Lesson plan Grade 1 Health & Consumer Science
Stay Back from the Larchmere Road Storm Ditch
A 35-minute grade 1 health lesson on why rain water in a storm ditch is fast and dirty, with three safety rules and a fact sentence students write.
Objectives
- Students will name three rules for staying safe near a storm ditch after rain.
- Students will tell one thing that rain water carries off a street.
- Students will write or dictate one fact sentence about storm water.
Vocabulary
Key words: storm ditch, rain, fast, dirty, rule
Teacher overview
Larchmere Road is a made-up street with a concrete storm ditch running along one side of it. Most of the year the ditch is dry enough to walk in, so children may treat it as safe after a storm, when it is running fast and carrying whatever the rain washed off the road. This lesson gives first graders two plain facts, that the water moves faster than it looks and that it is carrying whatever was lying on the street, and turns those facts into three rules they can say from memory. The tray demonstration shows both facts at once, which is why it comes before the rules rather than after them.
Procedure
Opening (5 min). Ask the class what they see on the playground or the sidewalk right after a hard rain. Write their answers on chart paper. Steer the list toward puddles, mud, running water at the curb, and floating litter, adding any of those they do not name.
The tray demonstration (7 min). Prop one end of the tray on a book so it slopes. Sprinkle dirt, sand, and a few paper scraps along the high end and say this is the street on a dry day. Pour water slowly from the pitcher at the top. Have students watch what the water picks up on the way down and what collects at the bottom. Ask: "Would you want to put your hands in the water at the bottom?" Take answers without correcting anyone yet.
Two facts and three rules (8 min). Say the two facts plainly. First, water in a ditch moves faster than it looks, and it can pull a child off balance. Second, that water has just run across the street, so it carries dirt, oil, litter, and animal waste. Then build three rules with the class and post them: stay back from the edge, never walk or ride in the water, and tell a grown-up if you see someone in the ditch. Practice saying the three rules together twice.
Weather changes the day (5 min). Ask how a big rain changes what people on Larchmere Road do. Guide the class toward concrete answers: recess moves inside, boots come out, the crossing guard moves children to the far side of the walk, and grown-ups drive slower. Have students turn and talk to a partner about one thing that changes at their own home when it rains hard.
Handout (7 min). Distribute the handout and read it aloud. Students draw the ditch and finish the three sentences using the word bank. Scribe for any student who dictates the sentences.
Formative check and close (3 min). Ask three students at random to say one of the three rules without looking at the chart. If any of the three cannot, review the rules again at dismissal. Collect the handouts.
Student Handout
Read aloud: Draw the storm ditch on Larchmere Road after a big rain. Show the water and one thing the water is carrying.
Then finish these sentences.
Storm water is rain that runs off the ____.
One thing it carries is ____.
When I see fast water in a ditch, I will ____.
Word bank: street, litter, dirt, oil, stay back, tell a grown-up.
From Water for Schools (waterforschools.org). This material is in the public domain (CC0) and may be copied, edited, and shared freely.
Differentiation
Support (below grade level)
Provide the three rules as picture cards and have these students sequence and read the pictures instead of writing the sentence frames from scratch. During the tray demonstration, give them the job of pointing out each item the water picks up, which keeps their attention on the cause rather than on the writing.
Extension (above grade level)
Ask these students to write a fourth rule of their own and explain to a partner why they think it belongs on the chart. They can also draw a warning sign for the ditch and caption it with a sentence that begins with the word because.
ELL supports
Pre-teach ditch, carry, fast, and stay back with gestures the whole class performs, and use the tray demonstration as the shared reference point for every one of those words. Keep the three sentence frames posted with the word bank so students supply only the missing word, and allow the turn-and-talk step in the home language.
Extensions
Walk the class, with adult helpers and everyone on the sidewalk, to a real storm drain or curb inlet near the school on a dry day. Have students look, without touching anything, for what is sitting on the grate right now and predict where those things go the next time it rains. A short letter to the class next door sharing the three rules gives the writing a real reader.