Worksheet Grade 3 Science

Choosing a Well Site at Vinehall: A Grade 3 Groundwater Worksheet

A grade 3 worksheet with invented test-hole data from a made-up village, where students subtract within 1000 and pick a well site that meets a goal and a limit.

Grade: Grade 3
Subject: Science
Material: Worksheet
Time: 35 min
Prep: No prep
Materials: None

Standards

3-5-ETS1-1 NGSS

Define a simple design problem reflecting a need or a want that includes specified criteria for success and constraints on materials, time, or cost.

How this material aligns: Items 7 through 10 apply the village's stated goal of distance from the barnyard and its stated limit on well depth to three test sites.

All materials for 3-5-ETS1-1 →

3.NBT.A.2 Common Core Math

Fluently add and subtract within 1000 using strategies and algorithms based on place value, properties of operations, and/or the relationship between addition and subtraction.

How this material aligns: Items 1 through 6 add and subtract three-digit test-hole depths and distances, with regrouping in the totals and in the distance comparison.

All materials for 3.NBT.A.2 →

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This material is in the public domain (CC0) and may be copied, edited, and shared freely, without attribution. Updated 2026-09-04.

Objectives

Students will subtract three-digit depths to find how far a hole reaches below the water.
Students will sort three test sites by a stated goal and a stated limit.
Students will explain why a well is kept away from a barnyard.

Vocabulary

Groundwater: Groundwater is water that has soaked into the ground and fills the spaces between soil particles and cracks in rock underground. It is a large underground source of fresh water that wells and springs draw from.

Also: well, test hole, depth, goal, limit

Teacher overview

Picking where to drill a public well is a design decision with written rules behind it: the hole has to reach water, the rig has to be able to drill that deep, and the well has to sit far enough from barnyards, fuel tanks, and septic fields that waste does not soak down to it. This worksheet gives students invented test-hole results from a made-up village and asks them to apply one stated goal and one stated limit to three candidate sites. The misconception to watch for is the belief that groundwater sits in an underground lake or river that a driller can see; students often draw an open cavern rather than water held in the spaces inside rock and sand, which makes the depth numbers seem arbitrary.

Choosing a Well Site at Vinehall: A Grade 3 Groundwater Worksheet — Grade 3 Science

Name: ____________________________ Date: ______________

Student Worksheet

Vinehall is a made-up village. Its old well is going dry. The village needs a new well.

Water sits in the tiny spaces inside the rock below the ground. A new hole must reach down to that water. A well must also stay away from the barnyard. Waste from the barnyard can soak down into the ground.

A crew drilled three test holes. The table shows what the crew found.

Vinehall set one goal. The new well must be at least 300 feet from the barnyard.

Vinehall set one limit. The new well can be no deeper than 200 feet. Each new well would be drilled as deep as its test hole.

Test hole	Depth of the hole	Depth where water was found	Feet from the barnyard
Site 1	145 feet	90 feet	120 feet
Site 2	210 feet	160 feet	500 feet
Site 3	175 feet	125 feet	340 feet

Site 1's hole is 145 feet deep. Water was found at 90 feet. How many feet of that hole are below the water line?
Site 2's hole is 210 feet deep. Water was found at 160 feet. How many feet of that hole are below the water line?
Site 3's hole is 175 feet deep. Water was found at 125 feet. How many feet of that hole are below the water line?
Site 2's hole is 210 feet deep. Site 1's hole is 145 feet deep. How much deeper is Site 2's hole?
Add the three hole depths. They are 145 feet, 210 feet, and 175 feet.
Site 2 is 500 feet from the barnyard. Site 1 is 120 feet from the barnyard. How much farther from the barnyard is Site 2?
The goal is a well at least 300 feet from the barnyard. Which sites meet that goal?
The limit is a well no deeper than 200 feet. Which site breaks that limit?
Vinehall must meet the goal and stay inside the limit. Which site should the village pick? Tell why.
Write one more goal that Vinehall might set for its new well.
Why should a well stay far away from a barnyard?

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: 55 feet. 145 minus 90 is 55.
Answer: 50 feet. 210 minus 160 is 50.
Answer: 50 feet. 175 minus 125 is 50.
Answer: 65 feet. 210 minus 145 is 65.
Answer: 530 feet. 145 plus 210 is 355, and 355 plus 175 is 530.
Answer: 380 feet. 500 minus 120 is 380.
Answer: Sites 2 and 3. Site 2 is 500 feet away and Site 3 is 340 feet away, and both of those are more than 300 feet, while Site 1 is only 120 feet away.
Answer: Site 2. Its hole is 210 feet deep, which is more than the 200-foot limit.
Answer: Site 3. It sits 340 feet from the barnyard, which meets the goal, and its hole is 175 feet deep, which stays inside the limit. Site 1 is too close to the barnyard and Site 2 would be deeper than the limit.
Answer: Accept any sensible goal for a village well, such as staying far from the road salt pile, sitting where a truck can reach it, giving enough water for every house, or being easy to cover and lock. Push back on goals that are really wishes, such as never needing repair.
Answer: Waste can soak down. Accept any answer explaining that animal waste from the barnyard soaks into the ground and can travel down through the soil and rock into the water the well pulls up.

Differentiation

Support

Give these students the table with the subtraction for items 1 through 3 already set up in vertical form, and let them use base-ten blocks for the regrouping in items 4 and 6. Assign items 1, 2, 4, 7, 8, and 9. Provide a simple side-view drawing of the ground with the barnyard, the water line, and three holes marked so the distance questions can be answered by pointing first.

Extension

Ask students to write a fourth test-hole row for this made-up village that meets the goal but breaks the limit, then a fifth row that does the opposite. Have them trade papers with a partner, check each other's rows against both rules, and explain in one sentence why a driller would want more than three test holes before choosing.

ELL supports

Pre-teach "well," "depth," and "barnyard" with a clear jar of sand and gravel that water is poured into, so students see water filling the spaces rather than forming a cave. Post the goal sentence and the limit sentence side by side with a check box under each site. Provide the frames "Site ___ is ___ feet from the barnyard" and "I pick Site ___ because ___."

Extensions

Have students build a cross-section poster of the made-up village showing the barnyard, the road, the old well, and the three test holes at their table depths, using a scale of one inch for every 50 feet. Ask them to mark the water line across the poster and write one sentence about what the picture shows that the table alone does not.