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Reading passage Grade 2 Health & Consumer Science

Thirsty on a Cold Day: Jonah's Winter Walk at Tamarack

A grade 2 read-aloud about why cold weather still makes people thirsty, why eating snow is a poor fix, and six questions about the winter walk.

Objectives

  1. Students will answer where, what, and why questions about key details in a read-aloud text.
  2. Students will explain why a person still needs water on a cold day.
  3. Students will give two reasons eating snow is a poor way to handle thirst.

Vocabulary

Key words: thirsty, frozen, breath, sip

Teacher overview

The body keeps losing water in cold, dry air, and a January walk is a useful setting for teaching that. This read-aloud follows one class from Tamarack School on a snowy walk and covers two health points a teacher can act on the same week: keep drinking on cold days, and do not use snow as a substitute for a water bottle. The passage also names snow as frozen water, which connects the health habit to the forms of water students meet in science.

Read the passage aloud twice, then work the questions together. Question 6 asks for one written sentence and works well as a partner talk before students write.

Thirsty on a Cold Day: Jonah's Winter Walk at Tamarack — Grade 2 Health & Consumer Science
Name: ____________________________ Date: ______________

Passage

Read aloud to the class.

The Cold Day Sip

Jonah's class walked to the pond on a cold day in January. The snow came up over his boots. Jonah did not feel thirsty at all.

At the pond, Ms. Ellis stopped the class. She held up her water bottle. "Cold days make us thirsty too," she said. "You just do not feel it as fast."

Jonah asked why. Ms. Ellis said that cold air is dry air. Your body loses water when you breathe it out. You can even see it happen. Your breath makes a small white cloud. That cloud is water leaving your body.

Then Tess grabbed a handful of snow. She wanted to eat it. Ms. Ellis said no. Snow is water, but it is frozen water. Eating snow makes your body colder. Snow on the ground can be dirty too. Drink from your bottle instead.

Jonah took a long sip. His mouth felt better right away. On the walk back, he kept his bottle inside his coat so it would not freeze.

Questions

  1. Where did Jonah's class walk that day?
  2. Did Jonah feel thirsty at the start of the walk?
  3. What did Ms. Ellis say cold air is like?
  4. What is the small white cloud you see when you breathe out on a cold day?
  5. Name two reasons Ms. Ellis gave for not eating the snow.
  6. Write one sentence. Tell what Jonah did with his bottle on the walk back, and why the cold made him do it.

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: To the pond. The first line of the passage places the class walking to the pond on a cold day in January.
  2. Answer: No. The passage says Jonah did not feel thirsty at all when the walk began.
  3. Answer: Dry. Ms. Ellis tells the class that cold air is dry air, which is why the body keeps losing water.
  4. Answer: Water leaving your body. The passage says the small white cloud in your breath is water going out of you.
  5. Answer: It makes you colder and it can be dirty. Both reasons appear in the paragraph where Tess picks up the snow.
  6. Answer: He kept it inside his coat so it would not freeze. Accept any sentence naming the coat, or a warm spot, along with the reason that the cold could freeze the water.

Differentiation

Support (below grade level)

Read one paragraph at a time and ask its question before moving on. Provide a copy with the answers to questions 1 and 2 underlined. For question 5, give three picture choices, one showing a shivering child, one showing snow with dirt in it, and one showing a full water bottle, and have students choose the two that match the text.

Extension (above grade level)

Ask these students to write what Ms. Ellis would say to a class going out on a hot day instead, and to name one thing that would stay the same in her advice. A second challenge is to explain why a water bottle left in a backpack outside might freeze while one inside a coat does not.

ELL supports

Pre-teach thirsty, frozen, breath, and sip with gestures the class performs together, including breathing onto a cold window or a mirror to show the cloud. Pause after each paragraph for a one-sentence retell. Provide the frames "Cold air is ___" and "Do not eat snow because ___" for questions 3 and 5.

Extensions

Step outside on the next cold morning and let students watch their own breath, then come back in and add one sentence to the class science notebook about where that water came from. Some classes keep a winter bottle check at the door, which pairs the reading with a habit students can see every day.