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Classroom activity Grade 6 Health & Consumer Science

Home Water Safety: A Grade 6 Sorting Activity

A grade 6 card-sort activity where students read short home water situations, decide whether to drink, skip, or take a step first, and cite the clue.

Objectives

  1. Students will read a home water situation and identify the clue that decides whether it is safe.
  2. Students will sort each situation into drink now, not safe, or take a step first, and cite the clue.

Vocabulary

Action level
A trigger number in lead and copper testing. If too many homes test above this level, the utility must take steps like improving treatment and telling the public.

Also: boil-water notice, flush, certified filter

Teacher overview

This is a small-group card-sort for groups of three or four students. Each card describes a fictional home water situation, and students decide whether the water is safe to drink now, not safe right now, or in need of a simple step first. The activity teaches consumer health directly: to sort a card correctly, students must find the clue in it, such as a posted notice or a test number, and connect that clue to an action, which is exactly the everyday reasoning that keeps a household safe.

Activity Directions

  1. Post three corner signs: "Drink now," "Not safe right now," and "Take a step first." Give each group one set of the fictional situation cards below, shuffled.
  2. Model one card with the whole class. Read it aloud, underline the clue, and think aloud about which corner it belongs to and why.
  3. In groups, students read each card, agree on the deciding clue, and place the card under one of the three headings on their sorting mat.
  4. For each card, the group writes one sentence naming the clue they used, so the decision is tied to evidence and not a guess.
  5. After sorting, hold a class discussion corner by corner: groups defend where they placed each card and cite the clue, and the class settles any card that groups sorted differently.
  6. End the activity once every card has been sorted and discussed. Close with the debrief question in the Answer Key.

Situation cards:

  • Card 1: A boil-water notice is posted for your street after a water main broke nearby.
  • Card 2: Brown water comes out of the tap right after the city flushed a fire hydrant on your block.
  • Card 3: A lab test shows the tap water at 2 ppb of lead, well below the 15 ppb action level, and the water is clear.
  • Card 4: The refrigerator's water filter is six months past the date it was supposed to be changed.
  • Card 5: The school's tap water is treated and tested by the city and looks clear at the fountain.
  • Card 6: Water sat all weekend in the pipes of an old building, and no one has run the tap yet this morning.
  • Card 7: The yearly water report shows every tested item below its legal limit.
  • Card 8: A flood covered the yard and the private well, and the county has not tested the well yet.

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: Not safe right now. The posted boil-water notice is the clue; the water should be boiled or replaced with bottled water until the notice is lifted.
  2. Answer: Take a step first. Brown water right after a hydrant flush is usually stirred-up sediment, so the step is to run the cold tap until it runs clear before drinking.
  3. Answer: Drink now. The clue is the lead result of 2 ppb, which is well below the 15 ppb action level, and the water is clear. The action level is a trigger for the utility to act rather than a safe line, but a tested result this low is reassuring.
  4. Answer: Take a step first. The overdue filter is the clue; changing the certified filter restores the protection it is meant to provide.
  5. Answer: Drink now. The clue is that the water is treated and tested by the city and looks clear, so it is safe to drink at the fountain.
  6. Answer: Take a step first. Water that sat in old pipes can pick up metal, so the step is to flush the cold tap before drinking.
  7. Answer: Drink now. The clue is that every tested item is below its legal limit, which means the report shows the water met the rules.
  8. Answer: Not safe right now. The clue is the untested well after a flood; the household should use bottled water and have the well tested before drinking from it.
  9. Debrief question: Why did some cards need only a step first while others were not safe right now? Debrief answer: Three cards needed a step first because a quick action, such as flushing the tap or changing a filter, removes the problem, while the "not safe" cards involved an official warning or an untested source, so the tap or well water should not be used as it is until the notice is lifted or the well is tested.

Differentiation

Support

Give groups a clue bank listing the deciding words to look for, such as "boil-water notice," "below the action level," and "untested," so students can match the card to the clue more easily. Sort the first two cards together as a group with teacher guidance.

Extension

Ask students to write two new situation cards, one that belongs in "Take a step first" and one in "Not safe right now," each with a clear clue, then trade with another group and check that the cards sort as intended.

ELL supports

Pair each corner sign with a simple icon (a glass of water, a stop sign, a wrench) and pre-teach "boil," "flush," and "filter" with pictures. Allow students to name the clue with a short phrase or by pointing to it on the card.