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Reading passage Grade 2 English Language Arts

The Tall Water Tower on Bell Hill: Where Tap Water Comes From

A grade 2 informational passage about how tap water travels from a lake through a tower to homes, with who, what, where, when, why, and how questions.

Objectives

  1. Students will answer who, what, where, when, why, and how questions about a passage.
  2. Students will explain why a water tower is built up high.
  3. Students will name the steps water takes from a lake to a home.

Vocabulary

Water tower
A water tower is a big tank raised high above town that stores drinking water. Its height is what pushes water through the pipes, keeping the pressure steady even when the power goes out.
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: pipe, tap

Teacher overview

This short informational passage explains where tap water comes from before it reaches the faucet. It follows the water in the fictional town of Bell Hill from a lake, through a treatment plant and a tall water tower, and down pipes to homes. The passage sits at a grade 2 reading level and works well as a read-aloud too. The six questions cover who, what, where, when, why, and how, so students practice each key-detail question type.

The Tall Water Tower on Bell Hill: Where Tap Water Comes From — Grade 2 English Language Arts
Name: ____________________________ Date: ______________

Passage

Have you ever looked up and seen a tall tank on legs? Many towns have one. It is called a water tower. Bell Hill has a big blue water tower on top of a hill.

The water starts in a lake near the town. First, a pump pushes the water to a cleaning plant. At the plant, workers make the water clean and safe. Then the clean water goes up into the tall tower.

The tower holds a lot of water. It sits up high for a good reason. Water likes to flow down. When you turn on a tap, water runs down from the tower. It goes through pipes under the streets. The pipes carry it to homes and schools.

People use water from the tower all day. At night, the pump fills it back up. That way, the town never runs out.

Questions

  1. What is the tall tank on legs called?
  2. Where does the water start before it reaches the tower?
  3. Who makes the water clean and safe at the plant?
  4. Why does the water tower sit up high?
  5. When does the pump fill the tower back up?
  6. How does the water get from the tower to your home?

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: A water tower. The passage says the tall tank on legs is called a water tower.
  2. Answer: In a lake near the town. The passage says the water starts in a lake near Bell Hill.
  3. Answer: The workers at the plant. The passage says workers make the water clean and safe.
  4. Answer: So the water can flow down to homes. The passage says water likes to flow down, and the tower sits high for that reason.
  5. Answer: At night. The passage says the pump fills the tower back up at night.
  6. Answer: Through pipes under the streets. The passage says the pipes carry the water from the tower to homes and schools.

Differentiation

Support

Read the passage aloud twice and have students point to the sentence that answers each question before writing. Give a simple picture strip of the steps, lake to plant to tower to home, for them to follow.

Extension

Ask students to write one more question of their own about the passage, using a question word, and to answer it. Challenge them to explain in a sentence what would happen if the pump stopped at night.

ELL supports

Pre-teach water tower, pump, and pipe with a labeled sketch. Allow short-phrase answers for the who, what, where, and when questions, and let students answer the why and how questions aloud before writing.