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Reading passage Kindergarten Science

One Drop's Journey to the Kindergarten Sink

An original kindergarten read-aloud story that follows a single water drop from a fictional reservoir through a treatment plant and tower to a school sink.

Objectives

  1. Students will listen to a read-aloud story and recall the order of a water drop's journey.
  2. Students will explain why the water tower in the story is built tall.
  3. Students will communicate one fact about the journey through drawing and dictated or written words.

Vocabulary

Reservoir
A human-made lake, usually created by a dam, that stores water for later. Reservoirs supply cities and farms and help control floods.

Also: treatment, tower

Teacher overview

This original story follows Pip, a single drop of water, from a fictional reservoir called Blue Hollow all the way to a kindergarten classroom's sink, giving young students a character to follow through each stop of a real water system. Read the story aloud to the class rather than assigning it as independent reading, and let students answer the questions orally, by pointing to a picture, or through a quick drawing, since the goal at this age is listening comprehension and sequencing rather than independent decoding. The closing task doubles as a beginning informative-writing sample, matching how kindergartners are asked to compose information through drawing and dictation.

Plan to read the story twice: once straight through for enjoyment, and a second time pausing to point at a simple four-stop map as each stop is named.

One Drop's Journey to the Kindergarten Sink — Kindergarten Science
Name: ____________________________ Date: ______________

Passage

Pip's Trip to School

Pip was a drop of water. Pip lived in Blue Hollow Reservoir. It was a big lake. It never dried up.

One morning, a pump turned on. It pulled Pip through a wide pipe. The pipe led to a treatment building.

Workers watched over big machines there. The machines cleaned Pip. They cleaned many drops, just like Pip. Now the water was safe to drink.

Next, a new pipe carried Pip. Up, up, up it went. Pip landed inside a tall tower. The tower stood on strong metal legs.

Being high up mattered. The tower let Pip go. Then gravity pulled Pip back down. Pip moved through pipes on its own. No pump had to push it.

Down, down Pip went. Pipes ran under the street. Pip reached a kindergarten classroom.

A child turned on the tap. Out came Pip! It splashed into two hands. The child washed up before lunch.

Pip's trip was done. But back at Blue Hollow Reservoir, another drop was just starting. Its trip was about to begin.

Questions

  1. Where did Pip's trip begin?
  2. What did the workers do to Pip?
  3. Why did Pip go up into the tall tower first? Use the story in your answer.
  4. Put Pip's stops in order: reservoir, tower, treatment building, sink.
  5. Why is the water cleaned first, before it goes to the tower?
  6. Draw Pip's whole trip. Tell one fact about a stop, to a grown-up or your teacher.

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: Blue Hollow Reservoir. The passage names it near the very beginning of the story.
  2. Answer: The workers cleaned Pip, along with many other drops, to make the water safe to drink. This is stated where the story describes the treatment building.
  3. Answer: Because being high up in the tower let gravity pull Pip back down through the pipes on its own, without needing a pump to push it the rest of the way, as the story explains when Pip reaches the tall tower.
  4. Answer: Reservoir, treatment building, tower, sink. This is the order the stops appear across the passage's paragraphs.
  5. Answer: Answers will vary but should reference that the water needs to be made safe before people drink it or wash with it, which is why cleaning happens before the water is stored in the tower and sent out to homes and schools.
  6. Answer: Answers will vary. Accept any drawing showing at least two of the four stops in the correct order, paired with one true fact about a stop, such as "the tower is really tall" or "workers clean the water."

Differentiation

Support

Read the story a third time in short chunks, pausing after each paragraph to point to the matching stop on a simple four-picture map. For question 4, provide four picture cards of the stops and have students place them in order rather than stating the order in words.

Extension

After question 6, ask students to imagine and describe what Pip might see or feel at one stop, adding one new detail beyond what the story states. Invite these students to retell the whole story in their own words to a partner, using all four stop names in order.

ELL supports

Pre-teach reservoir, treatment, and tower with simple pictures of each place, pointing to every picture as the word is introduced before reading. Allow students to answer questions 1, 2, and 4 by pointing to a picture that matches the correct stop, and accept a single-word fact for question 6.

Extensions

If a water tower or standpipe is visible from the school, take the class outside to look at it and retell Pip's story while pointing toward it. Send the drawing home with a note asking a family member to turn on a tap together and talk about where they think that water traveled from before it reached the house.