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Lesson plan Grade 1 Engineering & Design

Zinnia Court's Tall Tank Test: A Grade 1 Water Tower Lesson

A grade 1 lesson where students build block-and-cup water towers for a make-believe town, test whether height sends water farther, and practice subtraction within 20.

Objectives

  1. Students will build a tank held up by a block tower and test how far the water travels.
  2. Students will explain how a tall shape helps water reach houses far away.
  3. Students will use subtraction within 20 to compare two tower heights and two water distances.

Vocabulary

Water tower
A water tower is a big tank raised high above town that stores drinking water. Its height is what pushes water through the pipes, keeping the pressure steady even when the power goes out.
Distribution system
A distribution system is the network of pipes, pumps, valves, and storage tanks that carries treated water from a treatment plant to homes, schools, and businesses. Most of it is buried underground beneath streets.

Teacher overview

Water towers stand above the rooftops of the towns around them because height is what pushes water through the pipes below. This lesson gives first graders a model of that idea they can build in about fifteen minutes: a cup with a small hole near its bottom, set on a stack of blocks, pouring into a tray. When the stack is raised, the water travels farther across the tray, which students can see for themselves. Because a common first-grade misconception is that a pump inside the tank is what moves the water, the block stack is the only thing that changes between the two trials, so the class can name height as the reason.

The handout at the end uses recorded results from two make-believe classes in the town of Zinnia Court so that every student practices the same comparison arithmetic whatever their own tray looks like. Solve the four number problems, questions 1 through 4, yourself before class; each stays within 20.

Procedure

Read the problem aloud (6 min): Tell the class about the make-believe town of Zinnia Court, where the houses at the far end of Sunflower Street get almost no water from the tap. Ask what might help. Show a photograph or a quick board sketch of a water tower and ask what students notice about where the tank sits. Post the class question: "Does a taller tank send water farther?"

Build the towers (14 min): Put students in groups of three or four. Each group stacks blocks into a short tower and a tall tower, then sets a cup with a small hole near its bottom on top of the short stack, with the hole pointing out across the tray. Assign roles so every student has a job: one stacker, one cup holder, one pourer, one measurer with paperclips. Nothing gets poured until every group has both stacks ready.

Test and watch (10 min): Groups pour a small pitcher of water into the cup on the short stack and lay paperclips end to end from the tower to where the water lands. Empty the tray, move the cup to the tall stack, and pour the same amount again. Measure with paperclips a second time. Ask each group to say one sentence out loud that starts with "The taller tower sent the water..."

Talk about the shape (6 min): Bring the class together. Ask the formative check question and call on five students at random: "What made the water go farther, the tall stack or a stronger pour?" Listen for the tall stack. If two or more of the five say the pour, repeat the test once at the front of the room with a slow, gentle pour from the tall stack so the class sees that a soft pour still travels far.

Handout practice (11 min): Pass out the Student Handout and read each question aloud once. Students work with counters, drawings, or number sentences. Circulate and check that students who answer question 4 have found the missing part rather than added the two numbers shown.

Close (3 min): Return to the posted class question and have the class answer it together in one sentence. Tell students that the tall tank in a real town does the same job for every house on the street.

Zinnia Court's Tall Tank Test: A Grade 1 Water Tower Lesson — Grade 1 Engineering & Design
Name: ____________________________ Date: ______________

Student Handout

Read aloud: Two classes in the town of Zinnia Court built model water towers. Here is what they wrote down.

  1. Class A built a tower 9 blocks tall. Class B built a tower 4 blocks tall. How many blocks taller was Class A's tower?
  2. Water from Class A's tower ran 12 paperclips far. Water from Class B's tower ran 7 paperclips far. How many more paperclips did Class A's water run?
  3. Class A used 9 blocks. Class B used 4 blocks. The two classes put all their blocks in one pile. How many blocks are in the pile?
  4. Class C wants a tower 15 blocks tall. Class C has 8 blocks. How many more blocks does Class C need?
  5. Class A's tower was 9 blocks tall, and its water ran 12 paperclips far. Class B's tower was 4 blocks tall, and its water ran 7 paperclips far. Did the taller tower send water farther? Write yes or no.
  6. Draw your own water tower. Tell one way its shape helps water get to a house.

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: 5 blocks.
    Class A used 9 blocks and Class B used 4 blocks, so 9 − 4 = 5 blocks taller.
  2. Answer: 5 paperclips.
    Class A's water ran 12 paperclips and Class B's ran 7 paperclips, so 12 − 7 = 5 paperclips more.
  3. Answer: 13 blocks.
    9 + 4 = 13 blocks in the pile. Accept counting on from 9 as well as a drawn number bond.
  4. Answer: 7 blocks.
    Class C has 8 of the 15 blocks it wants, and 8 + 7 = 15, so 15 − 8 = 7 more blocks.
  5. Answer: Yes.
    The 9-block tower sent water 12 paperclips, while the 4-block tower sent water only 7 paperclips, so the taller tower did send water farther.
  6. Answer: Answers vary.
    Accept any drawing of a tank held up high with a stated reason, such as a tall leg or a stack that lifts the tank above the houses.

Differentiation

Support (below grade level)

Give these students a ten-frame and counters for questions 1 through 4 so the comparisons become physical. Pre-build one tower for their group so the building time goes into pouring and watching rather than stacking. On question 5, allow a spoken answer with the two numbers pointed to on the page.

Extension (above grade level)

Ask these students to predict, before pouring, how many paperclips farther the tall tower's water will travel, then compare their prediction with the measured result and say whether they were close. They can also design a tower for a house on a hill and explain what has to change.

ELL supports

Pre-teach four words with the objects in view: tank, tall, pour, far. Post a two-picture card showing a short stack and a tall stack, with an arrow of different lengths beside each, so the comparison is visible without English. Pair each newcomer with a partner during the pouring step and let the newcomer hold the paperclip line, which gives them a hands-on job during the test.

Extensions

Walk outside and look for the tallest water tank, tower, or roof tank near the school, then have students draw it from memory back in class and label the tall part. If the class keeps a block center, leave one cup and one tray at that center for a week so students can keep testing heights during choice time.