Worksheet Grade 4 English Language Arts
Exact Water Words in the Corrymoor School News: A Grade 4 Worksheet
A grade 4 revision worksheet in which students replace vague amount words in a fictional school newsletter draft with exact figures from a data box.
Objectives
- Students will match vague amount words to exact figures in a data box.
- Students will rewrite sentences using exact amounts, units, and dates.
- Students will explain why a vague amount word can confuse a reader.
Vocabulary
- Rain barrel
- A rain barrel is a container that catches rainwater from a roof downspout so it can be used later to water plants. It saves drinking water and keeps some runoff out of the storm drains.
Also: exact, vague, gallon, quart
Teacher overview
Corrymoor Elementary is a fictional school whose newsletter runs a short item about a dripping sink, and the draft is written the way a hurried writer writes, with words such as "tons," "some," and "soon" standing in for amounts. Beside the draft sits a data box holding the exact figures the custodian and the fourth grade recorded. Students match each vague phrase to the fact that replaces it, then rewrite the paragraph. Fourth graders often read a word such as "tons" as a strong choice because it sounds big, so item 8 asks what amount a reader can actually picture from it.
Student Worksheet
Read the draft and the data box. Then answer items 1 through 10.
Draft for the May 20 newsletter, written by a fourth grader
The sink in Room 7 has been dripping for a long time. It wastes tons of water. The rain barrels out back hold a lot. Our class took some water to the garden. The plumber will fix the sink soon.
Data box: what the custodian and the fourth grade wrote down
The drip in Room 7 was first reported on April 4. The sink drips about once each second. A faucet that drips once each second can waste more than 3,000 gallons of water in a year, according to the United States Environmental Protection Agency. Behind the school there are four rain barrels, and each one holds 55 gallons when it is full. On May 12 the fourth grade carried 24 quarts of barrel water out to the garden, and four quarts make one gallon, so that is 6 gallons. The plumber will replace the washer in the Room 7 sink on June 3. All of the school's tap water comes from wells owned by the town of Corrymoor.
- The draft says the sink has dripped "for a long time." Which fact in the data box gives the exact date the drip was reported?
- Rewrite the first sentence of the draft using that exact date.
- Which fact in the data box tells how much water a faucet like this one can waste in a year?
- Rewrite the sentence "It wastes tons of water" using that amount and the length of time.
- Rewrite the sentence "The rain barrels out back hold a lot" using the number of barrels and the amount each one holds.
- Rewrite the sentence "Our class took some water to the garden" using the amount in gallons and the date.
- Rewrite the phrase "will fix the sink soon" using the exact date and what the plumber will do.
- Explain why the phrase "tons of water" can confuse a reader, even though it sounds large.
- The writer wants to add one sentence telling families where the school's tap water comes from. Write that sentence using the data box.
- Write the whole newsletter item again in five sentences. Use the exact facts from items 2 through 7.
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 drip in Room 7 was first reported on April 4. The data box gives this date in its first sentence.
- Answer: Accept any rewrite that keeps the meaning and names the date, such as "The sink in Room 7 has been dripping since April 4."
- Answer: A faucet that drips once each second can waste more than 3,000 gallons of water in a year. The data box credits the United States Environmental Protection Agency.
- Answer: Accept any rewrite that gives both the amount and the time, such as "A drip like this one can waste more than 3,000 gallons of water in a year." A rewrite that gives the amount without the year is incomplete, and the rewrite should keep "more than," since the data box does not give an exact total.
- Answer: Accept any rewrite naming four barrels and 55 gallons each, such as "The four rain barrels behind the school hold 55 gallons each."
- Answer: Accept any rewrite naming 6 gallons and May 12, such as "On May 12 our class carried 6 gallons of barrel water to the garden."
- Answer: Accept any rewrite naming June 3 and the washer, such as "The plumber will replace the washer on June 3."
- Answer: Accept any answer explaining that "tons" gives a reader no amount to picture, because it is not the measurement anyone recorded and it does not say over how long.
- Answer: Accept any sentence stating that the school's tap water comes from wells owned by the town of Corrymoor.
- Answer: Accept any five-sentence item that carries the exact facts from the earlier rewrites: the April 4 report date, more than 3,000 gallons a year, four barrels of 55 gallons each, 6 gallons carried on May 12, and the washer replacement on June 3. A proficient response has no vague amount words left in it.
Differentiation
Support
Give these students the draft with the five vague phrases already underlined and the data box cut into five labeled strips, one per fact, so matching comes before rewriting. Provide a rewrite frame for items 2 and 4: "The sink in Room 7 has been dripping since ___," and "A drip like this can waste more than ___ in a year."
Extension
Ask students to write two headlines for the finished item, one that uses an exact number and one that does not, and then to explain in three sentences which headline they would run in the newsletter and why.
ELL supports
Pre-teach exact, vague, gallon, quart, and barrel using a labeled gallon jug beside four quart jars. Provide a small chart pairing each vague phrase in the draft with the matching fact in the data box, with two rows already filled in. Allow items 1 and 3 to be answered by copying the sentence from the data box.