Water for Schools
Menu

Classroom activity Grade 2 Careers & CTE

Water Job Tool Match at Nettlebed: A Grade 2 Card Game

A grade 2 careers card game where partners match five water-sector tools to the five workers who use them, then answer call-the-crew scenarios.

Objectives

  1. Students will match five water-sector tools to the workers who use them.
  2. Students will name which water worker a town would call in a given situation.
  3. Students will write a three-sentence job card about one water worker.

Vocabulary

Key words: tool, crew, grabber, listening stick, wrench

Teacher overview

This is a partner card game for the whole class, played with five job cards and five tool cards per pair. The activity carries the concept directly: a student cannot match a tool without knowing what the worker actually does all day, because the only clue on the tool card is the tool itself. All five jobs belong to the water system in the town of Nettlebed, and all five are presented as skilled work the town depends on. The game ends with a call-the-crew round, in which the teacher reads a problem aloud and pairs hold up the job card for the worker who would answer that call.

Activity Directions

  1. Before class, make one deck per pair. Write each job on its own card, with a one-line description: Hydrant Checker (opens each fire hydrant a little with a big wrench to be sure water still comes out), Leak Finder (listens through a metal stick for water escaping under the street), Pipe Crew Digger (digs down to a broken pipe and puts in a new piece), Drain Cleaner (pulls leaves and trash off storm drain grates before a storm), and Water Tester (carries sample bottles from the plant to the lab and checks that the water is clean).
  2. Make the five tool cards with a drawing and no words: a large wrench, a listening stick, a shovel, a long hooked rake, and a small sample bottle.
  3. Read the five job cards aloud to the whole class (6 min). Say clearly that every one of these jobs keeps the town's water working and that people train for each of them.
  4. Put students in pairs and give each pair one deck (2 min). Job cards go face up in a row, and tool cards go face down in a pile.
  5. Round one, the tool match (8 min): partners take turns flipping one tool card and placing it under the job card they think it belongs to. The partner may agree or move it. Play until all five tool cards are placed.
  6. Reveal the correct pairs one at a time with the whole class (5 min), asking a different pair to explain each match in one sentence before it is confirmed.
  7. Round two, the call-the-crew round (8 min): read each situation on the handout aloud. Pairs hold up the job card for the worker they would call. Scan the room after each one and ask a pair holding a different card to say why they chose it.
  8. End the game after the fifth situation. Each student then writes a three-sentence job card about the worker they would most like to meet (4 min): one sentence naming the job, one sentence about the tool, and one closing sentence.
  9. Debrief with two questions (2 min): which tool told you the most about a job, and which two jobs would have to talk to each other on the same day.
Water Job Tool Match at Nettlebed: A Grade 2 Card Game — Grade 2 Careers & CTE
Name: ____________________________ Date: ______________

Student Handout

Read aloud: Hold up the job card for the worker the town of Nettlebed should call.

  1. Water is bubbling up through a crack in the road.
  2. A storm is coming tonight, and leaves are piled on the drain grate.
  3. The fire chief wants to know if the hydrant on the corner still works.
  4. A family hears water running under the yard, but nothing is wet on top.
  5. The plant wants to be sure today's water is clean before it goes out to homes.

From Water for Schools (waterforschools.org). This material is in the public domain (CC0) and may be copied, edited, and shared freely.

Answer Key

Round one tool match: Hydrant Checker and the large wrench; Leak Finder and the listening stick; Pipe Crew Digger and the shovel; Drain Cleaner and the long hooked rake; Water Tester and the small sample bottle. A pair that puts the wrench with the Pipe Crew Digger and explains why is also reasoning well.

Call-the-crew situations:

  1. Answer: Pipe Crew Digger. Water coming up through the road means the pipe under it is broken, so the crew that digs down and replaces the broken piece takes this call.
  2. Answer: Drain Cleaner. Leaves on the grate stop rain from getting into the drain, and clearing grates before a storm is exactly this worker's job.
  3. Answer: Hydrant Checker. This worker opens each hydrant a little and watches the water to be sure it still flows.
  4. Answer: Leak Finder. Nothing shows on the surface, so the leak has to be found by sound with the listening stick.
  5. Answer: Water Tester. Carrying samples and checking that the water is clean before it leaves the plant is this worker's daily task.

Differentiation

Support (below grade level)

Play with three job cards and three tool cards instead of five, adding the other two after the first reveal. Read each job card a second time right before round one, and let a support pair keep the job cards in the same order as the read-aloud.

Extension (above grade level)

Ask the pair to invent a sixth job that the town of Nettlebed would need, draw its tool card with no words, and see whether another pair can guess the job from the drawing alone.

ELL supports

Put a small drawing on every job card next to the words so the card can be read by picture. Pre-teach wrench, shovel, rake, and bottle by holding up the real object or a photograph. Accept the written job card as a labeled drawing with one spoken sentence.

Extensions

Post the finished job cards on a hallway board under the heading "Water Workers of Our Town" and invite another class to guess the tool from each description before lifting a flap to see the answer.