the microphone, and answer the three questions in the worker's voice while the class listens.
  5. Put students in pairs and give each pair one job card. One partner tapes on the badge and becomes the worker. The other holds the microphone and becomes the reporter.
  6. Give pairs five minutes for the first interview. Reporters ask all three questions in order. Workers answer using the card.
  7. Call "switch." Pairs trade the badge and the microphone, take a new job card from the set, and run the second interview for five minutes.
  8. End the interviews once every student has been the worker once and the reporter once.
  9. Bring the class back together. Each reporter says one thing their worker told them, in one sentence. Then students complete handout item 4.
Ask the Water Crew: A Grade 1 Partner Interview on Pipit Row — Grade 1 Careers & CTE
Name: ____________________________ Date: ______________

Student Handout

Job cards. The teacher reads each card aloud.

  • Vala, valve turner. I find the right valve under a metal lid in the street. I turn it with a long key to shut the water off on one block. My tool is the long valve key. When I shut off one block, the crew can fix a pipe without flooding the road.
  • Ori, backflow inspector. I check hoses and pipes at houses and shops. I make sure dirty water cannot get pulled backward into the clean pipe. My tool is a small gauge with two hoses. My work keeps the clean water clean.
  • Bex, creek tree planter. I plant young trees along the creek bank. Roots hold the dirt so it does not wash into the water when it rains. My tool is a shovel. The creek stays clearer because of the trees.
  • Nan, night screen watcher. I sit at a screen at night and watch the water level in the tower. When it gets low I start a pump. My tool is the screen and a keyboard. People wake up with water in the tap because I watched all night.

Reporter questions. Ask all three, in order.

  1. What do you do all day?
  2. What tool do you use most?
  3. How does your job help Pipit Row?

Write. The teacher reads this item aloud.

  1. Name one worker you interviewed. Write or dictate two facts that worker told you. End with one sentence about why Pipit Row needs that job.

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: Answers vary by card. Accept any restatement of the job card's first line, such as "I turn the valve to shut the water off on one block."
  2. Answer: Answers vary by card. The four tools are the long valve key, the small gauge with two hoses, the shovel, and the screen with a keyboard.
  3. Answer: Answers vary by card. Accept any restatement of the card's last line, such as "the creek stays clearer because the roots hold the dirt."
  4. Answer: Answers vary. Accept a named worker, two accurate facts drawn from that card, and a closing sentence such as "Pipit Row needs Nan so there is water in the morning."

Differentiation

Support (below grade level)

Give these students the two cards with the shortest sentences, Bex and Ori, and let them hold the card while answering so the words stay in front of them. Accept a single sentence for each interview question and a drawing with one label for item 4.

Extension (above grade level)

Ask these students to write a fourth question of their own before the second interview and to see whether the card can answer it. Have them report to the class which question the card could not answer and where they would go to find out. Accept their extra question and its answer alongside item 4.

ELL supports

Pre-teach valve, hose, roots, and screen with a picture beside each job card, and keep the three reporter questions posted where both partners can see them. Allow the worker to answer by pointing to the line on the card, and accept a scribed sentence for item 4.

Extensions

Send the three questions home so students can interview an adult about any job at all, then compare what came back with the four water cards. Utilities that offer classroom visits are usually glad to have prepared questions waiting for them.