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Worksheet Grade 4 Social Studies & Civics

Five Postcards from the Roan River: How People Use One River

A grade 4 worksheet where students read five postcards mailed from stops along a fictional river, from ranch to dam to city to marsh, and answer questions on each.

Objectives

  1. Students will identify how five different communities along one river use its water.
  2. Students will explain how choices made at one stop on the river affect people at other stops.

Vocabulary

Reservoir
A human-made lake, usually created by a dam, that stores water for later. Reservoirs supply cities and farms and help control floods.
Canal
A human-made channel that carries water across the land, often for many miles, to bring irrigation water from a river to farms.
Dam
A strong wall built across a river to hold back water. Dams store water for people and farms, help prevent floods, and can make electricity.

Also: marsh

Teacher overview

A single river usually serves several communities at once, and this worksheet presents five of those uses as postcards. Relatives living at different points along the fictional Roan River each mail a card home, from a mountain ranch down to a marsh by the sea. The nine items move from locating stated details to reasoning about how the stops depend on one another. Short postcards keep the reading load manageable while still covering the geography of a whole river valley.

Five Postcards from the Roan River: How People Use One River — Grade 4 Social Studies & Civics
Name: ____________________________ Date: ______________

Student Worksheet

Imagine your family lives all along the Roan River, a made-up river that runs from the mountains to the sea. Five relatives each mailed you a postcard. Read all five, then answer the questions.

Postcard from Gran, at Halfmoon Ranch near the top of the river: "The Roan starts small up here. The creek behind our barn runs cold and clear. Our cattle drink from a trough we fill, and we keep the herd fenced back from the banks. That keeps the creek clean for everybody living below us. Love, Gran."

Postcard from Uncle Ray, at the Roan Dam: "You should see this wall of concrete. The dam holds back a long lake called a reservoir. When water pours through the gates, it spins machines that make electricity for the valley. In summer the lake is full of sailboats. Your uncle, Ray."

Postcard from Cousin Lena, in the farm valley: "Watering day today. Canals carry river water from the Roan out to our fields, and little gates let it flow between the rows. The peaches and the hay would not last a week here without the canals. See you at harvest, Lena."

Postcard from Papa, in Roan City: "City life runs on the river. Big pipes carry river water to a plant that cleans it, and then it comes to our taps. After we use it, another plant cleans the used water before the city returns it to the river. Miss you, Papa."

Postcard from Aunt June, at the marsh by the sea: "The Roan spreads out here into a green marsh full of ducks and tall cranes. People watch birds from the boardwalks all year. The marsh stays alive because the river still reaches it, fresh and flowing. Hugs, Aunt June."

  1. What do the cattle at Halfmoon Ranch drink from, and where does the herd have to stay?
  2. What two things does the Roan Dam's reservoir give the people of the valley?
  3. How does Roan River water reach Cousin Lena's peaches and hay?
  4. In Roan City, what happens to river water before it reaches a tap?
  5. What happens to Roan City's used water before it returns to the river?
  6. Which postcard shows people changing the river itself the most? Explain your choice with a detail.
  7. Gran keeps the herd fenced back from the creek. How does that choice help the relatives living farther down the river?
  8. Why does the marsh need the river to keep flowing all the way to the sea?
  9. Pick two postcards. Tell how the people in one of them depend on choices made by the people in the other.

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: The cattle drink from a trough the ranch fills, and the herd stays fenced back from the creek banks. Gran's postcard states both details.
  2. Answer: Electricity and a lake for summer boating. Uncle Ray says water pouring through the gates spins machines that make electricity, and sailboats fill the reservoir in summer.
  3. Answer: Through canals. Lena's postcard says canals carry river water out to the fields and little gates let it flow between the rows.
  4. Answer: Big pipes carry it to a plant that cleans it, and only then does it come to the taps. Papa's postcard states this order.
  5. Answer: Another plant cleans the used water, and then the city returns it to the river.
  6. Answer: Most students should choose Uncle Ray's dam, because a concrete wall holds back the whole river and forms a reservoir. Accept Roan City or Lena's farm valley with a strong detail, such as the city taking water out, cleaning it twice, and returning it, or canals carrying river water out to the fields.
  7. Answer: Keeping cattle away from the banks keeps the creek clean at the very top of the river, so cleaner water flows down to the dam, the farms, the city, and the marsh below.
  8. Answer: Aunt June says the marsh stays alive because the river still reaches it fresh and flowing, so the ducks, cranes, and boardwalk visitors all depend on the river completing its trip.
  9. Answer: Answers will vary. A strong example: Papa's city depends on Gran's ranch keeping the upper creek clean, or Aunt June's marsh depends on the city returning its cleaned water so the river still reaches the sea.

Differentiation

Support (below grade level)

Read the five postcards aloud in order, and have students draw a quick river line with five dots and label each dot with the sender's name before answering. Items 1 through 5 make a fair reduced set.

Extension (above grade level)

Ask students to write a sixth postcard from a new stop of their own invention, placed correctly along the river, that mentions one way its people use the water and one way they protect it for the stops below.

ELL supports

Pre-teach reservoir, canal, marsh, and dam with a top-to-bottom river sketch showing the ranch, dam, farms, city, and marsh. Accept short-phrase answers for items 1 through 5, and let item 9 be answered by drawing an arrow between two postcards with a one-line label.

Extensions

Post a long paper river across a wall and let students pin the five postcards where they belong, then add invented postcards from the extension task in their correct order. Finish by asking which stop the class would argue should keep its water if the river ran low one summer, and why.