Worksheet Grade 3 English Language Arts
Which Way Does the Water Go on Cider Gap Ridge?
A grade 3 reading worksheet about a fictional ridge that splits rain between a town pond and a farm pond, with text-evidence and apply-the-idea items.
Objectives
- Students will answer questions using details the passage states.
- Students will explain what a watershed is in their own words.
- Students will apply the passage rule to a new place on the same ridge.
Vocabulary
- Watershed
- A watershed is all the land where rain that falls will drain to the same stream, river, or lake. Everyone lives in a watershed, no matter how far from the water they live.
Also: ridge, slope, drain, creek
Teacher overview
Cider Gap Ridge is a fictional hill that splits the rain falling on one town between two ponds that never mix. The passage states the split plainly, names both sides, and then shows the town acting on that split by posting signs on one slope only, which gives students a text where every answer is on the page. Third graders commonly assume that all the rain falling near a town ends up in the same water, and many picture a ridge as a place where water gathers rather than a line that sends water two ways. Items 7 and 9 are the two worth discussing aloud after the worksheet is collected.
Student Worksheet
Which Way Does the Water Go?
Cider Gap Ridge is a long, high hill. It runs above the town of Rushgate. Rain falls on both sides of the ridge.
Rain on the west side runs downhill into Bunting Creek. Bunting Creek runs into the town pond. The town of Rushgate takes its drinking water from that pond.
Rain on the east side does not go there at all. It runs down the other way into Rumsey Pond. Farms near Rumsey Pond pump that water onto their fields.
The top line of the ridge decides. Water on one side of that line goes west. Water on the other side goes east. Two drops can land a step apart and never meet again.
Land that drains to one place is called a watershed. Bunting Creek has its own watershed. Rumsey Pond has one too. Cider Gap Ridge is the line between them.
The town cares about the west side. Anything spilled up there may reach the town pond. So the town put signs along the west slope. The signs ask hikers to pack out every bit of trash.
Mr. Stebbins farms on the east slope. He knows his rain never reaches the town pond. It goes to Rumsey Pond instead. He keeps his ditch clean anyway. Fish live in Rumsey Pond, and his own crops drink from it.
Answer each question. Use the passage.
- What is Cider Gap Ridge?
- Where does rain from the west side of the ridge run first?
- Where does Bunting Creek run to?
- Where does the town of Rushgate get its drinking water?
- Where does rain from the east side of the ridge run?
- Who uses the water in Rumsey Pond?
- What is a watershed? Use the passage to explain it.
- Why did the town put signs on the west slope? Use two details from the passage.
- Two raindrops land one step apart on the top of the ridge. Why might they end up in different ponds?
- A snack stand will be built on the west slope of Cider Gap Ridge. Use the passage to explain one rule the town might make for that stand.
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: A long, high hill above the town of Rushgate. The first paragraph says so.
- Answer: Into Bunting Creek. The second paragraph states this.
- Answer: Into the town pond. The second paragraph states this.
- Answer: From the town pond, which Bunting Creek feeds. The second paragraph states this.
- Answer: Down the other way into Rumsey Pond. The third paragraph states this.
- Answer: Farms near Rumsey Pond, which pump the water onto their fields. Accept also the fish that live there and Mr. Stebbins's crops, both from the last paragraph.
- Answer: Land that drains to one place. The fifth paragraph gives this definition, and Bunting Creek and Rumsey Pond are the two examples the passage offers.
- Answer: Because anything spilled on the west side may reach the town pond, and the town pond is where the drinking water comes from. The first detail comes from the sixth paragraph and the second from the second paragraph.
- Answer: Because the top line of the ridge decides which way water runs, so one drop can land on the west side and go to the town pond while the other lands on the east side and goes to Rumsey Pond. The fourth paragraph states this.
- Answer: Answers will vary. Accept any rule the passage supports, such as requiring trash cans that get emptied, asking visitors to pack out their trash the way the signs do, or keeping spills off the slope, because the west slope drains to the pond the town drinks from.
Differentiation
Support
Read the passage aloud once before students work, and give these students a copy with a simple two-arrow sketch in the margin, one arrow pointing west to the town pond and one pointing east to Rumsey Pond. Let them answer items 8 and 10 out loud to a partner who writes the answer down, and accept a labeled drawing for item 9.
Extension
Ask students to write the two sentences that should go on a new sign for the east slope, addressed to a farm visitor rather than a hiker, and to mark which sentence of the passage each one came from. The sign must explain where east-slope water goes.
ELL supports
Pre-teach "ridge," "slope," "drain," and "watershed" by tenting a sheet of paper over two books and dripping water down each side into two cups. Point at the fold when you say ridge and at each cup when you name each pond. Provide sentence frames for items 7 and 9: "A watershed is ___," and "The two drops end up apart because ___."
Extensions
Students can walk the schoolyard after a rain and mark the high line that sends water two ways, using chalk on the pavement or flags on the grass. Writing two sentences about where the water on each side of their chalk line goes next turns the schoolyard into a small version of Cider Gap Ridge.