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Ducks at the Pond

1st grade nonfiction passage about animals: 84 words, five questions, an answer key and vocabulary.

1st grade nonfiction animals 84 words

Ducks at the Pond

Ducks live by a pond. A pond is a small lake. The pond is a good home for ducks.

A duck can swim. Its feet are big and flat. The flat feet push the water like paddles. A duck can also fly. It has strong wings.

A duck eats plants, bugs, and small fish. It puts its head under the water to look for food.

When it gets out of the pond, a duck stays dry. Oil on its feathers keeps the water off.

Questions

  1. Where do ducks live? in the text

  2. What do a duck's big, flat feet do? in the text

  3. What are two things a duck eats? in the text

  4. Why does a duck put its head under the water? think about it

  5. What keeps a duck dry when it gets out of the water? in the text

Words to know

pond
a small lake
paddle
a flat tool that pushes water to move a boat
feathers
the light, soft coat on a bird's body
oil
a smooth liquid that water slides off

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 pond, paddle, feathers and oil on the board with their meanings from the Words to know section and have students predict what the text 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 4 asks the reader to infer. Ask students to point to the words in the passage that led them to their answer.
  • Ask students to write one question the passage did not answer, then look for the answer in a book or on a classroom screen.
  • Print the student copy for independent work and keep the answer-key copy for yourself.

Related

Questions

What reading level is "Ducks at the Pond"?

It was written for 1st grade. It has 84 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.

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