Worksheet Grade 1 English Language Arts
Pippin Row's Wet Beach Towels: A Grade 1 Order Words Worksheet
Ten grade 1 items built on a wet towel drying on a line, asking students to choose order words, sequence three events, and tell where the water went.
Objectives
- Students will choose the correct order word for an event in a short story.
- Students will put three drying events in the order they happened.
- Students will write two sentences that begin with an order word.
Vocabulary
Key words: order words, damp, dry, clothesline
Teacher overview
Pippin Row is an invented street where a first grader named Nell hangs a wet beach towel on a line after swimming and checks it twice during the day. The worksheet holds one short scenario that every item refers back to, so students practice order words on a single sequence rather than on unrelated sentences. The last four items move from ordering to explaining, asking where the water in the towel actually went and what made it leave faster. The misconception these items address is the idea that the water must end up somewhere a student can point to, such as back in the pool or in a container, which is why item 7 offers those two choices beside the air.
Student Worksheet
Read the story, or listen while your teacher reads it.
Nell lives on Pippin Row. She swam in a pool on a hot day. Her towel got very wet. Nell hung it on a line. The sun was warm. Wind blew all day. At snack time the towel was damp. At dinner the towel was dry.
- Circle the order word in this sentence. First, Nell hung the wet towel on the line.
- Write the order word that fits: _____, the towel was damp at snack time. Use First, Next, or Last.
- Write the order word that fits: _____, the towel was dry at dinner. Use First, Next, or Last.
- Put these three events in order. Write the letters in the right order.
- A. The towel was dry.
- B. Nell swam in the pool.
- C. Nell hung the towel up.
- Write one sentence about what Nell did before she hung up the towel. Use the word First.
- Write one sentence about the towel at dinner. Use the word Last.
- Where did the water in the towel go? Circle one. into the air / into the pool / into a cup
- What dried the towel faster, the warm sun or a cold night?
- Nell's mom hung a wet towel in a dark closet. Did it dry fast or slow? Write one sentence. Use the word because.
- Tell a friend how to dry a wet towel fast. Write one sentence. Name one thing that helps.
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: First. It is the order word at the front of the sentence, and it tells the reader this is the first step in drying the towel.
- Answer: Next. Snack time comes after Nell hangs the towel and before dinner, so the middle order word fits.
- Answer: Last. Dinner is the final check in the story, so the closing order word fits here.
- Answer: B, C, A. Nell swam first, then hung the towel on the line, and the towel was dry at the end of the day.
- Answer: Accept any sentence that begins with First and tells what Nell did before the towel went on the line, such as "First, Nell swam in the pool." The order word must come at the front.
- Answer: Accept any sentence that begins with Last and describes the dry towel, such as "Last, the towel was dry at dinner."
- Answer: into the air. The sun and the wind carried the water off the cloth, so it did not go back to the pool or into a cup.
- Answer: the warm sun. Warm air and sun take water off a wet towel faster than cold night air does.
- Answer: Accept any sentence saying it dried slowly, joined by because, such as "It dried slow because there was no sun in the closet." Wind or warm air are also correct reasons.
- Answer: Accept any sentence naming one helper, such as sun, wind, warm air, a fan, or spreading the towel out wide so more of it touches the air.
Differentiation
Support
Read the story aloud twice and point to each sentence as you read it. For items 2 and 3, print the three order words at the top of the page so students choose rather than recall. Allow students to say their answers for items 5 and 6 to an adult, then copy the sentence.
Extension
Ask students to add a fourth event to the story and write it as a sentence with the word Then. A second option is to write two sentences telling what would happen to the towel on a rainy day, using the same order words.
ELL supports
Pre-teach damp, dry, and line with the real objects: a wet paper towel, a dry one, and a string across the room. Provide the frames "First, Nell _____." and "Last, the towel _____." Let students answer items 7 and 8 by pointing to a picture before they write the words.
Extensions
Hang two same-size wet paper towels in the classroom, one by a sunny window and one in a closed cabinet, and check both after an hour. Students write two order-word sentences about what they found, which tests the answer they gave in item 9 against something they watched themselves.