Worksheet Kindergarten Science
Three Jars from Peppercorn Brook: A Water Clue Worksheet
A kindergarten worksheet where students read clues in three jars of brook water, sort what floats in one of them, and name one way to keep the brook clean.
Objectives
- Students will use what they see in a jar to tell where the water came from.
- Students will sort six floating things into trash and nature piles and count each pile.
- Students will name one action that keeps trash out of a local brook.
Vocabulary
Key words: brook, clear, grit, trash, sort, sink
Teacher overview
Peppercorn Brook is a fictional stream that runs past a fictional town park. On the walk this worksheet describes, a kindergarten class filled three jars at three different spots along it: one at the spring where the brook starts in the woods, one in the ditch where rain runs off the parking lot, and one in the still water beside the picnic tables. Each jar came back looking different, and this sheet asks students to read those differences as clues about what people upstream had done. The sorting items in the middle of the sheet use the six things the class found floating in the third jar. Read every item aloud, and if jars are available, fill three of your own with tap water, a spoonful of playground dirt, and a few clean classroom scraps so students have something real to look at while they work.
The misconception this sheet is built to correct is the belief that water which looks clear is always clean and safe, and that only dirty-looking water is polluted. Item 10 puts that idea in front of the class on purpose, and the honest answer for kindergartners is that some things in water are far too small to see, which is why nobody drinks straight from a brook no matter how clear it looks. Expect students to rank the jars by how pretty they are; the useful move is to keep asking what each clue tells them about where the water had been.
Student Worksheet
- Jar 1 is clear. You can see right through it. Jar 2 is brown. Bits of grit float in it. Which jar looks clean?
- Jar 1 came from the spring in the woods. Jar 2 came from the ditch by the parking lot. Rain had just run off that lot. What did the rain wash into the brook?
- The class let Jar 2 sit still all night. In the morning the grit sat on the bottom. The top of the jar was clear. Where did the grit go?
- Jar 3 came from the water by the picnic tables. Six things float in it. There is a straw, a bag, a cup, a leaf, a twig, and a seed. Sort the six things. Put people's trash in one pile. Put things from nature in the other pile. How many things are trash?
- How many things in Jar 3 came from nature?
- Does one pile have more things, or are the two piles the same?
- The leaf and the twig will rot away in the brook. The plastic bag will not rot away. What has to happen for the bag to leave the brook?
- Ducks and bugs live in Peppercorn Brook. Tell one way trash in the water is bad for them.
- Tell one thing kids at the picnic tables can do so the brook stays clean.
- Ben says clear water is always safe to drink. The class did not drink from the brook. Tell why clear water can still be bad to drink.
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: Jar 1. It is the clear jar, and Jar 2 is brown with grit floating in it.
- Answer: Dirt and grit. Accept mud, sand, dust, or any answer naming what rain picks up as it runs across a parking lot.
- Answer: To the bottom. The bits of grit are heavier than water, so when the jar sat still they sank and left the water above them clearer.
- Answer: 3 things. The straw, the bag, and the cup are the things people dropped.
- Answer: 3 things. The leaf, the twig, and the seed came from plants near the water.
- Answer: The two piles are the same. Matching each trash item with one nature item leaves nothing without a partner.
- Answer: A person has to pick it up. Accept any answer that says someone takes it out, cleans it up, or fishes it out with a net. If a student says the water carries it away, agree that it can and ask where it goes next (a river, a lake, the ocean); it is still trash there, so it leaves the water for good only when a person picks it up.
- Answer: Accept any true harm the student can name, such as a duck trying to eat a bag, an animal getting tangled in it, or trash covering the bugs' home on the bottom.
- Answer: Accept any real action, such as putting trash in the can, taking it home, holding onto a wrapper on a windy day, or picking up litter they find.
- Answer: Some things in water are too small to see. Accept any answer meaning germs, bugs, or bad stuff can hide in water that still looks clear.
Differentiation
Support
Hand these students six real objects that match Jar 3, a straw, a bag, a cup, a leaf, a twig, and a seed, along with two labeled trays, so items 4 through 6 become a physical sort. Ask item 6 by lining the two piles up side by side and matching them one for one rather than by comparing the two counts in their heads.
Extension
Ask these students to add a fourth jar to the set: they choose a spot along the brook, draw what the water in that jar would look like, and tell the class one clue their jar holds about what happened upstream. Have them explain how sorting the six floating things would change if a second bag were added.
ELL supports
Pre-teach clear, grit, trash, and sink by dropping a spoonful of sand into a jar of water and letting students watch it settle while each word is named. Accept pointing at the correct jar or pile as a full answer for items 1 through 6, and provide the sentence frame "Put the trash in the ___" with a small drawing of a trash can beside it.
Extensions
Fill three clear plastic jars with tap water and let the class add what they think each brook spot would carry, then set the jars on the windowsill for a day and check which ones cleared as things settled. Walk the class to the nearest stream, pond, or drainage ditch, with extra adults along and every student kept well back from the edge, and have each student name one thing they can see in the water and say whether it came from people or from nature.