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The Dragon Who Hiccupped Bubbles

3rd grade fiction passage about a dragon with bubble hiccups: 145 words, six questions, an answer key and vocabulary.

3rd grade fiction a dragon with bubble hiccups 145 words

The Dragon Who Hiccupped Bubbles

Dragons in Cinder Valley are supposed to breathe fire. But a small green dragon named Fennel had a different problem. Whenever she got the hiccups, she blew bubbles.

Soapy bubbles floated out of her nose. Pop! Pop! They drifted over the village market, and people laughed. Fennel was embarrassed. She hid in her cave.

One windy afternoon, the baker's oven went out, and smoke filled the market. Nobody could see. The bakers coughed and called for help.

Fennel did not want to come out. Then she heard a little girl crying. She took a deep breath and blew with all her might. A huge cloud of bubbles rolled across the market. The bubbles soaked up the smoke and floated away over the hills.

"Thank you, Fennel!" shouted the villagers.

After that, whenever the oven smoked, someone would tap on her cave and say, "Hiccups, please?"

Questions

  1. What did Fennel blow when she got the hiccups? in the text

  2. Why did Fennel hide in her cave? in the text

  3. What went wrong at the market? in the text

  4. What made Fennel come out of her cave? in the text

  5. What did the bubbles do to the smoke? in the text

  6. How do you think Fennel felt about her bubbles at the end? think about it

Words to know

hiccups
quick little sounds your body makes by accident
embarrassed
feeling shy or silly in front of others
drifted
moved slowly along with the air
villagers
people who live in a small town
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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 · 140 words · Flesch-Kincaid grade 2.1

Dragons in Cinder Valley are meant to breathe fire. But a small green dragon named Fennel was not like that. When she got the hiccups, she blew bubbles.

Soapy bubbles floated from her nose. Pop! Pop! They drifted over the village market. People laughed. Fennel felt shy. She hid in her cave.

One windy day, the baker's oven went out. Smoke filled the market. Nobody could see. The bakers coughed and called for help.

Fennel did not want to come out. Then she heard a little girl cry. She took a deep breath and blew hard. A big cloud of bubbles rolled over the market. The bubbles soaked up the smoke. They floated away over the hills.

"Thank you, Fennel!" shouted the villagers.

After that, when the oven smoked, someone would tap on her cave. They would say, "Hiccups, please?"

▲ This passage · 145 words · Flesch-Kincaid grade 3.6

Dragons in Cinder Valley are supposed to breathe fire. But a small green dragon named Fennel had a different problem. Whenever she got the hiccups, she blew bubbles.

Soapy bubbles floated out of her nose. Pop! Pop! They drifted over the village market, and people laughed. Fennel was embarrassed. She hid in her cave.

One windy afternoon, the baker's oven went out, and smoke filled the market. Nobody could see. The bakers coughed and called for help.

Fennel did not want to come out. Then she heard a little girl crying. She took a deep breath and blew with all her might. A huge cloud of bubbles rolled across the market. The bubbles soaked up the smoke and floated away over the hills.

"Thank you, Fennel!" shouted the villagers.

After that, whenever the oven smoked, someone would tap on her cave and say, "Hiccups, please?"

■ Harder · 162 words · Flesch-Kincaid grade 5

Dragons in Cinder Valley are supposed to breathe fire, but a small green dragon named Fennel had an entirely different problem. Whenever she got the hiccups, she blew bubbles instead of flames.

Shimmering soapy bubbles floated out of her nose. Pop! Pop! They drifted over the village market, and the shoppers burst out laughing. Fennel was so embarrassed that she hid in her cave for days.

One windy afternoon, the baker's oven went out, and thick smoke billowed through the market. Nobody could see a thing. The bakers coughed and shouted for help.

Fennel did not want to come out. Then she heard a little girl crying. She took a deep breath and blew with all her might. An enormous cloud of bubbles rolled across the market, soaked up the smoke, and floated off over the hills.

"Thank you, Fennel!" shouted the villagers.

After that, whenever the oven started to smoke, somebody would tap on her cave and politely ask, "Hiccups, please?"

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 hiccups, embarrassed, drifted and villagers 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 6 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 Dragon Who Hiccupped Bubbles"?

It was written for 3rd grade. It has 145 words and works out to a Flesch-Kincaid grade level of about 3.6. 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 six. 5 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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