Lesson plan Grade 1 English Language Arts
Running the Fountains at Ashcairn School: A Grade 1 Fact Lesson
First graders learn why a custodian runs every fountain before the first day of school, then write a short fact note to next year's class about the pipes.
Objectives
- Students will explain why water sits still in school pipes over a long break.
- Students will name a topic and supply two facts about the school's water pipes.
- Students will close a short fact note with a line addressed to a reader.
Vocabulary
Key words: fountain, pipe, still, fresh, closing
Teacher overview
Ashcairn School is an invented school that closes for the summer, which means no one drinks from its fountains for weeks and the water inside its pipes stops moving. The week before students return, the custodian walks the building and runs every fountain and tap until the water is cold and clear again. This lesson uses that short, ordinary errand as the source of facts students write about, and the writing goes to a real audience: a note for whoever uses the classroom next year. The misconception it addresses is the belief many first graders hold that a fountain stores its own water inside the wall, which leaves them no reason to expect a long summer to change the water they drink.
Procedure
Hook (5 min): Fill a clear cup and set it on a shelf. Ask students what would happen to that cup of water if nobody touched it for the whole summer, and take four or five answers. Expect answers about dust, warmth, and staleness, and write them on the board without correcting them.
Read-aloud (10 min): Read the following twice, slowly. "Ashcairn School closes in June. No one drinks from the fountains all summer. The water in the pipes stops moving. It sits still for weeks. In August, Ms. Odum walks the halls with a cart. She turns on every fountain. She lets each one run until the water is cold. Cold water means new water is coming in from the pipe under the street. She does the sinks too. By the first day, the water in every fountain is fresh again." After the second reading, ask students which sentence tells why Ms. Odum waits for cold water.
Fact sort (7 min): Say six short sentences aloud, one at a time. Three come from the read-aloud and three do not, such as "The fountain makes its own water" or "Ms. Odum likes August best." Students put a thumb up for a fact from the story and a thumb down for anything else, and one student explains each thumbs-down answer.
Modeled note (5 min): On chart paper, write a four-line note to next year's class: a topic line, two fact lines, and a closing line addressed to the reader. Think aloud about why the closing line speaks to the reader instead of adding a new fact.
Independent writing (8 min): Students write their own note on the note page. Circulate and ask any writer whose fact is not in the story to find it in the read-aloud, and revise the line together if it is not there.
Share and exit check (5 min): Four students read their closing lines aloud. Then ask the exit question: where is the water before it comes out of the fountain? Students answer on an index card in four words or fewer. Cards naming a pipe, the street, or the town show the shift the lesson was built for, and cards naming the wall or a tank inside the fountain go into a small group for the next writing block.
Student Handout
A Note for Next Year's Class
- Write a topic line. Tell your reader what your note is about.
- Write your first fact. Tell what happens to the water in the pipes over the summer.
- Write your second fact. Tell what Ms. Odum does before the first day of school.
- Write a closing line. Speak to your reader. Do not add a new fact.
- Circle the word that names where the water is before it reaches the fountain: wall, pipe, cup.
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: Accept any short topic line that names the school's water or pipes, such as "This note is about the water in our school pipes." The line should name the topic without starting the facts.
- Answer: The water stops moving and sits still for weeks. Accept any wording that says the water stays in the pipes over the summer because no one uses it.
- Answer: She runs every fountain and sink until the water is cold. Accept any wording that names running the water, and count naming the cart or the sinks as an added detail.
- Answer: Accept any closing line that speaks to the reader without new information, such as "Now you know why the fountains run in August." A line asking the reader to thank Ms. Odum also counts.
- Answer: pipe. The water travels through a pipe from under the street to the fountain, so the fountain is the last stop rather than a storage tank.
Differentiation
Support
Give these students a note page with the topic line and closing line already printed so their writing work is the two facts. Reread the passage to a small group and stop after the sentence about still water to ask one question about the cup on the shelf. Allow a drawing of the fountain above each fact line.
Extension
Ask students to add a third fact and one question they would ask Ms. Odum about her August walk. A second option is to write one sentence telling what the class could do on a Monday morning after a long weekend, which applies the same idea to a shorter break.
ELL supports
Pre-teach fountain, pipe, and still with the clear cup and a drawing of a pipe running from the street to a fountain. Provide the frames "This note is about _____." and "In summer the water _____." Let students say each fact to a partner before writing, and accept a phrase rather than a full sentence on the fact lines.
Extensions
Ask the school custodian to visit for five minutes and describe one job they do before students return each year. Students add one sentence to their note using something the custodian actually said.