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Classroom activity Grade 5 English Language Arts

Innisford Rain Barrel Directions: A Write-and-Build Test

A grade 5 ELA activity where teams write step-by-step rain barrel directions, watch a second team build a paper model from the text alone, and revise what failed.

Objectives

  1. Students will write numbered directions that a reader can follow without asking questions.
  2. Students will identify the exact sentence in a set of directions that caused a build error.
  3. Students will revise a vague direction by adding position and order words.

Vocabulary

Downspout
A downspout is the pipe that carries rainwater down from a roof's gutters to the ground. Where that water goes next, whether onto a lawn, into a rain barrel, or straight to a storm drain, makes a big difference in how much runoff a property sends downstream.

Also: direction, sequence, overflow, revise

Teacher overview

Teams of three write directions for setting up a rain barrel at a fictional school, then hand those directions to a second team that builds a paper model of the setup using only the written text. Builders may not ask questions and may not see the finished-setup table; they glue the parts exactly where the words send them, and they mark every step that failed. Writers get the marked build back and revise. The activity teaches procedural writing directly, because a missing position word produces a barrel glued in the wrong place that the whole class can see.

Teaching note: two misconceptions surface reliably here. The first is about water: students often assume a rain barrel keeps a yard from flooding, when a barrel holds a limited amount, fills quickly in a heavy storm, and sends the rest out through an overflow hose. The second is about writing: students treat "put the barrel on the blocks" as a finished direction, because they can already picture where the blocks are. The build test settles that argument without the teacher having to make it.

Activity Directions

  1. Before class, cut one set of eight paper parts per team from cardstock: two blocks, a barrel, a screened lid, a downspout, an elbow, a spigot, and an overflow hose. Add a rectangle labeled "garden bed" and a long strip labeled "school wall." All parts are listed on the Student Handout.
  2. Group students in threes and pair the teams, so Team 1 writes for Team 2 and Team 2 writes for Team 1. Innisford Elementary is a fictional school, so no student needs to know the real building.
  3. Give every team the parts list and the finished-setup table, and give every team the build surface, the parts, and the glue. Explain that writers keep the finished-setup table and builders must give theirs back before the build begins.
  4. Writing round, fifteen minutes on the timer: each team writes numbered directions on the question page, using every part on the list. Remind them that the builders will not be allowed to ask a single question.
  5. Trade directions. Collect the finished-setup tables from the building teams so they work from the words alone.
  6. Build round, twelve minutes: builders glue parts to the build surface following the directions in order. When a direction cannot be followed, they glue the part where they think it belongs and write the step number beside it with a circle around it.
  7. Return each build to its writers along with the finished-setup table. Writers compare, then complete questions 2 and 3 on the marked step.
  8. End with a seven-minute debrief. Ask each pair of teams to read aloud one direction before revision and after revision, then ask the class the two water questions, items 5 and 6, and collect the question pages.
Innisford Rain Barrel Directions: A Write-and-Build Test — Grade 5 English Language Arts
Name: ____________________________ Date: ______________

Student Handout

Innisford Elementary is a fictional school. Your team is writing directions for setting up one rain barrel under a downspout beside the school garden.

Parts list. Two blocks. One barrel. One screened lid. One downspout. One elbow. One spigot. One overflow hose. One garden bed. One school wall.

The finished setup. Writers keep this table. Builders never see it.

Part Where it belongs
Two blocks Flat on level ground, side by side, right against the school wall
Barrel Standing upright on top of the two blocks
Downspout On the school wall, above the barrel, running down from the roof
Elbow At the bottom of the downspout, turned so it points in over the top of the barrel
Screened lid On the open top of the barrel, under the elbow, so leaves and insects stay out
Spigot Near the bottom of the barrel, on the side facing away from the wall
Overflow hose Near the top of the barrel, running away from the wall to the garden bed
Garden bed On the ground, a short distance from the barrel, away from the school wall

Answer these questions on your own page.

  1. Write numbered directions for setting up the rain barrel. Use every part on the parts list, and put the steps in the order a builder would do them.
  2. Look at the build your directions produced. Which step did the builders get wrong first? Copy the direction they were following, word for word.
  3. Rewrite that direction so a builder could not get it wrong. Add the position words or the order words that were missing.
  4. Why must the barrel stand on the blocks instead of sitting on the ground? Answer in one sentence.
  5. The overflow hose runs to the garden bed and not toward the school wall. Explain why in one or two sentences.
  6. A student writes, "A rain barrel stops the schoolyard from flooding." Use the parts list to explain why that sentence goes too far.

From Water for Schools (waterforschools.org). This material is in the public domain (CC0) and may be copied, edited, and shared freely.

Answer Key

Items 1 through 3 depend on what each team wrote and built, so accept any response that meets the conditions below. Items 4 through 6 have definite answers.

  1. Answer: Accept any numbered set of directions that uses all nine parts and orders them so that the blocks are placed before the barrel and the lid is placed before the elbow points into it. A proficient set names a position for every part. A set that says "put the spigot on" without a side or a height is the kind of step the build round is designed to catch.
  2. Answer: Accept any word-for-word copy of a direction that matches a circled step number on the returned build. Teams that paraphrase instead of copying have skipped the point of the item; send them back to the page.
  3. Answer: Accept any rewrite that adds a position word, a direction, or an order word to the original, such as changing "put the spigot on the barrel" to "glue the spigot near the bottom of the barrel, on the side facing away from the wall." The revision must fix the specific failure, not simply add more words.
  4. Answer: The blocks lift the barrel so a bucket or watering can fits under the spigot and the water runs out on its own. Accept also that level blocks keep a full barrel from tipping over.
  5. Answer: When the barrel fills, the extra water has to leave, and the hose sends it to the garden bed where it soaks into the ground instead of pooling against the school wall. Look for both the idea of extra water and the idea of a better place to send it.
  6. Answer: The parts list includes an overflow hose, and a barrel would not need one if it could hold everything that came off the roof. Accept any answer that uses the overflow hose or the barrel's limited size as the evidence.

Differentiation

Support

Give these teams a starter frame with the step numbers already printed and the first two steps written out, so their writing work begins at step three. Provide a small word bank of position words: on top of, under, beside, against, near the bottom, away from, and pointing toward.

Extension

Ask these teams to write a second version of the directions for a reader who has the parts but no picture and no labels, using only shape and size words to name each part. Then have them explain in a short paragraph which words did the most work in the second version.

ELL supports

Give every part a picture label as well as a word label, and pre-teach "downspout," "spigot," "overflow," and "gutter" with the picture cards before the writing round. Allow directions to be dictated to a partner or an adult who writes them down, and accept phrases rather than full sentences in items 4 through 6.

Extensions

Have teams write a short sign for the finished barrel telling a fourth grader two things: what the barrel is for and one thing not to do near it. Limit the sign to thirty words, which forces students to choose between the two ideas rather than listing everything they know, and post the signs beside the paper models in the hallway.