Skip to the content
Peabody TeachFor teachers and grown-ups

Ben and Tess Share

1st grade fiction passage about friendship: 108 words, five questions, an answer key and vocabulary.

1st grade fiction friendship 108 words

Ben and Tess Share

Ben had a red kite. Tess did not have a kite. She sat on the grass and looked at the sky.

"Do you want to fly my kite?" said Ben.

"Yes, please!" said Tess.

Ben held the string with Tess. The wind came and the kite went up, up, up. It went over the trees. Tess jumped and laughed.

Then the wind went away. The kite fell in a tree. It got stuck.

"Oh no," said Ben.

"We can get it," said Tess. She got a long stick. Ben held it up high. Together they got the kite down.

Tess smiled. "Now we have fun with one kite!"

Questions

  1. What did Ben have that Tess did not? in the text

  2. What did Ben do when Tess was looking at the sky? in the text

  3. What happened when the wind went away? in the text

  4. How did Ben and Tess get the kite down? in the text

  5. Why did Ben ask Tess to fly his kite? What does it tell you about Ben? think about it

Words to know

kite
a toy that flies on the wind at the end of a long string
string
thin cord you can hold
stuck
not able to move
together
with each other, as a team

How to use it

  1. Press Read it big (or B) to put the text on the projector, or Full screen (F) to fill the whole screen.
  2. Ask the questions one at a time and use Show answer when the class has decided. A shows or hides every answer.
  3. Print student copy for the class, or Print with answers for yourself.

Ideas for class

  • Before reading, put kite, string, stuck and together on the board with their meanings from the Words to know section and have students predict what the story will be about.
  • Read it aloud once while students follow along, then have them reread it alone or with a partner. At a calm 100 words a minute it takes about 1 minute to read aloud.
  • Use the Read it big button (or B) to put the text on the projector, and Show answer on one question at a time so the class commits to an answer first.
  • Question 5 asks the reader to infer. Ask students to point to the words in the passage that led them to their answer.
  • Ask students to retell the story in three sentences: how it began, what the problem was, and how it ended.
  • Print the student copy for independent work and keep the answer-key copy for yourself.

Related

Questions

What reading level is "Ben and Tess Share"?

It was written for 1st grade. It has 108 words and works out to a Flesch-Kincaid grade level of about below 1. That is a formula's estimate from sentence length and syllables, and it is not a Lexile or a guided reading level, so check it against your students.

What do the questions ask?

There are five. 4 ask for something the text says directly and 1 ask the reader to work something out from clues. Each has an answer in the key, and the answers are written as a teacher would accept them, not as the only possible wording.

How long does it take to read?

About 1 minute read aloud at 100 words a minute. For a one-minute fluency check, paste it into the fluency timer and use the word count.

Can I print it?

Yes. Print student copy gives the passage, the questions with lines to write on, and the word meanings. Print with answers gives the same page with the answers filled in. Both are made in your browser.

Is this passage from a published book?

No. It was written for Peabody Teach, so there is no book to buy and no login to read it.

Nothing you do here is sent to us. No sign-in, no ads.