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Reading passage Grade 1 English Language Arts

A New Pipe for the House on Craneberry Street: A Grade 1 Read-Aloud

An original grade 1 read-aloud about a crew joining a new house to the town water pipe, with six comprehension questions and a short informative writing task.

Objectives

  1. Students will recall details from a read-aloud about connecting a house to a town water pipe.
  2. Students will explain why a crew tests the tap before filling the hole.
  3. Students will write three short informative sentences about how water reaches a house.

Vocabulary

Valve
A valve is a device in a pipe that operators can open or close to control where water flows. Valves let crews shut off one street for repairs without turning off the whole town.

Also: pipe, meter, crew, curb

Teacher overview

This original passage follows a two-person town crew as they join a newly built house on the invented Craneberry Street to the water main under the road. It is written to be read aloud twice, once straight through and once with pauses, and it is short enough for confident first-grade readers to try on their own. Teachers assign it when students have asked where the water in a faucet comes from, since the passage answers that question with a chain a child can picture: a big pipe under the street, a small pipe to the house, a valve, and a tap. The closing task turns the passage into a short piece of informative writing.

A New Pipe for the House on Craneberry Street: A Grade 1 Read-Aloud — Grade 1 English Language Arts
Name: ____________________________ Date: ______________

Passage

A New Pipe for the House on Craneberry Street

A new house stands on Craneberry Street. It has walls and a roof. It has a kitchen sink. No water comes out yet.

A big pipe runs under the street. That pipe holds the town's water. Every house on the block gets water from it.

The new house needs its own small pipe. The small pipe must join the big one.

On Tuesday a crew came. Rosa and Dev work for the town. They dug a hole in the yard. Then they dug down to the big pipe.

Rosa clamped a small pipe onto the big one. Dev laid the new pipe from the street to the house. It ran through a hole in the wall.

Next the crew set a meter in a box by the curb. The meter counts the water the house uses.

Then Rosa turned a valve. Water pushed into the new pipe.

Dev went inside and opened the kitchen tap. Water came out. He let it run for a minute. He watched for drips under the sink.

Last, the crew filled the hole. They packed the dirt down flat.

The family moved in on Friday. They washed their hands in the new sink. That water came from under the street.

Questions

  1. What did the new house not have yet?
  2. What runs under Craneberry Street?
  3. Who dug the hole in the yard?
  4. What does the meter by the curb do?
  5. Why do you think Dev watched under the sink while the tap ran?
  6. What would the new house be like if no crew joined the small pipe to the big pipe?

Writing task. Write three short sentences that tell a friend how water gets to a new house. Name the topic first. Then give one fact from the story. End with a line that tells your friend you are done.

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: Water. The house had walls, a roof, and a kitchen sink, but no water came out of the tap yet.
  2. Answer: A big pipe that holds the town's water. Every house on the block gets its water from that pipe.
  3. Answer: Rosa and Dev, the two workers from the town crew, dug the hole and then dug down to the big pipe.
  4. Answer: It counts the water the house uses. The crew set it in a box by the curb.
  5. Answer: Answers will vary. Accept any reasonable idea tied to the story, such as checking for leaks or drips at the new joint before the crew filled the hole and drove away.
  6. Answer: Answers will vary. Accept any reasonable idea, such as the taps staying dry, the family not being able to wash or cook, or the house not being ready to live in.

Writing task answer. Answers will vary. Accept any three short sentences that name the topic, give one fact from the passage, and close, such as "This is about how water gets to a house. A small pipe joins the big pipe under the street. Now you know."

Differentiation

Support

Read the passage aloud twice, pausing after each paragraph to ask one short question such as "What did Rosa clamp on?" Give these students questions 1 through 4 with the matching paragraph already marked in the margin. Allow spoken answers for questions 5 and 6.

Extension

Ask students to write two more sentences telling what the crew would do if the tap had stayed dry after Rosa turned the valve. A second option is to draw the water's path from the big pipe to the kitchen sink and label three parts.

ELL supports

Pre-teach pipe, valve, and meter with a drawing of a street with a pipe under it and a small pipe branching to a house. Allow short phrases rather than full sentences for questions 1 through 4. Provide the frame "Water gets to a house through _____." for the writing task.

Extensions

Look for a water meter lid or a valve cover on the sidewalk near the school, and let students take a rubbing of the lid with paper and a crayon. Students write one sentence naming what is under that lid.