Water for Schools
Menu

Classroom activity Grade 1 Social Studies & Civics

Three Calls on Coneflower Lane: A Grade 1 Town Crew Choice

A 30-minute grade 1 activity where teams of four act as a town water crew with one truck, ranking three repair calls across three rounds as conditions change.

Objectives

  1. Students will order three town repair calls and give one reason for the first choice.
  2. Students will explain how a change in weather changes which repair comes first.
  3. Students will describe one way a town crew's work helps everyone on a street.

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: crew, call, repair, leak

Teacher overview

Teams of four act as the water crew for a fictional street called Coneflower Lane. Three calls come in at once and the crew has one truck, so the team must pick which call to answer first, second, and third. Three rounds run with the same three calls and a different weather card each time, so teams see the order change when the conditions change.

Nothing here has a single correct order, so no answer key is included, and the reasoning is checked during the debrief. Copy the cards on three colors of paper if you can, one color per call, so teams can order them at a glance from across the room.

Activity Directions

  1. Set up (before class). Copy one set of three call cards and one set of three weather cards per team of four. Cut a paper truck token per team. Draw a three-column chart on chart paper headed Round 1, Round 2, and Round 3.
  2. Introduce the crew (4 min). Tell students that a town water crew fixes pipes, drains, and taps for everybody on the street, and that the crew has one truck. Read the three call cards aloud. Ask what would happen if nobody came to any of them.
  3. Give the jobs (2 min). In each team of four, assign a driver who moves the truck token, a reader who reads the cards, a timekeeper who watches your signal, and a reporter who speaks for the team at the end of each round.
  4. Round one (5 min). Read weather card one aloud: Heavy rain is coming tonight. Teams lay their three call cards in order, first to last, and park the truck on the first card. When you call time, each reporter says the first call and one reason. Record the first choices on chart paper.
  5. Round two (5 min). Read weather card two aloud: It is dry and hot, and no rain is coming this week. Teams rearrange the same three cards. Reporters share again, and you record the new first choices in the second column.
  6. Round three (5 min). Read weather card three aloud: The whole town is coming to the ball game tomorrow. Teams rearrange one more time and report, and you record the third column.
  7. Compare the columns (5 min). Read the chart across. Ask which call moved to the front the most often and which call changed position between rounds. Have the class say the reason aloud for one column that changed.
  8. Debrief (4 min). Ask two closing questions: "Why could the crew not fix all three calls at once?" and "How does fixing a leaking pipe help people who do not even live on that street?"

The activity ends after the third round is recorded and both debrief questions are answered.

Three Calls on Coneflower Lane: A Grade 1 Town Crew Choice — Grade 1 Social Studies & Civics
Name: ____________________________ Date: ______________

Student Handout

The three call cards for the Coneflower Lane crew.

  • Call one, the broken pipe. A pipe under Mill Street cracked. Water is running out of it all day and down the gutter. The crew would need most of the morning to dig and patch it.
  • Call two, the packed drain. The storm drain at the bottom of Coneflower Lane is packed with leaves. Nothing is wrong yet. If the drain stays packed, water will pool in the street.
  • Call three, the stuck tap. The drinking tap at the ball field is stuck partly on. It drips into the grass. The crew would need a short visit and one new part.

The three weather cards.

  • Weather card one. Heavy rain is coming tonight.
  • Weather card two. It is dry and hot, and no rain is coming this week.
  • Weather card three. The whole town is coming to the ball game tomorrow.

Team recording strip. For each round, write the call your team put first and one word for your reason.

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

Differentiation

Support

Run only two calls, the broken pipe and the packed drain, for these teams, and read the cards a second time before each round. Provide a picture on each card and let students order the cards by picture. Accept a spoken reason of three or four words from the reporter.

Extension

Give these teams a fourth call card of their own invention, written on a blank card with a short description, and ask them to argue where it belongs in the order for all three weather cards. Then ask the team to write one sentence about what the crew should tell the caller who has to wait.

ELL supports

Pre-teach leak, drain, and stuck with a demonstration: a dripping cup with a pinhole, a strainer covered with paper scraps, and a tap turned partway. Post the three call cards with icons. Give reporters the frame "We picked call one because" and let them finish it in a few words or with the home language plus one English word.

Extensions

Invite the school custodian to describe how they decide which repair to do first on a busy morning, and compare their reasoning with the class charts. Students can then rank three classroom repairs of their own, such as a wobbly chair, a jammed pencil sharpener, and a dripping sink.