Worksheet Grade 2 Careers & CTE
Birchwood Lane's Meter Technician: A Grade 2 Water-Use Worksheet
Grade 2 students help a fictional meter technician compare, add, and subtract one week's water-meter readings from four houses on Birchwood Lane and graph the results.
Objectives
- Students will compare and calculate totals from a water-meter reading table using addition and subtraction within 100.
- Students will draw a bar graph representing four households' weekly water use.
- Students will describe why a meter technician records water use carefully.
Teacher overview
Mr. Diallo is a meter technician who checks the water meters on Birchwood Lane once a week. A meter technician reads the numbers on each house's meter, writes them down carefully, and makes sure the readings are correct so that each family's water use is tracked fairly. This worksheet uses one week of his readings from four houses to practice comparing, adding, and subtracting numbers within 100, and to build a bar graph of the results. The gallon amounts are kept small for adding and subtracting within 100; a real household uses about 300 gallons of water a day.
Student Worksheet
Mr. Diallo's readings for one week on Birchwood Lane:
| House | Gallons used last week |
|---|---|
| House 1 | 20 |
| House 2 | 15 |
| House 3 | 30 |
| House 4 | 25 |
- Which house used the most gallons last week?
- Which house used the fewest gallons last week?
- How many more gallons did House 3 use than House 2?
- How many gallons did House 1 and House 4 use together?
- How many gallons did all four houses use last week combined?
- Mr. Diallo reads each meter carefully. He writes the exact number in his logbook. Why does it matter that his numbers are correct?
- A fifth house used 10 gallons more than House 3. How many gallons did that house use?
- Draw a bar graph showing how many gallons each house used. Label each bar with the house number.
- In one sentence, tell why a town's water workers need to know how much water each house uses.
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: House 3, with 30 gallons, used the most.
- Answer: House 2, with 15 gallons, used the fewest.
- Answer: 15 gallons. 30 minus 15 equals 15.
- Answer: 45 gallons. 20 plus 25 equals 45.
- Answer: 90 gallons. 20 plus 15 plus 30 plus 25 equals 90.
- Answer: Answers will vary; accept reasoning that correct numbers make sure each family is billed fairly for the water it actually used, and help the town notice a problem, such as a sudden jump that could mean a leak.
- Answer: 40 gallons. 30 plus 10 equals 40.
- Answer: A bar graph with four labeled bars: House 1 at 20, House 2 at 15, House 3 at 30, and House 4 at 25.
- Answer: Answers will vary; accept reasoning tied to fair billing, planning enough water for the whole town, or catching a leak early when usage suddenly changes.
Differentiation
Support (below grade level)
Provide a hundred chart or number line for students to use with the addition and subtraction items, and complete item 1 together as a class before students work through the rest independently.
Extension (above grade level)
Ask students to write a new row for a fifth house with its own gallon total, add it to the total from item 5, and explain how the bar graph from item 8 would need to change to include it.
ELL supports
Pre-teach "meter" and "technician" with a simple picture of a water meter dial and a worker reading it. Allow items 6 and 9 to be answered orally to a partner first, using the sentence starter "Water workers need to know this because ___," before writing a response.