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Worksheet Grade 4 English Language Arts

An Operator's Day at Rushbourne: A Grade 4 Reading Worksheet

Students read a fictional plant operator's shift log in a table, then answer sequence, detail, and inference items about what the operator checks and why.

Objectives

  1. Students will read a log organized by time and place events in the correct order.
  2. Students will locate details that explain why an operator repeats a check.
  3. Students will write three ordered sentences summarizing a work shift.

Vocabulary

Key words: operator, shift, log, sample, filter

Teacher overview

The Rushbourne Water Plant is fictional, and so is Ms. Marsden, the operator whose shift log anchors this worksheet. Reading a log is a specific skill, since the text is organized by clock time rather than by paragraph, and students have to hold the order in mind while they hunt for a detail. The last two items push past the log itself and ask students to explain a repeated check and summarize the morning in order. Many fourth graders assume a treatment plant runs at one fixed setting, so the log deliberately shows the operator changing the chemical dose because the river changed overnight.

An Operator's Day at Rushbourne: A Grade 4 Reading Worksheet — Grade 4 English Language Arts
Name: ____________________________ Date: ______________

Student Worksheet

Read the shift log and the note under it. Then answer items 1 through 10.

Rushbourne Water Plant, morning shift log, kept by Ms. Marsden

Time What Ms. Marsden did
6:45 a.m. Walked the whole plant. Looked and listened at every tank.
7:00 a.m. Took a water sample from the river intake. Carried it to the lab.
7:20 a.m. Tested the sample. The river water was cloudier than yesterday.
7:40 a.m. Added a little more of the mixing chemical, so the dirt would clump.
8:15 a.m. Checked the settling tank. The clumps were sinking to the bottom.
9:00 a.m. Washed out filter number two. Sand filters clog as they catch dirt.
9:45 a.m. Took a second sample, this time after the filters. The water was clear.
10:30 a.m. Wrote the numbers in the log book. Signed her name.
11:00 a.m. Answered a call from a family on Fenmarch Street about cloudy tap water.
11:30 a.m. Sent a crew to flush the pipe on Fenmarch Street.

Ms. Marsden's note at the bottom of the page: Rain fell all night upstream. Rain washes soil into the river, so the water we pull in gets cloudy. I test the river water at the start of every shift for that reason. The plant has to be set to match whatever the river sends us that day.

  1. What was the first thing Ms. Marsden did on her shift?
  2. Why did Ms. Marsden add more of the mixing chemical at 7:40 a.m.?
  3. What did Ms. Marsden find when she checked the settling tank?
  4. Why do sand filters need to be washed out?
  5. Ms. Marsden took two samples. Where did each sample come from?
  6. According to her note, why was the river water cloudy that morning?
  7. What did Ms. Marsden do after the family on Fenmarch Street called?
  8. Find the word shift in the title of the log. What does shift mean here?
  9. Ms. Marsden tests the river water at the start of every shift, even on dry days. Use her note to explain why that habit is useful.
  10. Write three sentences that tell what Ms. Marsden did between 6:45 a.m. and 9:45 a.m. Put your sentences in order. Use the words first, next, and then.

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: She walked the whole plant and looked and listened at every tank. The log lists this at 6:45 a.m., before any testing.
  2. Answer: Because the river water was cloudier than the day before, and the chemical makes the dirt clump so it can sink. The 7:20 a.m. and 7:40 a.m. lines together support this.
  3. Answer: The clumps were sinking to the bottom. The 8:15 a.m. line states this directly.
  4. Answer: Because sand filters clog as they catch dirt. The 9:00 a.m. line gives this reason.
  5. Answer: The first came from the river intake, and the second came from after the filters. The log records them at 7:00 a.m. and 9:45 a.m.
  6. Answer: Rain fell all night upstream, and rain washes soil into the river. Her note states this.
  7. Answer: She sent a crew to flush the pipe on Fenmarch Street. The 11:30 a.m. line follows the 11:00 a.m. call.
  8. Answer: The stretch of hours an operator works. Accept any answer showing that a shift is one person's work period, here a morning.
  9. Answer: Accept any answer built on her note. Because the river changes with the weather, the test tells her what the plant is dealing with that day, so she can adjust the chemical before cloudy water gets far into the plant.
  10. Answer: Accept any three ordered sentences using first, next, and then that keep the log's order. A proficient response walks the plant, tests the river sample, and then washes the filter or takes the second sample.

Differentiation

Support

Give these students a copy of the log with the four time rows that matter most highlighted, and provide a strip of paper with the words first, next, and then printed on it for item 10. Allow items 1 through 7 to be answered by writing the clock time plus a short phrase.

Extension

Ask students to write three more log lines for the afternoon of the same day, using times after 11:30 a.m. Each new line must follow from something already in the log, such as a second call from Fenmarch Street or a check on filter number three.

ELL supports

Pre-teach sample, filter, settle, and flush with a jar of muddy water the class lets stand for a few minutes and then pours through a coffee filter. Provide a two-column chart, time and action, so students can retell the log orally before writing.