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Reading passage Grade 4 Social Studies & Civics

How Millford Got Its Water: A Grade 4 Reading Passage

A grade 4 social studies passage about how a fictional town built and now governs a shared water system, with comprehension questions and an answer key.

Objectives

  1. Students will identify how the Millford community built its shared water system.
  2. Students will explain how daily life in the town changed after the system was built.

Vocabulary

Water tower
A water tower is a big tank raised high above town that stores drinking water. Its height is what pushes water through the pipes, keeping the pressure steady even when the power goes out.

Also: water system, water board

Teacher overview

This passage tells the story of Millford, a fictional town, and how it built a shared water system over time. It is written for grade 4 readers and pairs well with a social studies unit on how communities meet their needs. A teacher can assign it to show how a place changes when people work together to solve a common problem.

How Millford Got Its Water: A Grade 4 Reading Passage — Grade 4 Social Studies & Civics
Name: ____________________________ Date: ______________

Passage

Millford is a small town. It sits by a bend in a river. Long ago, a mill stood by the water and ground grain for farmers. The town grew up around that mill, and that is how Millford got its name. Today, clean water comes out of every tap in town. It was not always this easy.

Long ago, the town had no water pipes. Families walked to the river with buckets. They carried the water home each day. The water was not always clean. Some years, people got sick from it. Carrying water also took a lot of time.

The people of Millford wanted a better way. They voted to build a town water system. First, workers laid pipes under the streets. The pipes could carry water to every home. Next, the town built a place to clean the river water before people drank it. Then they built a tall water tower. The tower holds water high in the air. That height pushes the water through the pipes with steady force.

The new system changed daily life. Families no longer walked to the river. They just turned a tap. Fewer people got sick, because the water was cleaned first. Children who once carried buckets now had more time for school.

A water system needs care to keep working. Millford set up a small group called the water board. The board makes choices about the system. It decides when to fix old pipes. It decides how much each family pays for water. That money pays the workers and the repairs. When a pipe breaks, the board sends a crew to fix it.

The river still runs past the town. But the way people get their water has changed a great deal. What began as a daily walk with a bucket is now a system of pipes, a cleaning step, a tower, and a board that keeps it all running.

Questions

  1. How did the town of Millford get its name?
  2. Before the water system was built, how did families get their water?
  3. Name the three main parts the town built for its new water system.
  4. Why did fewer people get sick after the new system was built?
  5. The passage says the way people get water "changed a great deal." Use two details from the passage to explain how life changed.
  6. What does the water board do, and why does the town need a group like it?

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: From an old mill by the river. The passage says a mill stood by the water and the town grew up around it, which is how Millford got its name.
  2. Answer: They walked to the river with buckets. The passage says families carried water home each day before the town had pipes.
  3. Answer: Pipes, a place to clean the water, and a water tower. The passage lists these three parts as what workers built.
  4. Answer: Because the water was cleaned first. The passage says the town built a place to clean the river water before people drank it, so fewer people got sick.
  5. Answer: Answers will vary but should use two details, such as families no longer walking to the river and instead turning a tap, and children having more time for school instead of carrying buckets.
  6. Answer: The water board makes choices about the system, such as fixing old pipes and setting how much families pay. The town needs it because a water system takes ongoing care and money to keep running.

Differentiation

Support (below grade level)

Read the passage aloud once before students answer, and give them a simple three-box sequence (bucket days, building the system, the water board today) to mark which paragraph each answer comes from.

Extension (above grade level)

Ask students to write a short paragraph explaining what might happen in Millford if the water board stopped meeting, using details from the passage about what the board does.

ELL supports

Pre-teach water system, water tower, and water board with a simple picture for each: connected pipes, a tank on tall legs, and a small group of people at a table. Allow students to answer questions 1 through 3 with short phrases rather than full sentences.