Classroom activity Grade 2 Science

Haverly School Room 6's Cup Count: Four Water Stations

Grade 2 groups measure classroom water use in cups at four stations, draw a bar graph from a recorded day, and define the water waste problem their room wants to fix.

Grade: Grade 2
Subject: Science
Material: Classroom activity
Time: 40 min
Prep: Low prep
Materials: Four dishpans or buckets, one per station, Four one-cup measuring cups, Masking tape and a marker for station labels, Paper towels, Paper cups, liquid soap, a paintbrush, and a small potted plant for the station tasks, Printed copies of the student handout, Crayons or colored pencils for shading the bar graph

Standards

2.MD.D.10 Common Core Math

Draw a picture graph and a bar graph (with single-unit scale) to represent a data set with up to four categories. Solve simple put-together, take-apart, and compare problems using information presented in a bar graph.

How this material aligns: Students draw a single unit bar graph for the four recorded categories on the handout grid, then use it to solve the put together problems in questions 4 and 6 and the compare problems in questions 3 and 5.

All materials for 2.MD.D.10 →

K-2-ETS1-1 NGSS

Ask questions, make observations, and gather information about a situation people want to change to define a simple problem that can be solved through the development of a new or improved object or tool.

How this material aligns: Students make observations at four classroom water stations and gather cup counts at each, which is the information-gathering half of this standard. Question 7 then asks them to put the situation the room wants to change into one sentence, a first statement of the problem rather than a full design brief.

All materials for K-2-ETS1-1 →

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This material is in the public domain (CC0) and may be copied, edited, and shared freely, without attribution. Updated 2026-09-03.

Objectives

Students will measure in cups how much water four classroom tasks use.
Students will draw a bar graph with one square for each cup for four categories.
Students will state in one sentence a classroom water problem worth fixing.

Vocabulary

Key words: cup, bar graph, station, waste, measure

Teacher overview

Water use inside a classroom is small enough to catch in a dishpan and count in cups, which turns an abstract idea about waste into a number students collect themselves. This activity sends groups to four stations at the fictional Haverly School, where they catch and measure the water a task actually uses, and then hands them a recorded chart from an earlier Tuesday so that everyone graphs the same four numbers. A guess worth surfacing early is that the noisiest task uses the most water, since the paint sink is loud while the drinking cups are quiet, and the recorded chart is written to test that guess directly.

Activity Directions

Setup, before the groups arrive. Label four dishpans with masking tape: Drinking, Handwashing, Paint sink, and Plant watering. Set a one-cup measuring cup beside each pan. The tasks are: Drinking, fill paper cups at the sink as the class would for a drink and pour them into the pan; Handwashing, one student washes hands with soap over the pan; Paint sink, rinse a paintbrush over the pan; Plant watering, water a potted plant set in the pan. Copy the student handout, one per student.

Opening, about 5 minutes. Hold up a one-cup measuring cup and fill it at the sink. Ask how many of these cups the class thinks the paint sink uses in a whole day, and write three guesses on the board without comment.

Station rotation, about 18 minutes. Groups spend roughly four minutes at each of the four stations. At every station the group carries out the task over the dishpan so the water is caught rather than lost down the drain, then pours what they caught into the measuring cup and records the number of full cups on the back of the handout. Remind groups to pour slowly, to wipe spills as they go, and not to drink any water from the pans.

Comparing guesses, about 5 minutes. Bring the class back together and compare the recorded station numbers with the three guesses still on the board. Ask which guess came closest, and why the loudest station may not be the one that uses the most water.

Handout, about 8 minutes. Students shade the bar graph on the handout using the recorded chart from Room 6, then answer questions 1 through 7.

Closing check, about 4 minutes. Ask each student to hold up fingers showing which station they would change first, one finger for drinking through four for plant watering. Any student who cannot name a number from the graph as the reason should work through question 3 again with the teacher before the sheet is collected.

Haverly School Room 6's Cup Count: Four Water Stations — Grade 2 Science

Name: ____________________________ Date: ______________

Student Handout

Room 6 at Haverly School wrote down how much water it used last Tuesday. Each number tells how many full cups the room used.

Water use	Cups used
Drinking	14
Handwashing	12
Paint sink	9
Plant watering	5

Shade one square for each cup to make a bar graph.

Water use	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15
Drinking
Handwashing
Paint sink
Plant watering

How many cups did Room 6 use for drinking?
Which use took the fewest cups?
Handwashing used 12 cups. Plant watering used 5 cups. How many more cups did handwashing use?
The paint sink used 9 cups. Plant watering used 5 cups. How many cups did those two uses take together?
Drinking used 14 cups. The paint sink used 9 cups. How many more cups did drinking use?
Handwashing used 12 cups. Drinking used 14 cups. How many cups did those two uses take together?
Room 6 wants to use fewer cups at the paint sink. Write one sentence that tells the problem the room wants to fix.

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: 14 cups. The chart lists drinking at fourteen cups, so the bar should be shaded to the fourteenth square.
Answer: Plant watering. Five cups is the shortest bar on the graph.
Answer: 7 cups. Subtract the smaller amount from the larger one: 12 - 5 = 7.
Answer: 14 cups. Add the two amounts: 9 + 5 = 14.
Answer: 5 cups. Subtract the smaller amount from the larger one: 14 - 9 = 5.
Answer: 26 cups. Add the two amounts: 12 + 14 = 26.
Answer: Accept any sentence naming wasted water at the paint sink, such as "The paint sink uses nine cups a day and some of that water runs down the drain unused."

Differentiation

Support

Give these students a bar graph with the drinking bar already shaded so the one square for one cup rule is visible, and reduce the questions to 1, 2, 3, and 7. Read each question aloud and let students point to the bar before answering.

Extension

Ask students to set a cup goal for the paint sink next Tuesday, then show with subtraction how many cups the room would save if it met the goal. Any goal below nine cups works, and the written reason should include the subtraction.

ELL supports

Name each station in the students' first language on the masking tape label alongside the English word. Provide the sentence frames "___ used ___ cups" and "The problem is ___" so that questions 1 through 7 can be answered with numbers dropped into a frame.