Water for Schools
Menu

Lesson plan Grade 1 Social Studies & Civics

Barrelton's Old Well: A Grade 1 Then-and-Now Water Lesson

A 40-minute grade 1 civics lesson in which students carry cups from a pretend well, build a then-and-now chart, and write two facts about town pipes.

Objectives

  1. Students will describe two ways people in one town got water long ago and today.
  2. Students will explain one way pipes changed daily life for the people of a town.
  3. Students will write two facts about town water and add a closing sentence.

Vocabulary

Pump
A pump is a machine that adds energy to water to move it or push it uphill, doing the job gravity cannot do on its own. Water systems use many different kinds of pumps to move water from wells, through treatment, and out to customers.

Also: well, bucket, pipe, town crew

Teacher overview

This lesson uses one invented place, the town of Barrelton, to teach a core first-grade civics idea: people work together to make a community better, and the change is visible if you compare two times. Barrelton once had a single well in the middle of the square, and every family walked there with buckets. Later the townspeople dug a trench down each street and laid pipes, and the water came to the kitchen instead.

The teaching note that matters most here is the carrying segment. Six or seven trips across the room with a full cup do more to explain why a town would spend years laying pipe than a picture can, so protect that time even if the discussion is running long. Set the two dishpans as far apart as the room allows, and expect spills, which is why the pitcher and a towel are on the materials list.

Procedure

Opening question (5 min): Fill one cup at the classroom tap and hold it up. Ask students where that water was one minute ago, then one hour ago. Take three or four answers. Tell the class that long ago in the town of Barrelton, nobody could do what you just did, because there was no tap in any house. Write the word well on the chart paper.

The carrying trip (10 min): Set one dishpan at the front of the room and label it "the town well." Set the second dishpan at the back and label it "your kitchen." Pour water into the well. Students take turns carrying one full cup from the well to the kitchen without spilling. Wipe any spill at once so nobody slips. Keep a running count of full cups on the board. After about eight minutes, stop and ask how tired their arms would be if they had to do this every morning, in winter, with a full bucket instead of a cup.

Then-and-now chart (10 min): Draw a two-column chart headed Long Ago in Barrelton and In Barrelton Today. Fill it together with student answers. Expect rows such as: walked to the square / turned a tap; carried buckets / pipes carry it; one well for the whole town / a pipe to every house; children helped carry / children fill a cup at the sink. Name the people who made the change: the neighbors who voted for it, the crew who dug the trenches, and the crew who still fixes the pipes when one breaks.

Formative check (3 min): Ask the whole class one question with thumbs up or thumbs down: "Did people in Barrelton long ago have a tap in the kitchen?" Expect thumbs down from nearly everyone. If more than three students answer thumbs up, read the Long Ago column aloud again and repeat the question before students write.

Writing two facts (10 min): Hand out the student page. Each student writes the topic sentence, two facts copied or borrowed from the chart, and one closing sentence. Circulate and scribe for students who dictate.

Share and close (2 min): Two or three students read their closing sentence aloud. End by telling the class that the crew who keeps the pipes working is still at work in every town today.

Barrelton's Old Well: A Grade 1 Then-and-Now Water Lesson — Grade 1 Social Studies & Civics
Name: ____________________________ Date: ______________

Student Handout

Barrelton Water: Then and Now

Layout note: leave a large empty box below part 5 for the drawing.

Write your name at the top. Then finish each part.

  1. My topic: Water in the town of Barrelton.
  2. Fact one about long ago: write one thing from the Long Ago column.
  3. Fact two about today: write one thing from the Today column.
  4. My closing sentence: tell why the pipes helped the people of Barrelton.
  5. In the box, draw the old well or the new pipe. Add one label.

From Water for Schools (waterforschools.org). This material is in the public domain (CC0) and may be copied, edited, and shared freely.

Differentiation

Support

Give a copy of the chart with two rows already filled in, and highlight the two rows you want the student to use. Offer a sentence starter for the closing line: "Pipes helped because." Accept a dictated sentence that you scribe, and accept a labeled drawing in place of fact two.

Extension

Ask these students to add a third column headed What Might Come Next and write one guess about a change Barrelton could make in the future, such as fixing an old pipe that leaks or adding a tap at the ball field. They should give one reason for their guess.

ELL supports

Pre-teach well, bucket, pipe, and tap with the real objects and a mime for each: cranking a handle, lifting a heavy bucket, turning a tap. Keep those four words posted with a small sketch beside each. During the chart discussion, accept one-word answers and expand them aloud into a full sentence the student then repeats.

Extensions

Invite a family member or a school custodian to tell the class about a pipe repair they have seen, and let students ask three prepared questions. Alternatively, walk the class to the nearest outside tap or hydrant on school grounds and trace with your hands where the pipe must run underground to reach it.