Water for Schools
Menu

Worksheet Kindergarten Science

Where the Rain Goes at Tumbleside School: A Storm Day Worksheet

A kindergarten worksheet where students trace rain downhill across a fictional schoolyard, decide whether a leaf-covered drain can work, and get ready for a big storm.

Objectives

  1. Students will predict where rain will run and collect on a sloped schoolyard.
  2. Students will explain why a covered storm drain leaves water standing in the yard.
  3. Students will name one way a school gets ready when a big rain is coming.

Vocabulary

Storm drain
A storm drain is the grate at the edge of a street that swallows rainwater and sends it through pipes to the nearest creek or river. That water is usually not treated, so only rain belongs down the drain.

Also: downhill, low spot, grate, soak, puddle

Teacher overview

Tumbleside School is a fictional school with a sloped yard, and every item on this sheet refers to that one yard. Before handing the sheet out, sketch it on the board in four parts: a low hill along the fence at the top, a wide blacktop in the middle, a grass field to one side, and the gate corner at the bottom, with a storm drain set into the pavement in that corner and a few smaller grates along the blacktop above it. Students use the sketch to predict which way rain will run, where it will stand, and what a leaf-covered grate does to all of it. The last items turn to the forecast itself and ask what a school does with a day's warning before heavy rain.

The misconception this sheet works on is the idea that water travels to a storm drain wherever that drain happens to be, because a drain is simply where water goes. Water only reaches a drain that sits downhill from where the rain lands, and it only goes down the grate if the grate is open. Expect some students to draw the water running uphill toward one of the smaller grates on the blacktop; the fastest correction is to pour a cup of water on a tilted cookie sheet on the front table and let the class watch which end it runs to.

Where the Rain Goes at Tumbleside School: A Storm Day Worksheet — Kindergarten Science
Name: ____________________________ Date: ______________

Student Worksheet

  1. Water runs downhill. The yard has a hill by the fence. The gate corner is the low spot. Will the rain run up to the hill or down to the gate corner?
  2. Rain falls on the whole yard. Which spot fills with water first, the hill or the gate corner?
  3. The blacktop is hard. Rain cannot soak into it. The grass field is soft. Rain soaks into the grass. Which one sends more water down to the gate corner?
  4. A storm drain sits in the gate corner. Wet leaves cover the grate. Can the rain get down that drain?
  5. The class rakes the leaves off the grate. Now can the rain get down the drain?
  6. The class walked the yard. They found 3 clear grates. They found 2 grates under leaves. Were there more clear grates or more leafy grates?
  7. The class found 3 clear grates and 2 leafy grates. How many grates did they find in all?
  8. The radio said a big rain will come tomorrow. Name one thing the school can do today to get ready.
  9. Why does it help the school to know about the big rain before it comes?
  10. Tell one question you would ask the weather reporter about the storm.
  11. The rain stops. A big puddle sits in the gate corner. The grate is clear now. Where does that puddle water go?

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: Down to the gate corner. Water runs downhill, and the gate corner is the lowest part of the yard.
  2. Answer: The gate corner. Water from the whole yard runs down and gathers in the low spot before it gathers anywhere else.
  3. Answer: The blacktop. Hard pavement lets none of the rain soak in, so all of it runs off toward the low corner, while the grass takes some of its rain into the ground.
  4. Answer: No. The wet leaves cover the openings in the grate, so the water sits on top instead of going down.
  5. Answer: Yes. With the leaves raked off, the openings are clear and the water can run down through them.
  6. Answer: More clear grates. Matching the 3 clear grates against the 2 leafy grates leaves one clear grate without a partner.
  7. Answer: 5 grates. Counting on from the 3 clear grates through the 2 leafy grates reaches 5 in all.
  8. Answer: Accept any real preparation, such as raking the grates clear, moving the sand toys and balls inside, closing the shed, or planning indoor recess.
  9. Answer: The school has time to get ready. Accept any answer meaning people can plan, clean the drains, or move things before the rain starts.
  10. Answer: Accept any question a student can ask about the storm, such as how long the rain will last, how hard it will rain, or whether there will be thunder.
  11. Answer: Down the drain. Accept any answer that has the water going down the grate, into the pipe under the ground, and away from the yard.

Differentiation

Support

Tilt a cookie sheet on a stack of books, pour a cup of water at the high end, and let these students watch it run down before they answer items 1 through 3. Give them a small paper cutout of the yard with the gate corner shaded so they can point rather than describe.

Extension

Ask these students to mark two more low spots on the board sketch and explain which one would puddle first if the hill were on the other side of the yard. Have them draw a plan for keeping the gate corner grate clear all through the fall.

ELL supports

Pre-teach downhill, grate, and soak by walking the class to a real storm drain and to a patch of grass and naming each thing on the spot. Accept pointing at the sketch as a full answer for items 1 through 5, and provide the sentence frame "The water runs ___" with the words down and up written beside small arrow drawings.

Extensions

Take the class out during the next steady rain (never during thunder or lightning), stand at the top of the yard, and follow the running water to wherever it collects, checking whether the class prediction from item 2 was right. Ask the custodian to show the class where the yard's water goes after it leaves the grate, which gives students the next piece of the path beyond the corner they can see.