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Lesson plan Grade 5 English Language Arts

Sampling Day on Snowberry Creek: A Grade 5 Explanatory Lesson

Students read a volunteer sampling team's field notes from a fictional creek, then write an explanatory paragraph tracing a water sample from creek to laboratory.

Objectives

  1. Students will list, in order, the steps a volunteer follows to collect a creek water sample.
  2. Students will write an explanatory paragraph that groups related steps and joins them with linking words.
  3. Students will use the terms sample, label, and laboratory correctly in their writing.

Vocabulary

Key words: sample, label, laboratory, sequence, monitor

Teacher overview

Snowberry Creek runs past the ball fields in a fictional town, and a volunteer team collects a water sample there on the first Saturday of each month. This lesson uses the team's field notes as the source text for a piece of explanatory writing, so students practice conveying a real process clearly and in a sensible order. A misconception worth addressing directly is that the test itself happens at the creek and that any clean jar will do; the field notes show that the sample counts only if it is rinsed correctly, labeled, kept cold, and delivered to the laboratory the same morning.

Procedure

Hook (5 min): Hold up an empty water bottle and ask students what a scientist would need to write on it before it could be useful to anyone else. Record three or four answers on chart paper without correcting them, and leave the list posted for the closing step.

Reading the source (10 min): Distribute the Student Handout and read the Snowberry Creek field notes aloud once while students follow along. Then have students reread the notes silently with a pencil, underlining every step that happens before the team leaves the creek.

Model the writing move (10 min): On chart paper, write two sentences from the field notes as separate ideas, then rewrite them joined by a linking word such as "because," "after," or "so." Show students how the joined version explains the reason rather than only listing the action. Model one grouped chunk, such as everything that happens at the bottle-filling step, and name it aloud as a group.

Guided practice (10 min): Students answer handout questions 1 through 5 with a partner, pointing to the exact field-note line that supports each answer before writing. Circulate and ask two or three pairs to read the line they used out loud.

Independent writing (10 min): Students write the explanatory paragraph described on the handout. Require at least four sentences, two linking words, and correct use of the words sample and laboratory.

Formative check and closure (5 min): Collect a sticky note from each student answering one question: "Name one thing that would ruin the team's sample, and explain why." Sort the notes into two piles as students leave, one showing a cause with a reason and one showing only a cause. If more than a third of the class names a cause without a reason, reteach the linking-word move at the start of the next writing block.

Sampling Day on Snowberry Creek: A Grade 5 Explanatory Lesson — Grade 5 English Language Arts
Name: ____________________________ Date: ______________

Student Handout

Snowberry Creek field notes, kept by the Saturday sampling team

  • Before we leave, we pack the cooler. It needs a bag of ice and two clean sample bottles.
  • At the creek, we wade into the shallow water below the footbridge. We face upstream so our boots do not stir mud into the sample.
  • We rinse each bottle three times with creek water. Rinsing washes out anything left inside from the last trip.
  • We fill the bottle a few inches under the surface. Floating leaves and road oil stay out of the bottle that way.
  • We cap the bottle right away. Then we write the date, the time, and the exact spot on the label.
  • The bottle goes into the cooler on ice. Cold slows down the tiny living things in the water. A warm sample changes on the drive, so the test would not match what was really in the creek.
  • We take the cooler to the county laboratory the same morning. The laboratory will not accept a sample that arrives late or warm.
  • At the laboratory, a technician runs the tests. She checks how cloudy the water is and how many bacteria it holds.

Questions

  1. What two things does the team pack in the cooler before leaving for the creek?
  2. Why does the team face upstream while standing in the water?
  3. According to the field notes, why does the team rinse each bottle three times?
  4. What three pieces of information does the team write on the label?
  5. Why would a warm sample give the laboratory a result the team could not trust?

Writing task: Write a paragraph that explains how a water sample gets from Snowberry Creek to the county laboratory. Write at least four sentences. Group the steps that belong together instead of listing them one by one. Use at least two linking words such as because, after, then, or so. Use the words sample and laboratory correctly.

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: a bag of ice and two clean sample bottles.
    The field notes state that the cooler needs both before the team leaves.
  2. Answer: so their boots do not stir mud into the sample.
    Facing upstream keeps the mud they kick up behind them rather than in the water they are about to collect.
  3. Answer: to wash out anything left inside the bottle from the last trip.
    The notes give rinsing this exact purpose, so the sample holds creek water only.
  4. Answer: the date, the time, and the exact spot.
    The notes list all three as label information, written right after the bottle is capped.
  5. Answer: because a warm sample changes on the drive.
    The notes explain that cold slows the tiny living things in the water, so a sample that warms up no longer matches what was in the creek when it was collected.

Differentiation

Support

Give students a three-box graphic organizer labeled "Before the creek," "At the creek," and "On the way to the laboratory," and have them sort the field-note lines into the boxes before drafting. Provide a sentence frame for the paragraph's opening: "A water sample from Snowberry Creek reaches the laboratory in three stages, starting with ___."

Extension

Ask students to rewrite their paragraph for a younger audience of second graders, keeping every step accurate while shortening the sentences, then explain in two sentences which words they changed and why.

ELL supports

Preteach "sample," "label," and "laboratory" with the physical objects: a capped bottle, a written label, and a photograph of a testing bench. Allow questions 1 through 4 to be answered with short phrases or by pointing to the field-note line, and provide a printed list of linking words with an example sentence for each.

Extensions

Have students design a label for the Snowberry Creek sample bottle that includes every piece of information the field notes require, then trade labels with a partner and check whether a laboratory technician would have everything needed to file the sample correctly.