Worksheet Grade 4 Careers & CTE

Reading the Route: A Hollyhock Water Meter Technician Worksheet

A grade 4 careers worksheet where students act as a water meter technician, subtract meter readings to find gallons used, and solve related word problems.

Grade: Grade 4
Subject: Careers & CTE
Material: Worksheet
Time: 30 min
Prep: No prep
Materials: None

Standards

4.OA.A.3 Common Core Math

Solve multistep word problems posed with whole numbers and having whole-number answers using the four operations, including problems in which remainders must be interpreted. Represent these problems using equations with a letter standing for the unknown quantity. Assess the reasonableness of answers using mental computation and estimation strategies including rounding.

How this material aligns: Items 1 through 6 have students subtract, compare, and add multi-digit meter readings to solve the multistep problems this operations standard describes.

All materials for 4.OA.A.3 →

4.MD.A.2 Common Core Math

Use the four operations to solve word problems involving distances, intervals of time, liquid volumes, masses of objects, and money, including problems involving simple fractions or decimals, and problems that require expressing measurements given in a larger unit in terms of a smaller unit.

How this material aligns: Item 7 is a money measurement problem in which students find a home's water cost from a stated price per 1,000 gallons, meeting this standard.

All materials for 4.MD.A.2 →

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This material is in the public domain (CC0) and may be copied, edited, and shared freely, without attribution. Updated 2026-07-23.

Objectives

Students will subtract two meter readings to find how many gallons a home used.
Students will solve multistep word problems about a meter technician's route.

Vocabulary

Key words: meter, reading, gallons, leak, technician

Teacher overview

A water meter counts the gallons of water a home uses. A meter technician reads each meter, subtracts the last reading from the new one, and finds out how much water the home used. This worksheet puts students on a meter route in the town of Hollyhock (an example town) with a small table of readings. Students find the gallons used at four homes, then answer related questions about cost, time, and leaks.

Reading the Route: A Hollyhock Water Meter Technician Worksheet — Grade 4 Careers & CTE

Name: ____________________________ Date: ______________

Student Worksheet

You are a water meter technician in the town of Hollyhock. Here are the meter readings for four homes. Each reading is in gallons.

Home	Last month's reading	This month's reading
Rivera	24,500	30,500
Chen	18,200	21,700
Okafor	40,100	44,900
Bell	9,600	12,000

How many gallons did the Rivera home use this month?
How many gallons did the Chen home use this month?
How many gallons did the Okafor home use this month?
How many gallons did the Bell home use this month?
Which home used the most water this month?
How many gallons did all four homes use this month in all?
Water in Hollyhock costs $3 for each 1,000 gallons. The Rivera home used 6,000 gallons. What is the Rivera home's water cost?
The technician reads 9 meters each hour. She works for 6 hours. How many meters does she read?
The EPA, a U.S. government agency, says a faucet that drips once every second can waste more than 3,000 gallons in a year. The technician finds a faucet like that at 2 homes. Use 3,000 gallons for each faucet. About how many gallons do those 2 faucets waste in a year in all?
Explain your thinking: How does reading meters help the town find leaks?

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: 6,000 gallons. Subtract the last reading from the new one: 30,500 - 24,500 = 6,000.
Answer: 3,500 gallons. 21,700 - 18,200 = 3,500.
Answer: 4,800 gallons. 44,900 - 40,100 = 4,800.
Answer: 2,400 gallons. 12,000 - 9,600 = 2,400.
Answer: The Rivera home. It used 6,000 gallons, which is more than 3,500, 4,800, or 2,400.
Answer: 16,700 gallons. Add the four amounts: 6,000 + 3,500 + 4,800 + 2,400 = 16,700.
Answer: $18. The home used 6,000 gallons, which is 6 groups of 1,000 gallons, and 6 x $3 = $18.
Answer: 54 meters. Multiply the meters each hour by the hours: 9 x 6 = 54.
Answer: 6,000 gallons. Use 3,000 gallons a year for each faucet, and 2 x 3,000 = 6,000.
Answer: Reading meters shows how much water each home uses; when a home's use jumps up for no clear reason, the high reading is a sign of a hidden leak the town can go check. Accept any answer that connects a high or rising meter reading to finding a leak.

Differentiation

Support

Give these students the four subtraction problems set up in columns already, with the digits lined up by place value, so they can focus on subtracting. Let them use a place-value chart for the multi-digit numbers.

Extension

Ask students to find how much less water the Bell home used than the Rivera home, and then to write one sentence about why two homes might use very different amounts of water in a month.

ELL supports

Pre-teach "meter," "reading," "gallons," and "leak" with a picture of a water meter and a dripping faucet. Allow item 10 to be answered with a short phrase or a labeled drawing instead of full sentences.