Worksheet Grade 5 English Language Arts

Inside the Driftwood Bay Water Treatment Plant: A Grade 5 Worksheet

A grade 5 worksheet where students read about a fictional treatment plant's four steps, then sequence, define, and cite evidence to answer ten questions.

Grade: Grade 5
Subject: English Language Arts
Material: Worksheet
Time: 30 min
Prep: No prep
Materials: None

Standards

RI.5.1 Common Core ELA

Quote accurately from a text when explaining what the text says explicitly and when drawing inferences from the text.

How this material aligns: Items 6 and 7 require students to quote the exact sentence in the plant description that proves each answer, matching the explicit-citation and inference skills RI.5.1 requires.

All materials for RI.5.1 →

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This material is in the public domain (CC0) and may be copied, edited, and shared freely, without attribution. Updated 2026-07-16.

Objectives

Students will sequence the four main steps of a water treatment process in the correct order.
Students will use context clues to define treatment vocabulary such as coagulation and disinfection.
Students will cite specific details from the worksheet's description to support their answers.

Vocabulary

Coagulation: Coagulation is the first cleaning step at a drinking water plant. Operators quickly mix in a chemical that makes tiny bits of dirt stop pushing each other away so they can start sticking together.
Sedimentation: Sedimentation is the step where water sits almost still in a big basin so the heavy clumps of dirt can sink to the bottom. The cleaner water on top then moves on to the filters.
Filtration: Filtration is the step where water passes through layers of sand, gravel, or other materials that trap the small particles still left in it. It works like a very fine strainer.
Disinfection: Disinfection is the step that kills or disables germs in water so it is safe to drink. Water plants usually disinfect with chlorine, ultraviolet light, or ozone.

Teacher overview

Every home in the fictional town of Driftwood Bay gets its tap water from one treatment plant on the edge of the bay. Before that water reaches a faucet, it passes through four steps that remove dirt, germs, and anything else that does not belong in drinking water. This worksheet gives students a short description of each step and asks them to sequence, define, and reason about the process, using only the information provided. A common misconception worth addressing before students begin: many assume filtration alone makes water safe, when disinfection, the final step, is what actually kills the remaining germs.

Inside the Driftwood Bay Water Treatment Plant: A Grade 5 Worksheet — Grade 5 English Language Arts

Name: ____________________________ Date: ______________

Student Worksheet

Read the description of the Driftwood Bay Water Treatment Plant, then answer the questions.

The Driftwood Bay Water Treatment Plant cleans water from the bay in four steps. The bay is part of a large freshwater lake. First, workers add a chemical. It makes tiny bits of dirt clump together into larger clumps. This step is called coagulation. Second, the heavy clumps sink to the bottom of a large tank. The clearer water on top moves forward. This step is called sedimentation. Third, the water passes through layers of sand and gravel. The sand and gravel catch any dirt still floating in the water. This step is called filtration. Fourth, the plant adds a small, careful amount of chlorine. The chlorine kills germs that could make people sick. This step is called disinfection. Only after all four steps does the water travel through pipes to homes across town.

List the four steps of treatment at the Driftwood Bay plant in the order they happen.
What does the word "coagulation" mean, based on how it is used in the description?
Why does sedimentation happen right after coagulation, and not before it?
Which step removes dirt that is still floating in the water after sedimentation? How do you know?
Explain in your own words why disinfection is the last step rather than the first.
Find the sentence that explains why workers add a chemical during coagulation. Write the sentence.
Find the sentence that tells what filtration removes from the water. Write the sentence.
A new worker at the plant says, "We only need filtration since it catches all the dirt." Using details from the description, explain why this worker is mistaken.
Imagine a different town's plant that treats river water instead of bay water. Would that plant likely need the same four steps? Use details from the description to support your answer.
Choose one vocabulary word from this list (coagulation, sedimentation, filtration, disinfection) and use it correctly in a new sentence about a different liquid, such as juice or pool 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

Answer: coagulation, sedimentation, filtration, disinfection. The description states the four steps happen in this order, from adding the clumping chemical through the final chlorine step.
Answer: to clump together. The passage explains coagulation as a chemical making "tiny bits of dirt clump together into larger clumps."
Answer: Sedimentation follows coagulation because the clumps formed during coagulation need to be heavy enough to sink, which is exactly what sedimentation does with them.
Answer: filtration. The description states the water "passes through layers of sand and gravel," and that "the sand and gravel catch any dirt still floating in the water," meaning dirt that survived the first two steps.
Answer: Answers will vary but should note that disinfection kills germs, and that doing it last means the chlorine works on water that is already clear and kills germs just before the water travels through pipes to homes.
Answer: "It makes tiny bits of dirt clump together into larger clumps." This is the sentence giving the reason the chemical is added; accept it with or without the preceding sentence, "First, workers add a chemical."
Answer: "The sand and gravel catch any dirt still floating in the water." Accept it with or without the preceding sentence, "Third, the water passes through layers of sand and gravel."
Answer: Filtration catches dirt, but it cannot be counted on to remove every germ. The description says the chlorine in the final step is what kills germs that could make people sick, so disinfection is still needed.
Answer: Answers will vary but should reason from the passage that any water source is likely to need clumping, settling, filtering, and disinfecting, since the passage frames these as general steps for treating water, not steps used only for bay water.
Answer: Sentences will vary; accept any sentence that correctly uses the chosen word's meaning as defined in the passage, such as "The pool workers used filtration to catch leaves floating in the water."

Differentiation

Support

Provide a four-box sequence chart with the step names already printed in scrambled order, so students place them correctly rather than generating the list from memory. Read the plant description aloud once before students work independently.

Extension

Ask students to decide, using only the worksheet's description, whether coagulation or filtration seems more essential to safe drinking water, and write a paragraph defending their choice with two supporting details.

ELL supports

Pair each vocabulary word with a simple sketch (clumping dots, a settling tank, layered sand, a droplet with an X through germs) on a reference card students can keep at their desk. Allow items 3, 5, and 9 to be answered orally.