Skip to the content
Peabody TeachFor teachers and grown-ups

An Acorn for the Missing Piece

2nd grade fiction passage about a lost game piece and a kind swap: 154 words, five questions, an answer key and vocabulary.

2nd grade fiction a lost game piece and a kind swap 154 words

An Acorn for the Missing Piece

Ivy and Dev sat on the porch with a board game. Ivy rolled the dice. Then she looked in the box. "Oh no," she said. "My little red car is gone."

"It is not in the box?" asked Dev.

"I lost it," said Ivy. Her eyes got wet. "We cannot play."

Dev looked around. A small brown acorn lay by the step. He picked it up and rubbed off the dirt.

"Here," he said. "The acorn can be your car."

"That is silly," said Ivy. But she smiled a little. She set it on the first square.

They played the whole game. The acorn rolled off the board twice. They laughed each time. Ivy won by one space.

The next week, Ivy found the red car under the couch. But she kept the acorn, too. She painted two tiny wheels on its side. Now the board game has a car and an acorn truck.

Questions

  1. What game piece was missing? in the text

  2. What did Dev use in place of the car? in the text

  3. Where did Ivy find the red car? in the text

  4. What did Ivy do to the acorn at the end? in the text

  5. Why did Ivy keep the acorn after she found the car? think about it

Words to know

porch
a covered space at the front or back of a house
acorn
the small nut of an oak tree
dice
small cubes with dots used in games
square
one of the spaces on a game board
Share

One passage, three levels

The same topic and facts written three ways, so a mixed class can read and talk about one text. Each group’s sheet shows only a shape; the key says which is which.

● Easier · 122 words · Flesch-Kincaid grade -0.7

Ivy and Dev sat on the porch with a board game. Ivy rolled the dice. Then she looked in the box. "Oh no. My red car is gone."

"It is not in the box?" asked Dev.

"I lost it," said Ivy. Her eyes got wet. "We can't play."

Dev looked around. A small brown acorn lay by the step. He rubbed off the dirt.

"Here," he said. "The acorn can be your car."

"That is silly," said Ivy. But she smiled. She put it on the first square.

They played the whole game. The acorn rolled off twice. They laughed. Ivy won.

Later, Ivy found the red car under the couch. She kept the acorn too. She painted two wheels on it.

▲ This passage · 154 words · Flesch-Kincaid grade -0.2

Ivy and Dev sat on the porch with a board game. Ivy rolled the dice. Then she looked in the box. "Oh no," she said. "My little red car is gone."

"It is not in the box?" asked Dev.

"I lost it," said Ivy. Her eyes got wet. "We cannot play."

Dev looked around. A small brown acorn lay by the step. He picked it up and rubbed off the dirt.

"Here," he said. "The acorn can be your car."

"That is silly," said Ivy. But she smiled a little. She set it on the first square.

They played the whole game. The acorn rolled off the board twice. They laughed each time. Ivy won by one space.

The next week, Ivy found the red car under the couch. But she kept the acorn, too. She painted two tiny wheels on its side. Now the board game has a car and an acorn truck.

■ Harder · 174 words · Flesch-Kincaid grade 1.6

Ivy and Dev sat on the front porch with a board game spread out between them. Ivy rolled the dice and then peered into the box. "Oh no," she said. "My little red car has disappeared."

"It is not in the box?" asked Dev.

"I must have lost it," said Ivy, and her eyes filled with tears. "Now we cannot play."

Dev glanced around the porch. A small brown acorn was lying beside the step. He picked it up and rubbed the dirt off its shell.

"Here," he offered. "The acorn can be your car."

"That is ridiculous," said Ivy. But she smiled a little, and she set it on the first square.

They played the entire game. The acorn rolled off the board twice, and they laughed each time. Ivy won by a single space.

The following week, Ivy discovered the red car under the couch. However, she kept the acorn as well. She painted two tiny wheels on its side, and now the game has both a car and an acorn truck.

Download as one PDF

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 porch, acorn, dice and square 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 2 minutes 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 "An Acorn for the Missing Piece"?

It was written for 2nd grade. It has 154 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 2 minutes 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.