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Reading passage Kindergarten Science

The Dry Summer at Marigold Hollow: A Kindergarten Read-Aloud

A kindergarten read-aloud about a fictional town whose class rain chart runs almost empty in July, the creek drops, and neighbors find ways to use less water.

Objectives

  1. Students will compare two months on a rain chart and tell which one had more rain.
  2. Students will explain why the creek in the story got low during the dry month.
  3. Students will name one thing people did at home to use less water.

Vocabulary

Key words: creek, chart, sticker, dry, low, sweep

Teacher overview

Marigold Hollow is a fictional town, and Redstart Creek is the fictional stream that runs past its school. The story follows one class rain chart across three months and ties the height of the water in the creek to the number of rainy days on that chart. Read it aloud, pausing at the end of each month to ask what the class chart looks like now, and let students answer by speaking, pointing, or drawing rather than by reading on their own. The story ends with the rain returning, which matters: young students should see the pattern come back around rather than being left with a town in trouble.

The misconception this passage works against is the assumption that a creek is a fixed part of the landscape that always holds the same water, and that what falls from the sky has nothing to do with it. The flat rocks in the story are there as the visible evidence, since they are under water in June, out of the water in July, and under again in August. Ask the class to predict what the rocks will look like before you read the August part.

The Dry Summer at Marigold Hollow: A Kindergarten Read-Aloud — Kindergarten Science
Name: ____________________________ Date: ______________

Passage

The Summer the Creek Got Low

Rosa lives in Marigold Hollow. A creek runs past her school. It is called Redstart Creek. Rosa's class keeps a rain chart. They add one sticker for each rainy day.

In June the chart filled up fast. The class added 9 stickers. The creek ran full and fast. Water covered the big flat rocks.

Then July came. Day after day was hot and dry. The class added just 1 sticker. Rosa watched the creek get low. The big flat rocks came up out of the water. Rosa could sit on one.

The town sent a note home. Please use less water, it said. Rosa's dad swept the front walk. He did not wash it with the hose. Rosa turned off the tap while she brushed. Her class gave the school plants a cup of water each. They put the hose away.

Then August came. Rain fell for three days. The creek came up again. The flat rocks went back under. Rosa added three new stickers to the chart.

Questions

  1. What did the class add to the chart for each rainy day?
  2. Which month had more rain stickers, June or July?
  3. What did Rosa see happen to the big flat rocks in July?
  4. Why did the creek get low in July? Use the story to tell why.
  5. Name one thing people did to use less water.
  6. Rosa says the creek will stay low forever. Is Rosa right? Tell how you know.

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: A sticker. The story says the class adds one sticker for each rainy day.
  2. Answer: June. The story has the chart filling up fast in June and only one sticker going on in July.
  3. Answer: They came up out of the water. In June the water covered them, and in July they were high enough for Rosa to sit on.
  4. Answer: Because almost no rain fell that month. Accept any answer connecting the dry, hot days and the nearly empty July chart to the creek dropping.
  5. Answer: Accept any one of the actions in the story: sweeping the walk instead of hosing it, turning off the tap while brushing, giving the school plants one cup of water each, or putting the hose away.
  6. Answer: No. The story ends with three days of rain in August, the creek coming up, and the flat rocks going back under the water.

Differentiation

Support

Read the story a second time with three sheets of paper labeled June, July, and August, drawing the creek and the rocks on each sheet as that month is read. For question 2, let these students count stickers you draw on the June and July sheets rather than holding both numbers in mind.

Extension

Ask these students to add a September page to the story, deciding how much rain falls and drawing what the creek and the rocks look like because of it. Have them explain their drawing to a partner using the words rain, creek, and rocks.

ELL supports

Pre-teach creek, dry, low, and sweep with a picture of each and a broom students can hold while the last word is said. Accept pointing at a quick June or July sketch of the creek as a full answer for questions 2, 3 and 4, and provide the sentence frame "The creek got low because there was no ___" with the word rain on a card.

Extensions

Start a class rain chart of your own with one sticker for each rainy day and keep it for two months, then look back and ask which month brought more rain. Walk the class to a nearby creek, pond, or drainage ditch after a dry week and again after a wet one, with adult supervision and students kept well back from the edge, and have students say what looks different about the water line.