Lesson plan Grade 3 Health & Consumer Science
The Brambleton Family Reads a Boil-Water Notice
A 40-minute grade 3 health lesson where students read a fictional town's boil-water notice and answer questions by highlighting the sentence that supports each answer.
Objectives
- Students will identify what a boil-water notice tells a family to do and to avoid.
- Students will answer questions about a notice by pointing to the sentence that supports each answer.
Vocabulary
Key words: notice, boil, germs, all clear
Teacher overview
Once in a while a water utility asks customers to boil their tap water for a short time, usually after a pipe break lets germs reach the water. Knowing how to read that kind of notice calmly is a practical health skill, and it is one a third grader can practice with a short text. In this lesson the class follows the fictional Brambleton family in the town of Hollyberry as they receive a notice, and students answer questions only by finding the sentence in the notice that says so. Print the handout single-sided so students can highlight the notice while answering on the same page.
Procedure
Hook (5 min): Ask students what their family does when the power goes out, and list a few answers. Explain that water systems sometimes have problems too, and that when they do, the water department sends every home a message called a notice. Today the class will read one and figure out exactly what it asks a family to do.
Read the notice (10 min): Read the Hollyberry Water Department notice aloud once while students follow along on the handout. Read it a second time, pausing after each sentence, and have students put a small check mark next to any sentence that tells the family to do something. Point out that an adult in the family does the boiling.
Guided practice (10 min): Model question 1 together. Say the answer out loud, then ask, "Which sentence in the notice proves it?" Have a volunteer read the sentence, and have everyone highlight it. Repeat with question 2, this time letting a pair find and read the proof sentence. The check for understanding is the highlight itself: walk the room and confirm every student has marked a proof sentence before releasing them to work alone.
Independent practice (10 min): Students complete handout questions 3 through 5, highlighting one proof sentence in the notice for each answer they write.
Closure (5 min): Ask the class what the Brambleton family should watch for before drinking plain tap water again, and have students hold up their handout showing the highlighted sentence that says so. Collect the handouts to review the highlighting.
Student Handout
Read this notice with your teacher. Imagine it arrived at the Brambleton family's home this morning.
A message from the Hollyberry Water Department. A big water pipe broke this morning. Germs may have gotten into the tap water. Germs are too small to see, so the water may look fine even if it is not safe. Please boil your tap water for one full minute. Let it cool before you use it. Use boiled and cooled water for drinking, for making food, for brushing teeth, and for filling pet bowls. You may still use plain tap water to wash clothes and to clean floors. Wash your hands with soap and tap water, then dry them well. We are testing the water every day. We will send an all-clear message when the water is safe to drink again.
- What does the notice tell the family to do to tap water before drinking it?
- Why did the water department send this notice?
- Name two things the family should use boiled and cooled water for.
- Name one thing the family may still use plain tap water for.
- How will the family know when the water is safe to drink again?
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: Boil it for one full minute and let it cool. The proof sentences are "Please boil your tap water for one full minute" and "Let it cool before you use it."
- Answer: A big water pipe broke, so germs may have gotten into the tap water. The first two sentences of the notice state this directly.
- Answer: Any two of: drinking, making food, brushing teeth, or filling pet bowls. The proof is the sentence beginning "Use boiled and cooled water for drinking."
- Answer: Washing clothes or cleaning floors. The proof is the sentence "You may still use plain tap water to wash clothes and to clean floors."
- Answer: The water department will send an all-clear message. The proof is the last sentence of the notice.
Differentiation
Support
Number the sentences in the notice before copying it, so students can answer with a sentence number instead of rewriting text. Reduce the independent questions to 3 and 5, and complete question 4 together.
Extension
Have students rewrite the notice as a four-panel comic for a kindergartner who cannot read yet, keeping the same instructions in picture form. Each panel must match one sentence from the notice.
ELL supports
Pre-teach "boil," "germs," and "notice" with a photo of a boiling pot and a magnifying glass drawing. Read the notice a third time in a small group, acting out each instruction. Allow answers in short phrases, and accept a pointed finger on the proof sentence in place of a written citation.
Extensions
Invite students to ask at home who would receive this kind of notice and how it would arrive, then compare answers as a class: paper letter, text message, phone call, or a knock on the door. Connect the discussion back to the notice's promise that an all-clear message will follow.