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Reading passage Kindergarten Careers & CTE

The Blinking Light at the Honeybrook Water Plant

A kindergarten read-aloud about a night operator who sees a red light blink, starts a second pump, and keeps the town's tank full, with six questions.

Objectives

  1. Students will retell three things a night operator does at a water plant.
  2. Students will explain why the town's tall tank started to get low.
  3. Students will draw the operator at work and tell one thing he does.

Vocabulary

Pump
A pump is a machine that adds energy to water to move it or push it uphill, doing the job gravity cannot do on its own. Water systems use many different kinds of pumps to move water from wells, through treatment, and out to customers.

Also: plant, tank

Teacher overview

Water plants run through the night, which means somebody is awake in the building while the town sleeps. This read-aloud follows an invented night operator, Wesley, through one quiet shift at the invented Honeybrook water plant and one small emergency: a red light blinks because the town's tall tank is losing water faster than the plant is sending it. The passage takes about four minutes to read aloud, uses short sentences and a repeating look-and-write rhythm, and ends the next morning when the town's taps run as usual. It pairs well with any material about where tap water comes from.

The Blinking Light at the Honeybrook Water Plant — Kindergarten Careers & CTE
Name: ____________________________ Date: ______________

Passage

Read this passage aloud to the class. Pause at each blank line.

It is late at night. Wesley is at work. He works at the water plant in Honeybrook. The plant cleans the water for the whole town.

The plant is quiet at night. Wesley walks down the long hall. He looks at the tanks. He looks at the pipes. He writes in his book.

Then a small light starts to blink. The light is red. Wesley looks at the big board on the wall. The board shows the tall tank out in town. The tank is getting low.

Why is the tank low? A pipe broke on one street. Water is running out of it. So the tank cannot stay full.

Wesley pushes a button. A second pump starts to hum. Now more water goes up to the tank. Then Wesley calls the pipe crew. The crew will go and fix the broken pipe.

Wesley watches the board. Slowly the line goes up. The tank is filling again. The red light stops blinking.

The sun comes up. People wake up in Honeybrook. They turn on the tap. Water comes out. They do not know about the red light. Wesley knows. He puts on his coat and goes home to sleep.

Questions

  1. Where does Wesley work?
  2. What does Wesley do when he walks down the long hall?
  3. What color is the light that starts to blink?
  4. The tall tank was getting low. Tell why.
  5. Wesley pushes a button. Tell what happens next.
  6. Draw Wesley at the plant at night. Tell one thing he does.

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: At the water plant in Honeybrook. The passage says the plant cleans the water for the whole town.
  2. Answer: He looks at the tanks and the pipes and writes in his book. Any one of those three is a complete answer.
  3. Answer: Red. The passage says a small red light starts to blink.
  4. Answer: A pipe broke on a street and water was running out of it, so the tank could not stay full. Accept any answer naming the broken pipe.
  5. Answer: A second pump starts, and more water goes up to the tank.
    Accept any answer about the pump starting or the tank filling.
  6. Answer: Accept any drawing of a person with tanks, pipes, a board, or a blinking light, together with one true statement such as "Wesley watches the tank" or "Wesley calls the crew." Scribe the student's exact words.

Differentiation

Support (below grade level)

Read the passage in two halves on two days, stopping after the red light appears. Draw a tall tank on chart paper and a line partway up it, then move the line down and back up with a marker as you read, so the tank level is visible while students answer. Ask questions 1, 2, and 3 only, and accept pointing at the chart.

Extension (above grade level)

Ask these students to retell the shift in order using the words first, next, and last, naming what Wesley did at each point. Then ask what might have happened if nobody had been at the plant that night, and have them give one reason for their answer.

ELL supports

Pre-teach plant, tank, and pump with a quick sketch of each on the board before reading, and point at the sketch every time the word appears. Use the same blinking gesture, opening and closing a hand, whenever the red light is named. Accept one-word answers and drawings for every question, and allow question 6 to be captioned in the home language with one English word added.

Extensions

Ask your local utility whether an operator would answer one class question by email or a short voice message, such as what the plant sounds like at three in the morning, and play the reply after a second reading. Post the question 6 drawings in a hallway row under the heading "Someone is awake while we sleep," so other classes meet the job as well.