Lesson plan Kindergarten Careers & CTE
The Water Tanker on Tinbell Row: A Kindergarten Crew Lesson
A 30-minute kindergarten careers lesson about the worker who brings a water tanker to a street while the pipe is replaced, with four counting problems.
Objectives
- Students will explain why a street has no water on the day its pipe is replaced.
- Students will describe two things the tanker worker does during that day.
- Students will solve addition and subtraction problems within 10 about the tanker's work.
Vocabulary
Key words: tanker, crew, jug
Teacher overview
Replacing an old water pipe means shutting the water off for the street above it, sometimes for a whole workday. Some utilities plan for that by parking a tanker truck at the curb with a spigot on the back, and by sending a worker to stand with it and help people fill jugs. This lesson invents that worker, Hank, on an invented street called Tinbell Row, and it makes the tanker real in the room by setting a water dispenser on a table so students can fill and count cups. The misconception worth naming out loud is that water simply stops existing when the tap goes dry; the water is still there, and somebody's job is to bring it to the street a different way.
Teaching note: fill your dispenser before students arrive and put a paper sign on it reading "Tinbell Row Water." The label keeps the dispenser part of the scenario rather than a drink station, which matters once students begin filling cups.
Procedure
Hook (5 min): Turn to the classroom sink and say that today, on Tinbell Row, no water comes out. Ask, "What would you do if the water at your house did not turn on?" Take four answers onto chart paper without correcting any. Then reveal the labeled dispenser and tell the class the water department sent a truck.
Read-aloud and discussion (8 min): Read this aloud, pausing where marked. "The pipe under Tinbell Row is very old. The crew is putting in a new pipe today. To do that, they must shut the water off. So the water department sends a tanker. A tanker is a big truck with a tank of clean water on it. Hank drives the tanker to the corner. He parks it. He opens the spigot on the back. People bring jugs and buckets. Hank helps them fill up. He waves at every neighbor. When the crew is done, the new pipe is in. Hank drives the tanker back to the yard." Pause after "shut the water off" and ask, "Why do they have to turn the water off to fix a pipe?" Take two answers before finishing.
Guided practice (7 min): Let each pair fill one cup at the dispenser, then give each pair 10 counters. Model one problem for the whole class: three counters for three jugs filled, then two more counters for two more jugs, counted together as five. Ask pairs to build the same problem and say the total to each other. This is teacher-modeled work and is not graded.
Independent practice (7 min): Read the Student Handout questions aloud one at a time, twice each. Students use counters or draw circles, then say or write the number. Circulate and watch for students who recount the whole group each time rather than counting on.
Closure and formative check (3 min): Ask the class to hold up fingers for the answer to handout question 4. If fewer than half show three fingers, reteach counting on from a number with counters tomorrow before assigning similar work. Finish by asking one student to name one thing Hank did all day.
Student Handout
The teacher reads each question aloud twice. Students may use counters or draw circles to solve.
- Hank filled 4 jugs before lunch. After lunch he filled 3 more jugs. How many jugs did Hank fill in all?
- There are 8 houses on Tinbell Row. People from 5 of those houses came to the tanker. How many houses have not come yet?
- Hank had 6 empty buckets on the truck. He gave 2 buckets away. How many buckets are left on the truck?
- The school needs 9 jugs of water. Hank has filled 6 jugs so far. How many jugs are left to fill?
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: 7 jugs. Four jugs before lunch plus three after lunch makes seven. Accept counters pushed together and counted, or seven circles drawn.
- Answer: 3 houses. Start with 8 houses and take away the 5 that came, which leaves 3. Accept 8 circles drawn with 5 crossed out.
- Answer: 4 buckets. Six buckets with two given away leaves four.
- Answer: 3 jugs. Counting up from 6 to 9 takes three more, so three jugs are still to be filled.
Differentiation
Support (below grade level)
Work with a small group at a side table and act out each problem with real cups before counting anything. Cap the numbers at 5 by rereading question 1 as "3 jugs and 2 more" and question 4 as "5 jugs, 3 filled already." Let these students answer by showing counters rather than writing a numeral.
Extension (above grade level)
Ask these students to write their own tanker problem for a partner using numbers no larger than 10, then trade papers and solve. Challenge them to say the full sentence that reports the answer, beginning with "Hank filled."
ELL supports
Pre-teach tanker, jug, and fill by pointing at the dispenser, holding up a jug, and filling a cup while saying each word three times. Keep one gesture for filling all lesson. Accept answers shown with counters or fingers, and pair each student with a partner who can restate the question in the home language.
Extensions
Ask your public works department whether the class may see a tanker or a utility truck up close on a day it is parked at the yard, since standing beside one makes the size of the tank obvious in a way no picture does. Back in class, add Tinbell Row to a classroom map, mark where the tanker parked, and let students take turns being the day's tanker worker at the dispenser during snack.