Worksheet Kindergarten English Language Arts

Brown Water at Muddleford Creek: A Clear and Muddy Worksheet

A kindergarten worksheet that teaches the words clear and muddy, traces how mud reaches Muddleford Creek, and asks whether planting grass on bare dirt helps.

Grade: Kindergarten
Subject: English Language Arts
Material: Worksheet
Time: 20 min
Prep: Low prep
Materials: Two clear plastic jars with lids, one of plain water and one shaken with a spoonful of soil, One printed worksheet per student, Crayons or pencils

Standards

W.K.2 Common Core ELA

Use a combination of drawing, dictating, and writing to compose informative/explanatory texts in which they name what they are writing about and supply some information about the topic.

How this material aligns: Items 9 and 10 have students name the creek as their topic, label a drawing of clear water, and supply one true statement about mud in a creek through drawing and dictation.

All materials for W.K.2 →

W.K.1 Common Core ELA

Use a combination of drawing, dictating, and writing to compose opinion pieces in which they tell a reader the topic or the name of the book they are writing about and state an opinion or preference about the topic or book (e.g., My favorite book is...).

How this material aligns: Items 7 and 8 ask students to say whether planting grass on the bare dirt was a good plan and then give one reason, the state-a-preference-with-support task this standard names.

All materials for W.K.1 →

K-ESS3-3 NGSS

Communicate solutions that will reduce the impact of humans on the land, water, air, and/or other living things in the local environment.

How this material aligns: Planting grass on bare dirt is the solution students weigh in items 7 and 8, and defending it communicates a way people can reduce muddy runoff into a local creek.

All materials for K-ESS3-3 →

Download Word file

This material is in the public domain (CC0) and may be copied, edited, and shared freely, without attribution. Updated 2026-09-03.

Objectives

Students will tell the difference between clear water and muddy water.
Students will explain that rain carries mud from bare dirt into a creek.
Students will state an opinion about planting grass and give one reason.

Vocabulary

Key words: clear, muddy, bare, creek

Teacher overview

Muddleford Creek is a fictional creek used for this worksheet, and it runs past a bare dirt slope where the grass has worn away. Rain carries soil off that slope into the water, which turns the creek brown for a day or two after every storm. The misconception this worksheet is built to correct is that many kindergartners define dirty water as water with trash floating in it, so they describe a brown creek as simply brown rather than as polluted, because no wrapper or can is visible. Shake a spoonful of soil into a jar of water at the start and stand it next to a jar of clean water so the words clear and muddy have something real behind them.

Read every item aloud, and let students answer by circling, pointing, drawing, or dictating.

Brown Water at Muddleford Creek: A Clear and Muddy Worksheet — Kindergarten English Language Arts

Name: ____________________________ Date: ______________

Student Worksheet

Clear or Muddy at Muddleford Creek

Two jars sit on a shelf. Jar A is clear. Jar B is brown. Which jar has mud in it?
What does the word clear mean: you can see through it, or it is full of mud?
What does the word muddy mean: full of dirt, or clean and bright?
Rain falls on bare dirt. Rain falls on thick grass. Which spot lets more mud wash away?
The mud washes down to Muddleford Creek. What color does the creek turn?
Fish live in the creek. Can a fish see well in brown water, yes or no?
The town plants grass on the bare dirt. Was that a good plan, yes or no?
Tell one reason for your answer to item 7.
Draw Muddleford Creek with clear water. Write or copy one label: clear.
Tell one true thing about mud in a creek.

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: Jar B. Item 1 states that Jar B is brown, and brown water is the muddy jar, while Jar A is described as clear.
Answer: You can see through it. Clear water lets light and sight pass through, which is what students observe in the clean jar on the table.
Answer: Full of dirt. Muddy water holds loose soil, which is what the shaken jar shows and what item 3 offers as the first choice.
Answer: The bare dirt. Grass holds soil in place with its roots, while bare dirt has nothing holding it, so rain carries more of it away.
Answer: Brown. Item 5 follows the mud from the slope into the creek, and mud in water is what turns the creek brown after a storm.
Answer: No. Brown water is full of floating dirt, so a fish cannot see through it the way it can see through clear water.
Answer: Yes. Accept a yes answer as the expected response, and accept a no answer for full credit if item 8 carries a reason the student can explain.
Answer: Answers will vary. Accept any reason tied to the answer in item 7, such as "the grass holds the dirt" or "then the creek stays clear."
Answer: A drawing of a creek with clear water, labeled clear. Accept blue or uncolored water and a label that is copied or spelled by sound.
Answer: Answers will vary. Accept any true statement from the worksheet, such as "mud makes the water brown," "rain washes mud off bare dirt," or "fish cannot see well in brown water."

Differentiation

Support

Hand these students the two real jars and let them hold each one up to the light before answering items 1 through 3. Give picture choices for items 4 through 6 so students point rather than speak, and offer a sentence frame for item 8: "It was a good plan because ___."

Extension

Ask confident students to name one more place near the school where the ground is bare, and to explain in one sentence what would happen there in a heavy rain. Have them add that place to their drawing in item 9 with a second label.

ELL supports

Pre-teach clear, muddy, and bare with the two jars and a patch of bare soil in the schoolyard, saying each word three times while pointing. Allow students to answer items 1 through 7 by pointing to a jar or a picture, and accept one dictated word for items 8 and 10.

Extensions

Set both jars on a windowsill and look at them again the next morning. Ask students what settled to the bottom of the muddy jar overnight, and add one class sentence to a chart about where the mud went.