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Reading passage Grade 3 English Language Arts

The Crew That Fixed the Break on Bellow Street

A grade 3 informational passage about a fictional town's broken water main, the crew that repaired it, and seven questions with a full answer key.

Objectives

  1. Students will answer questions about an informational passage using details the passage states.
  2. Students will explain why a repair crew took each step, using the passage as the basis.
  3. Students will name two water jobs described in the passage and what each one does.

Vocabulary

Water main
A big underground pipe that carries drinking water beneath the streets to a neighborhood. Smaller service lines branch off it to reach each building.
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: locator, sample, hydrant

Teacher overview

This passage follows a broken water main in a fictional town from the first bubble of water in the road to the lab sample taken before the pipe goes back in use. The steps are given in the order the crew takes them, and the passage states the reason for each one, which gives students several places where a cause is stated outright. Two water jobs appear by name, so the passage also works as a first look at who does this work.

The Crew That Fixed the Break on Bellow Street — Grade 3 English Language Arts
Name: ____________________________ Date: ______________

Passage

The Crew That Fixed the Break on Bellow Street

On a cold Tuesday in the town of Quillbank, water came up through the road. It bubbled out of a crack on Bellow Street. In an hour it had spread across two lanes. By noon it had turned to ice along the curb.

A woman named Delia Marchetti got the call. She is a water distribution operator for the town. She takes care of the pipes that carry water to homes and shops. She drove to Bellow Street and stood looking at the water for a long minute.

"A main broke," she said. "That is the big pipe under the road."

Delia did not start digging. First she had to know what else was down there. Under a street there are many buried lines. Some carry gas. Some carry power. Some carry phone service. Digging into the wrong one is dangerous.

So Delia called a locator. A locator is a worker who finds and marks what is buried. His name is Teo Alvarez. Teo walked the block with a small machine that beeped over metal. Then he sprayed short lines of paint on the road. Blue paint meant water. Yellow meant gas. Red meant power.

Now the crew knew where to dig. A digging machine lifted out a square of road. Two workers climbed down into the hole and found the main. A long crack ran along the top of the pipe.

Before anyone could fix it, the water had to stop. Delia shut two valves, one on each side of the break. That took the water off six houses. She knocked on all six doors and told the families it would be a few hours.

The crew cut the cracked piece out. They slid a new piece of pipe into the gap. They tightened bolts on a metal band at each end. Then Delia opened the valves again, slowly. Opening a valve fast can shake the pipe and crack it a second time.

Muddy water came out first. The crew ran a nearby hydrant until the water ran clear. Then they filled a small bottle and sent it to the town lab. Quillbank does not put a repaired pipe back in use until the lab says the sample is clean.

The hole was filled that night. The road was patched the next week. Delia wrote a report about the break and marked the spot on the town's pipe map. That map tells the next crew where the new piece of pipe is.

Questions

  1. What did people see on Bellow Street on Tuesday?
  2. What is Delia Marchetti's job?
  3. Why did Delia call a locator before anyone started digging?
  4. What did the blue paint on the road mean?
  5. Why did Delia knock on six doors?
  6. Why does Delia open a valve slowly instead of fast?
  7. The crew sent a small bottle of water to the lab. Why does the town wait for the lab before using the pipe again?

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 bubbling up out of a crack in the road. The passage says it spread across two lanes within an hour and turned to ice at the curb by noon.
  2. Answer: She is a water distribution operator for the town, and she takes care of the pipes that carry water to homes and shops.
  3. Answer: Because many lines are buried under a street, carrying gas, power, and phone service, and digging into the wrong one is dangerous.
  4. Answer: Water. The passage lists blue for water, yellow for gas, and red for power.
  5. Answer: Because shutting the two valves took the water off six houses, so she told those families it would be a few hours.
  6. Answer: Because opening a valve fast can shake the pipe and crack it a second time. The passage states this right after she reopens the valves.
  7. Answer: Because Quillbank does not put a repaired pipe back in use until the lab says the sample is clean, which shows the town checks the water before people drink it again.

Differentiation

Support

Read the passage aloud in two parts, stopping after the paint colors to summarize what has happened so far. Give these students a copy with four margin labels already written: the break, finding the lines, the repair, the check. Allow them to answer questions 3, 6, and 7 out loud to a partner who writes the answer down.

Extension

Ask students to write the short report Delia would file, in four sentences, naming what broke, what she shut off, what the crew put in, and what the town is waiting for. Require each sentence to rest on a detail from the passage.

ELL supports

Pre-teach "main," "valve," "locator," and "sample" with a sketch of a street cut open to show several buried lines in different colors. Bring in a small empty bottle so students can hold what "sample" means. Provide sentence frames for questions 3 and 6: "She called a locator because ___," and "She opens the valve slowly so that ___."

Extensions

Students can write a short note that the crew could leave on the six doors, telling a family what happened and when the water will come back. Comparing notes shows how much a reader needs to be told and how little space there is to tell it.