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Telling Time When the Sun Hid

3rd grade nonfiction passage about water clocks: 161 words, six questions, an answer key and vocabulary.

3rd grade nonfiction water clocks 161 words

Telling Time When the Sun Hid

A sundial tells time with a shadow. But what if the sky is cloudy? What if it is night? A sundial cannot help then. So people in ancient Egypt, Greece, and other lands built clocks that ran on water.

A simple water clock was a bowl with a tiny hole near the bottom. The bowl was filled with water. Drip by drip, the water leaked out at a steady speed. Marks were drawn inside the bowl. As the water went down past each mark, people could tell how much time had passed.

Water clocks were used for many jobs. In ancient Greece, they were used in courts to make sure each speaker had the same amount of time to talk. When the bowl was empty, the speaker had to stop.

Water clocks were not perfect. Still, they worked at night, indoors, and on cloudy days. They kept people on time for hundreds of years, until clocks with gears took their place.

Questions

  1. Why does a sundial not work at night? in the text

  2. What did a simple water clock look like? in the text

  3. How could people tell how much time had passed? in the text

  4. How did courts in ancient Greece use water clocks? in the text

  5. Why was a water clock better than a sundial on a cloudy day? think about it

  6. Why did the water need to leak out at a steady speed? think about it

Words to know

sundial
a clock that uses a shadow to tell the time
shadow
a dark shape made when something blocks light
steady
staying the same, not speeding up or slowing down
ancient
from a very long time ago
courts
places where people go to settle arguments by law
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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 · 142 words · Flesch-Kincaid grade 2.5

A sundial tells time with a shadow. But what if the sky is cloudy? What if it is night? A sundial cannot help. So people in ancient Egypt, Greece, and other lands built clocks that ran on water.

A simple water clock was a bowl with a tiny hole near the bottom. The bowl was filled with water. Drip by drip, the water leaked out at a steady speed. Marks were drawn inside the bowl. When the water went down past a mark, people knew time had passed.

Water clocks were used in many ways. In ancient Greece, courts used them. Each speaker got the same time to talk. When the bowl was empty, the speaker had to stop.

Water clocks were not perfect. But they worked at night and on cloudy days. They kept people on time for hundreds of years.

▲ This passage · 161 words · Flesch-Kincaid grade 3.1

A sundial tells time with a shadow. But what if the sky is cloudy? What if it is night? A sundial cannot help then. So people in ancient Egypt, Greece, and other lands built clocks that ran on water.

A simple water clock was a bowl with a tiny hole near the bottom. The bowl was filled with water. Drip by drip, the water leaked out at a steady speed. Marks were drawn inside the bowl. As the water went down past each mark, people could tell how much time had passed.

Water clocks were used for many jobs. In ancient Greece, they were used in courts to make sure each speaker had the same amount of time to talk. When the bowl was empty, the speaker had to stop.

Water clocks were not perfect. Still, they worked at night, indoors, and on cloudy days. They kept people on time for hundreds of years, until clocks with gears took their place.

■ Harder · 178 words · Flesch-Kincaid grade 8

A sundial tells the time by means of a shadow, but what happens when the sky is overcast, or when night has fallen? In those conditions a sundial is useless, which is why the people of ancient Egypt, Greece, and other lands invented clocks that ran on water.

A simple water clock was a bowl with a tiny hole near the bottom. When the bowl was filled, the water leaked out drop by drop at a steady speed. Marks were drawn on the inside of the bowl, and as the water sank past each mark, people could tell how much time had gone by.

Water clocks served many purposes. In ancient Greece, they were used in courts to make certain that every speaker was given exactly the same amount of time to talk, and once the bowl was empty, the speaker had to stop.

Water clocks were far from perfect. Nevertheless, they worked at night, indoors, and on cloudy days, and they kept people on time for hundreds of years, until clocks with gears eventually took their place.

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 sundial, shadow, steady, ancient and courts 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 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 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 "Telling Time When the Sun Hid"?

It was written for 3rd grade. It has 161 words and works out to a Flesch-Kincaid grade level of about 3.1. 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 six. 4 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 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.

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