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The Lost Mitten

2nd grade fiction passage about friendship: 141 words, five questions, an answer key and vocabulary.

2nd grade fiction friendship 141 words

The Lost Mitten

On the first snowy day of the year, Nia ran out to the school yard in her new red mittens. She made a snowball. She slid down the hill. She felt warm and happy.

When the bell rang, Nia looked at her hands. One mitten was gone!

"I can't go home without my mitten," said Nia. "My mom knitted them for me."

Her friend Omar saw that she looked sad. "We will find it," he said. "Let's look where you were playing."

They went back to the hill. They looked in the snow near the swings. They looked by the fence. Then Omar saw a bit of red by the big tree. It was the mitten, with snow packed inside.

Nia gave Omar a big hug. "Thank you for helping me," she said. Omar grinned. "That is what friends are for."

Questions

  1. What did Nia lose? in the text

  2. Why did Nia care so much about the mittens? in the text

  3. Where did Omar find the mitten? in the text

  4. How did Nia feel when she saw her hand? How can you tell? think about it

  5. What does Omar's "That is what friends are for" tell you about him? think about it

Words to know

mitten
a warm cover for the hand with one place for the thumb and one for the fingers
knit
to make cloth by looping yarn with long needles
fence
a wall of wood or wire around a yard
grin
to smile with a big, wide smile

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 mitten, knit, fence and grin 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 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 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 "The Lost Mitten"?

It was written for 2nd grade. It has 141 words and works out to a Flesch-Kincaid grade level of about 0.2. 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. 3 ask for something the text says directly and 2 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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