Worksheet Grade 3 Social Studies & Civics
Blue Heron Creek's Watershed: A Grade 3 Map-Reading Worksheet
A grade 3 social studies worksheet where students read a described map of the Blue Heron Creek watershed and explain how a town protects the land.
Objectives
- Students will explain what a watershed is in their own words.
- Students will use a described map to tell how rain reaches Blue Heron Creek.
- Students will name ways people protect the land that drains into a creek.
Vocabulary
- Watershed
- A watershed is all the land where rain that falls will drain to the same stream, river, or lake. Everyone lives in a watershed, no matter how far from the water they live.
Also: downhill
Teacher overview
This worksheet builds the social studies idea that a community depends on, and takes care of, the land its water comes from. Students read a short described map of one fictional creek valley and answer where rain flows and how the town protects that land. No image is required, since the map is written out in words at the top of the student page. The questions move from finding stated facts to applying the idea of a watershed to a new choice.
Student Worksheet
Read this map in words, then answer the questions.
Blue Heron Creek runs east through a valley. Hills rise on the north side and the south side. All the land where rain drains into the creek is called its watershed. When rain falls on the hills, it runs downhill into the creek. Thick woods cover the north hill. A farm with cattle sits on the south hill. The town of Cloverdale sits by the creek and takes its drinking water from it. The town keeps the north woods and asks the farmer to fence the cattle away from the creek.
What is a watershed? Use the map words to help you.
When rain falls on the hills, which way does it move to reach the creek?
Name the two hills that drain into Blue Heron Creek.
Where does the town of Cloverdale get its drinking water?
Why might the town keep the woods on the north hill instead of clearing them?
The farmer fences the cattle away from the creek. How does that help the town's water?
A family wants to dump old paint on the south hill. Explain how that paint could reach the creek.
Name one more way people could protect the land that drains into Blue Heron Creek.
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: A watershed is all the land where rain drains into one creek or river. The map says the watershed is the land where rain drains into Blue Heron Creek.
Answer: Downhill. Rain that falls on the hills runs downhill into the creek.
Answer: The north hill and the south hill. Both drain into Blue Heron Creek.
Answer: From Blue Heron Creek. The town of Cloverdale takes its drinking water from the creek it sits beside.
Answer: Woods hold the soil and soak up rain, so keeping them helps keep mud and dirty runoff out of the creek the town drinks from. Accept any reasonable answer about the woods protecting the water.
Answer: Fencing the cattle keeps their waste and hoof-churned mud out of the creek, so the town's water stays cleaner. Accept any answer that links the fence to a cleaner creek.
Answer: Rain would wash the paint downhill into the creek, because the south hill is part of the watershed that drains into Blue Heron Creek. Look for the idea that rain carries it downhill to the water.
Answer: Any reasonable action that protects the land, such as planting more trees, picking up litter, keeping oil off the ground, or not building on the steep hills.
Differentiation
Support
Read the map paragraph aloud twice and have students underline the creek, the two hills, and the town before they begin. Allow items 1 through 4 to be answered by pointing to and copying the matching sentence from the map.
Extension
Ask students to draw the described map from the words, add a new house or road of their own, and write one sentence about how that new thing could help or harm Blue Heron Creek.
ELL supports
Pre-teach watershed, downhill, and drain with a simple sketch of two hills sloping to a creek and arrows for the rain. Let students trace the rain's path with a finger and answer the first questions with short phrases.