Reading passage Grade 1 Health & Consumer Science
The Night the Water Looked Cloudy at the Duong House
A grade 1 read-aloud story about a family that switches to bottled water after a pipe breaks, with five comprehension questions and a retell in order.
Objectives
- Students will answer questions about what happened in the story.
- Students will tell why the family stopped drinking the tap water.
- Students will retell two events in order using time words.
Vocabulary
Key words: cloudy, clear, pipe, note, safe
Teacher overview
This short read-aloud follows a made-up family through the two days after a water main breaks under their street. It gives first graders a calm, factual model of what a household actually does when a notice arrives: switch to bottled water for drinking, brushing, and cooking, and wait for the word that the tap is safe again. The story also shows who does the repair work, and that some of that work happens overnight. Read it in one sitting and ask the questions orally, or read it twice and let students answer the last question in writing.
Passage
Read aloud: This story is made up. The Duong family lives on Tamarind Street.
One night, Mai went to fill her cup. The water from the tap looked cloudy. In the morning it had been clear. Mai called her dad.
Dad looked at the cup. Then he went to the front door. A paper note was taped there. A water worker had left it. The note said a big pipe under the street had broken. It said to use bottled water until the pipe was fixed.
Dad opened a big bottle of water. The family used that water for two days. They drank it. They brushed their teeth with it. They made soup with it. Mai helped her little brother hold the bottle.
Outside, workers dug up the street. They fixed the broken pipe. Then they washed out the pipe with clean water. They tested the water to make sure it was safe.
On the third day, a new note came. It said the tap water was safe again. Dad let the tap run for a while. The water came out clear. Mai filled her cup and took a long drink. It tasted the way it always did.
Mai told her class about the note. She said the workers came at night to fix the pipe. She said she was glad they came.
Questions
- What did Mai see when she looked at her cup?
- Where did Dad find the note?
- Why did the family stop using the tap water?
- Name two things the family used the bottled water for.
- What did the workers do after they fixed the pipe?
- Tell what happened first and what happened next in the story. Use the words first and then.
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: The water looked cloudy. The story says the water from the tap looked cloudy that night, and that it had been clear in the morning.
- Answer: On the front door. Dad went to the front door and found a paper note taped there.
- Answer: A big pipe under the street had broken. The note told them to use bottled water until the pipe was fixed, so the family stopped using the tap.
- Answer: Drinking and brushing teeth. Making soup is also correct, since the story lists all three uses.
- Answer: They washed out the pipe and tested the water. The story says they washed the pipe with clean water and tested it to make sure it was safe.
- Answer: Sample response: First the water looked cloudy and Dad found the note. Then the workers fixed the pipe and the water was safe again. Accept any two events in the right order with the time words used.
Differentiation
Support (below grade level)
Read the passage twice and pause after each paragraph to ask what just happened. Give these students three picture cards, a cloudy cup, a note on a door, and a repaired pipe, to put in order before they answer question 6.
Extension (above grade level)
Ask these students to write one more sentence telling what Mai might say to the workers if she met them. They can also explain why the workers tested the water instead of just looking at it.
ELL supports
Pre-teach cloudy, clear, pipe, and note by showing a glass of clean water beside a glass of water with a spoonful of flour stirred in, and by holding up a real paper note. Allow oral answers for questions 1 through 5 and accept the retell in the home language with the two English time words included.
Extensions
Have the class write a short note of their own, in the same shape as the one on the Duong door, telling neighbors what to do while a pipe is fixed. Post the notes in the hall so other classes can read what a real notice asks a family to do.