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A Seed Grows

2nd grade nonfiction passage about plants: 107 words, five questions, an answer key and vocabulary.

2nd grade nonfiction plants 107 words

A Seed Grows

A bean seed looks small and dry. But inside the seed is a tiny plant, waiting to grow.

When a seed is planted in soft, wet soil, it drinks the water. The seed gets bigger. Then the seed coat cracks open.

A root pushes down into the soil. Roots hold the plant in place and soak up water. Next, a stem pushes up toward the light. The first two leaves open.

The little plant needs sunlight, water, and air to keep growing. In a few weeks it may be tall enough to make flowers. After the flowers, new bean pods grow, and the pods hold new seeds.

Questions

  1. What is inside a seed? in the text

  2. What does the seed do when it is planted in wet soil? in the text

  3. What are two jobs of a root? in the text

  4. What three things does a growing plant need? in the text

  5. How does the bean plant make more bean plants? think about it

Words to know

seed
the part of a plant that can grow into a new plant
root
the part of a plant that grows under the ground and drinks water
stem
the part of a plant that holds up the leaves and flowers
pod
a case that holds seeds
soak up
to take in a liquid

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 seed, root, stem, pod and soak up 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 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 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 "A Seed Grows"?

It was written for 2nd grade. It has 107 words and works out to a Flesch-Kincaid grade level of about 2.0. 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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