Worksheet Grade 2 Science

Hazel Bend's Water Tower: A Shape-and-Height Worksheet

A grade 2 worksheet where students explain why Hazel Bend's water tower is built tall and use addition and subtraction within 100 to compare tank heights.

Grade: Grade 2
Subject: Science
Material: Worksheet
Time: 25 min
Prep: No prep
Materials: None

Standards

K-2-ETS1-2 NGSS

Develop a simple sketch, drawing, or physical model to illustrate how the shape of an object helps it function as needed to solve a given problem.

How this material aligns: Items 1, 2, 5, and 9 have students explain how the water tower's tall, elevated shape lets gravity move water down to homes, directly illustrating how an object's shape helps it function as this standard requires.

All materials for K-2-ETS1-2 →

2.MD.B.5 Common Core Math

Use addition and subtraction within 100 to solve word problems involving lengths that are given in the same units, e.g., by using drawings (such as drawings of rulers) and equations with a symbol for the unknown number to represent the problem.

How this material aligns: Items 3, 4, and 6 use the tower's height in feet to build addition and subtraction word problems within 100, matching this standard's expectation for solving length word problems given in the same unit.

All materials for 2.MD.B.5 →

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This material is in the public domain (CC0) and may be copied, edited, and shared freely, without attribution. Updated 2026-07-16.

Objectives

Students will explain how a water tower's tall shape lets gravity move water to homes.
Students will use addition and subtraction within 100 to solve word problems about tower heights.

Vocabulary

Water tower: A water tower is a big tank raised high above town that stores drinking water. Its height is what pushes water through the pipes, keeping the pressure steady even when the power goes out.
Pump: A pump is a machine that adds energy to water to move it or push it uphill, doing the job gravity cannot do on its own. Water systems use many different kinds of pumps to move water from wells, through treatment, and out to customers.

Also: gravity, pipe

Teacher overview

Hazel Bend is a fictional town whose water tower stands on tall metal legs above the highest hill in town. This worksheet asks students to reason about why the tower's builders chose that tall, high-up shape instead of a short tank sitting on the ground, then use the tower's measurements to practice addition and subtraction within 100. A teaching note: many students assume a tank's size matters more than its height, so several items are built to bring the height itself into focus.

Hazel Bend's Water Tower: A Shape-and-Height Worksheet — Grade 2 Science

Name: ____________________________ Date: ______________

Student Worksheet

Think about this: Hazel Bend's water tower is a big round tank. It sits on tall metal legs. It stands 50 feet above the ground, on the town's tallest hill. Why do builders put the tank up so high?
At the bottom of the hill is a short tank. It is part of the pump house. It sits flat on the ground. It is only 8 feet tall. Would this short tank send water to homes on its own? Why or why not?
The tower is 50 feet tall. The short tank is 8 feet tall. How many feet taller is the tower? Show your subtraction.
Workers add a 12-foot ladder to the top of the tower. How tall are the tower and the ladder together? Show your addition.
The tall tower holds water high above town. Gravity pulls that water down through pipes and into homes. A pump does not need to run all the time. What might happen if the tower were short instead of tall?
Hazel Bend is building a second, smaller tower. It will stand 35 feet tall. How many feet shorter is it than the 50-foot tower?
A worker climbs a ladder on the side of the tower. One rung equals one foot of height. The tower is 50 feet tall. About how many rungs does the worker climb to the top?
Name one other object whose shape helps it do its job. A funnel and a slide are two good examples. Explain how its shape helps.
True or False: A water tower's tall shape lets water flow down to homes on its own. Explain your answer.

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: Builders put the tank up high so that gravity can pull the water down through pipes into homes, instead of needing a pump to push the water the whole time.
Answer: No. A tall tower works better because its height lets gravity move water downhill through the pipes on its own; a short tank sitting on the ground is not high enough above the houses for gravity to move water through the pipes to them.
Answer: 42 feet. 50 - 8 = 42.
Answer: 62 feet. 50 + 12 = 62.
Answer: Answers will vary; accept any explanation noting that a low tower could not use gravity to send water downhill to homes, so the town would need a pump running constantly instead.
Answer: 15 feet. 50 - 35 = 15.
Answer: About 50 rungs, since the ladder has one rung for each of the tower's 50 feet of height.
Answer: Answers will vary; accept any object with a reasoned shape-function explanation, such as a funnel's narrow bottom directing water into a small opening, or a slide's downward slope letting a rider move by gravity.
Answer: True. The tower's tall shape lets gravity pull water down through the pipes to homes, so the pump does not need to run all the time to push water everywhere.

Differentiation

Support

Provide a simple side-view sketch of the 50-foot tower next to the 8-foot pump-house tank, drawn to show the height difference, before students answer items 1-3. Allow a number line marked from 0 to 70 for the addition and subtraction items.

Extension

Ask students to design a third structure for Hazel Bend, a 65-foot tower, and write two of their own addition or subtraction questions comparing it to the towers already in the worksheet, including the answers.

ELL supports

Pre-teach "tower," "tall," "short," and "gravity" using a simple gesture, such as hands reaching up high for tall, hands low for short, and a hand dropping down for gravity. Allow items 1, 2, 5, and 8 to be answered with a labeled sketch plus one spoken sentence instead of full written sentences.