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Worksheet Grade 3 English Language Arts

The Okafor Family's Well at Marsh Hollow Farm: A Grade 3 Worksheet

A grade 3 reading worksheet in which students read a short passage about a farm well and answer questions about groundwater using evidence from the text.

Objectives

  1. Students will explain how rain becomes the groundwater that fills a well.
  2. Students will answer questions about a text by pointing to the sentence that supports each answer.

Vocabulary

Groundwater
Groundwater is water that has soaked into the ground and fills the spaces between soil particles and cracks in rock underground. It is a large underground source of fresh water that wells and springs draw from.
Aquifer
An aquifer is an underground layer of rock, sand, or gravel that holds water in the tiny spaces between its grains. Wells reach down into aquifers to bring water up to the surface.

Also: well, soil

Teacher overview

The Okafor family lives on Marsh Hollow Farm, where their drinking water comes from a well instead of a city pipe. This worksheet gives students a short passage about how rain becomes the groundwater that fills the Okafor family's well, then asks them to answer questions using evidence straight from the text. The scenario turns an invisible process, water moving underground, into a story students can picture and explain in their own words.

The Okafor Family's Well at Marsh Hollow Farm: A Grade 3 Worksheet — Grade 3 English Language Arts
Name: ____________________________ Date: ______________

Student Worksheet

Read the passage below. Then answer the questions that follow.

Passage: The Okafor family gets water from a well. Their well is on Marsh Hollow Farm. When rain falls on the farm, some of it soaks into the soil. It moves past dirt and small rocks. It reaches a layer of wet, packed sand. This layer is called an aquifer. An aquifer is like a giant underground sponge. It holds water. The Okafor family's well is a deep pipe. The pipe reaches down into the aquifer. A pump sits inside the well. The pump pulls the water up. It sends the water to the kitchen sink and the bathroom. Suppose the well is 40 feet deep. The aquifer sits near the bottom of that well. The water has a long way to travel before it reaches the pump.

  1. What is the name of the family in this passage?
  2. Where does the Okafor family's water come from?
  3. What happens to rain after it falls on the farm?
  4. What is an aquifer? Use words from the passage.
  5. How deep is the well in this passage?
  6. What part of the well pulls water up to the house?
  7. Why does the passage compare an aquifer to a sponge?
  8. Suppose Marsh Hollow Farm had a very dry summer with little rain. What might happen to the water in the aquifer? Use a clue from the passage.
  9. Name two rooms in the Okafor family's house that use water from the well.
  10. Write one sentence. Explain how a raindrop becomes well water.

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: The Okafor family. The passage names them in the first sentence.
  2. Answer: From a well on Marsh Hollow Farm. The passage states this in the first two sentences.
  3. Answer: It soaks down through the soil. The passage says some of the rain moves past dirt and small rocks after it falls.
  4. Answer: An aquifer is a layer of wet, packed sand that holds water underground, like a giant sponge. The passage gives this exact description.
  5. Answer: 40 feet deep. The passage states this directly.
  6. Answer: A pump inside the well. The passage says the pump pulls the water up and sends it to the house.
  7. Answer: Answers will vary, but should note that a sponge soaks up and holds water the way the packed sand in an aquifer does, which the passage's comparison suggests.
  8. Answer: Answers will vary, but should reason that less rain means less water soaking down to refill the aquifer, so the water level could drop, based on the passage's explanation of how the aquifer fills.
  9. Answer: The kitchen and the bathroom. The passage names both rooms in the sentence right after it says the pump pulls the water up.
  10. Answer: Answers will vary, but should describe rain soaking through soil into an aquifer, then being pumped up through the well, in that order.

Differentiation

Support

Read the passage aloud twice before students answer independently, and allow items 7, 8, and 10 to be answered orally instead of in writing.

Extension

Ask students to draw and label a cross-section diagram of Marsh Hollow Farm showing the soil, the aquifer, and the well, using at least three vocabulary words from the passage as labels.

ELL supports

Pre-teach "well," "aquifer," and "soil" with a simple diagram showing rain, soil, and an underground water layer before students read the passage. Allow items 1, 2, 3, 5, 6, and 9, the literal recall items, to be answered with short phrases rather than full sentences.