Classroom activity Grade 3 English Language Arts
Morning Samples at the Waverling Water Lab: A Readers Theater Script
A grade 3 readers theater script for five roles about one morning of water testing at a small-town lab, with eight handout questions and a full key.
Objectives
- Students will read a five-role script aloud in a small group.
- Students will answer questions about a script using lines from that script.
- Students will name two different jobs that people do at a water lab.
Vocabulary
Key words: sample, lab, cloudy, chlorine, license
Teacher overview
Groups of five students perform a short readers theater script set in the water lab of Waverling, a fictional town, on an ordinary Tuesday morning. Each role is a real job in that room, and the script's own lines carry every answer the debrief asks for, so students practice going back to a text rather than guessing. Many third graders believe that town water is tested once at the plant and that water which looks clear must therefore be safe. Ms. Varley says the opposite in plain words partway through the script, so plan to reread her two lines about clear water during the debrief.
Activity Directions
- Before class, print one script for each student and sort the copies into stacks of five. Write the five role names on the board: Narrator, Ms. Varley, Mr. Jessup, Nell, and Mr. Limber.
- Set the three labeled jars on a front table if you are using the prop. Fill all three with plain tap water so that they look identical.
- Put students in groups of five and let each group assign roles. A group of four may double the Narrator and Mr. Limber parts.
- Give groups eight minutes to read the script once, quietly, with each student following their own part. Ask them to highlight every line their character says.
- Have each group read the script aloud a second time, standing, at a normal talking pace. This read should take about five minutes.
- Stop the room and hold up the three jars. Ask which jar is safe to drink, and take a show of hands before anyone answers in words.
- Send students back to their seats to answer the eight questions on the handout on their own. Remind them that every answer sits somewhere in the script.
- End the activity once the handout is collected, then debrief with two questions: "Why did the lab test water from a street, and not only the water at the plant?" and "What did Ms. Varley say about water that looks clear?" Reread her lines aloud before students respond.
Student Handout
Morning Samples at the Waverling Water Lab
A play for five readers: Narrator, Ms. Varley, Mr. Jessup, Nell, and Mr. Limber.
Narrator: The lab at Waverling is a small white room. Three glass jars sit on the counter. Mr. Jessup carries them in from his truck.
Mr. Jessup: Good morning. Here are the samples. This one is from the river intake. This one is from the filter room. This one is from the hydrant on Baskett Street.
Ms. Varley: Thank you. Set them here. Nell, come and look.
Nell: They all look the same to me. They all look clear.
Ms. Varley: That is why we test them. Clear water can still have germs in it. Our eyes cannot see germs.
Nell: So looking is not enough?
Ms. Varley: Looking is never enough. I will check how cloudy each one is. Then I will test for chlorine. Then one jar goes into the warm box to see if germs grow.
Mr. Jessup: The river jar will be the cloudy one. It always is. That is the water before we clean it.
Ms. Varley: You are right. My test shows the river jar is a little cloudy today, even though it looks clear. The filter room jar is not.
Nell: Why do we test the hydrant on Baskett Street? The plant already cleaned that water.
Ms. Varley: Because water travels a long way in pipes after it leaves us. We test at the far end of town to be sure it is still safe when it gets there.
Mr. Limber: I am writing all of this down. Date. Time. Which jar. What we found.
Nell: Do you write it in that big book?
Mr. Limber: In the log book, yes. Then I type it into the report. Our results go to the state every month.
Mr. Jessup: And if a result is wrong, I get a call. Then I change something at the plant.
Nell: Mr. Jessup, how did you learn to run the plant?
Mr. Jessup: I trained on the job for a few years. Then I studied and took a state test. That test gave me my license.
Ms. Varley: I went to a college program for lab work. There is more than one way into this room.
Narrator: The warm box clicks shut. The germ test will not be ready until tomorrow morning. In one hour Ms. Varley will call the plant with the cloudy and chlorine results.
Answer each question. Use lines from the script.
- Where did the three jars of water come from?
- What does Nell notice about the three jars when she first looks at them?
- What does Ms. Varley say about water that looks clear?
- Name the three tests Ms. Varley says she will do.
- Which jar is cloudy today, and what does Mr. Jessup call that water?
- What question does Nell ask about the hydrant on Baskett Street?
- What answer does Ms. Varley give her?
- How did Mr. Jessup get his license? Copy the line that tells you.
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: The river intake, the filter room, and the hydrant on Baskett Street. Mr. Jessup names all three in his first speech.
- Answer: They all look the same, and they all look clear. Nell says this in her first line.
- Answer: Clear water can still have germs in it, and our eyes cannot see germs. Accept either half of that idea, or the later line, "Looking is never enough."
- Answer: How cloudy each jar is, a test for chlorine, and a warm box test to see if germs grow. All three come from one speech of Ms. Varley's.
- Answer: The river jar, which Mr. Jessup calls the water before we clean it. Ms. Varley confirms that the river jar is cloudy today.
- Answer: Why do we test the hydrant on Baskett Street when the plant already cleaned that water? Accept any wording close to Nell's line.
- Answer: Because water travels a long way in pipes after it leaves the plant, so the lab tests at the far end of town to be sure the water is still safe when it arrives.
- Answer: He trained on the job for a few years, then studied and took a state test. Students should copy Mr. Jessup's line, "I trained on the job for a few years. Then I studied and took a state test. That test gave me my license." Accept a copy of the last two sentences alone.
Differentiation
Support
Give these students the script with their own character's lines already highlighted, and let them practice those lines with a partner before the group read. For the handout, allow oral answers scribed by an adult, and allow students to point to a line in the script instead of copying it for item 8.
Extension
Ask students to write four more lines for the end of the script, in which the warm box result comes back the next morning and Mr. Limber records it. Their lines must keep each character speaking about the part of the work that character does in the original script.
ELL supports
Pre-teach "sample," "cloudy," "chlorine," "log book," and "license" with the three jars in front of the class, and stir one jar with a spoonful of soil so that cloudy has a picture attached to it. Pair each student with a fluent reading partner for the first quiet read. Provide sentence frames for items 3 and 7: "Ms. Varley says that clear water can still ___," and "The lab tests Baskett Street because ___."
Extensions
Groups can perform the script for a younger class and then hold up two clear cups, one of plain tap water and one of tap water with a spoonful of salt stirred in until it disappears, and ask the younger students whether they can tell by looking which cup has something added. They cannot, which fits Ms. Varley's line that looking is never enough. No one tastes or drinks from either cup.