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Reading passage Grade 1 Health & Consumer Science

Ms. Dahl Checks the Fountains at Rosemallow Hill School

A grade 1 read-aloud about a water worker's morning round at a school, testing fountain water and finding drips, with six comprehension questions.

Objectives

  1. Students will name three things a water worker does at a school.
  2. Students will tell why a small drip gets written down.
  3. Students will write or dictate one fact about this job.

Vocabulary

Key words: test, jar, spout, drip, crew

Teacher overview

Most of the work that keeps a school fountain safe happens before the school day starts, so students rarely meet the person who does it. This read-aloud follows one made-up water worker through a morning round before the bell, in concrete steps a six-year-old can picture: run the fountain, fill a jar, test the water, wipe the spout, write down a drip. It also shows that the same worker spends other days at the plant or out with a repair crew, which keeps the job from sounding like one small task. Use it as a careers read-aloud or as a follow-up after any lesson about school drinking water.

Ms. Dahl Checks the Fountains at Rosemallow Hill School — Grade 1 Health & Consumer Science
Name: ____________________________ Date: ______________

Passage

Read aloud: This story is made up. Ms. Dahl works for the town of Rosemallow Hill.

Ms. Dahl checks the water at the school. She comes early, before the bell rings.

First she goes to the fountain in the hall. She turns it on. She looks at the water. It should be clear. She lets it run for a bit. Then she fills a small jar.

She takes the jar out to her truck. Her truck holds a test kit. She adds a drop of test liquid to the jar. The water turns a color. That color tells her the water is clean.

Next she goes to the bottle filler by the gym. She wipes the spout. She checks for drips. A drip means a part is worn out. She writes it in her book.

She checks the art room sink too. That tap runs slow. She makes a note for the plumber.

Some days Ms. Dahl works at the water plant instead. Some days she is out on the street with a crew. They dig up pipes. They fix them. They test the water there too.

Ms. Dahl learned this job at work. She likes it a lot. She says the best part is that kids can drink from the fountain and never have to think about it.

Questions

  1. When does Ms. Dahl come to the school?
  2. What is the first thing she checks in the hall?
  3. What does she add to the jar to test the water?
  4. Why does she write down a drip at the bottle filler?
  5. Name one other place Ms. Dahl works on some days.
  6. Write one fact about her job. Start like this. Ms. Dahl ____.

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: Early, before the bell rings. The passage says she comes early, before the bell.
  2. Answer: The fountain in the hall. She turns it on, looks at the water, and lets it run.
  3. Answer: A drop of test liquid. The water turns a color, and the color tells her the water is clean.
  4. Answer: A drip means a part is worn out. Writing it down is how the worn part gets fixed later.
  5. Answer: The water plant, or out on the street with a crew. Either answer matches the passage.
  6. Answer: Sample response: Ms. Dahl tests the fountain water. Accept any single fact from the passage, dictated or written, with the sentence frame completed.

Differentiation

Support (below grade level)

Read the passage twice, and the second time pause after each paragraph so students can act out what Ms. Dahl just did. Give these students four picture cards, a fountain, a jar, a truck, and a notebook, to point to as they answer questions 2 through 4.

Extension (above grade level)

Ask these students to list the tools Ms. Dahl uses and say what each one is for. They can also write a question they would ask her if she visited the class, and explain why they chose it.

ELL supports

Pre-teach jar, spout, drip, and crew with the real objects or clear pictures, and act out wiping a spout before reading. Accept oral answers for questions 1 through 5, and let students dictate question 6 in the home language with one English word added during scribing.

Extensions

Invite the school custodian or a worker from your water utility to answer three questions the class writes in advance. If a visit is not possible, walk the building together and list every place drinking water comes out, then send the list to the office with a thank-you note for keeping those spots working.