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Reading passage Kindergarten Social Studies & Civics

When the Snow Melts at Fiddler's Bend

A kindergarten read-aloud passage about spring melt in a made-up hill town, with six questions on where the melt water goes and what the town crew and the farmers do.

Objectives

  1. Students will tell where melting snow goes after it leaves a roof.
  2. Students will name two jobs that change in a town when the snow melts.
  3. Students will retell the melt in order and draw one part of it.

Vocabulary

Spring
A spring is a place where groundwater flows out of the ground on its own. Springs form where the water table meets the land surface, often on hillsides or at the bottom of slopes.

Also: melt, ditch, creek, plant

Teacher overview

Seasonal change is the part of geography a young child has already lived through, from the boots by the door to the mud in the yard. This passage follows one spring in Fiddler's Bend, a made-up town in the hills, from the snow on the roofs to the loud creek to the quiet garden watering of summer, and it names what the town crew and the farmers do differently at each stage. Teachers can pair it with a weather calendar or with a first look at where rain and melt go after they land.

Read the passage twice, and on the second reading, have the class trace the water path with a finger in the air: roof, yard, ditch, creek. Children in warm regions can substitute a heavy rain for the melt, and the path stays the same.

When the Snow Melts at Fiddler's Bend — Kindergarten Social Studies & Civics
Name: ____________________________ Date: ______________

Passage

Read this to your class. Read it two times.

Fiddler's Bend is a small town in the hills. In winter, snow piles up on the roofs. It piles up on the yards. It fills the ditch by the road. Kids sled down the big hill by the school.

Then the sun climbs higher. The days get warm. The snow starts to melt. Water runs off the roofs. It runs down the yards. It runs into the ditch by the road.

The ditch takes that water to the creek. The creek gets loud. It gets fast. It gets full to the top. Nobody wades in it now.

People change what they do. Boots wait by every door. The town crew rakes the leaves and sticks out of the ditch. They want the melt to have a clear path. If the ditch is packed, the water spills onto the road. Farmers wait for the mud to dry. Wet mud is too soft to plant in.

By summer the creek is low again. It is slow and clear. Now people water their gardens in the cool part of the day. In fall the rain comes back. After that the snow comes back too. Then the town does it all again.

Questions

  1. What piles up in Fiddler's Bend in winter?
  2. What makes the snow melt?
  3. Where does the water from the roofs go first?
  4. Why does the town crew rake the ditch clear?
  5. Why do the farmers wait before they plant?
  6. Tell the melt in order: first, next, last. Then draw the part you liked best.

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: Snow. The passage says snow piles up on the roofs, on the yards, and in the ditch by the road.
  2. Answer: The warm sun. The passage says the sun climbs higher and the days get warm before the snow starts to melt.
  3. Answer: Down the yards and into the ditch. Accept "the ditch" alone; children who add "then the creek" are reading ahead correctly.
  4. Answer: So the melt water has a clear path. The passage says a packed ditch makes the water spill onto the road.
  5. Answer: The mud is too soft and wet to plant in. Accept "they wait for it to dry."
  6. Answer: Snow piles up, then the sun melts it and the creek runs full, and last the creek gets low in summer. Accept any retelling with those three stages in order, plus any drawn part the child can name.

Differentiation

Support

Give these children three picture cards showing deep snow, a full creek, and a low summer creek, and let them lay the cards in order for question six instead of retelling in words. For questions one and two, offer two picture choices each and let the child point to the answer.

Extension

Ask these children to add a fourth stage to the picture order, the fall rain, and to dictate a sentence explaining what the ditch does then. Invite them to write one rule the town of Fiddler's Bend could post about keeping leaves out of the ditch in fall.

ELL supports

Pre-teach melt, ditch, creek, and plant with a gesture the class copies, such as fingers falling for melt and a scooping motion for ditch. Provide the frames "The snow ____." and "The water goes to the ____." Accept home-language retellings and add the English stage words as you scribe.

Extensions

Put a tray of ice cubes on a sunny windowsill and a second tray in the shade, then check both after lunch and talk about which town would see its creek rise first. Walk the schoolyard after a rain and follow the water's path from the roof downspout to the low spot or the grate, naming each stop the way the passage does.