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Beans Feed the Soil: A Farmer's Crop Rotation

4th grade nonfiction passage about crop rotation: 186 words, six questions, an answer key and vocabulary.

4th grade nonfiction crop rotation 186 words

Beans Feed the Soil: A Farmer's Crop Rotation

Plants take their food out of the ground. Corn is hungry for nitrogen, a nutrient that is easy to use up. A farmer who grows corn on one field season after season will find that the soil runs low, and each crop comes in smaller.

The fix is a plan called crop rotation. Instead of repeating a crop, the farmer grows something new in each field every year and moves the crops around in a set order.

Beans and peas are the stars of a rotation. Their roots have tiny lumps, and living things inside the lumps pull nitrogen out of the air and turn it into plant food. After the bean plants die and rot, some of that nitrogen stays behind. The next year, corn planted there has more to eat.

Rotation helps in another way. Pests and diseases that like one crop may not like the next. If the crop changes, the pests that were waiting in the soil have less to eat.

A farm that rotates its crops may look like a patchwork quilt. Each patch is growing something different from last year.

Questions

  1. What nutrient does corn need a lot of? in the text

  2. What happens if corn is grown in the same field year after year? in the text

  3. What is crop rotation? in the text

  4. How do beans and peas help the soil? in the text

  5. Why might changing crops give pests less to eat? think about it

  6. Why does the passage say a rotating farm looks like a patchwork quilt? in the text

Words to know

nutrients
the things in soil that help plants grow
nitrogen
a plant food found in soil and in the air
rotation
a repeating pattern of change
pests
small animals or insects that harm crops
patchwork
made of many different pieces sewn side by side
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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 1.9

Plants need food from the soil. Corn needs a lot of nitrogen. If a farmer grows corn in the same field every year, the soil runs low on nitrogen. Then the corn grows smaller.

Farmers found a fix. It is called crop rotation. They plant a different crop in the field each year. They change the crops in a pattern.

Beans and peas help a lot. Their roots have tiny lumps. Living things in the lumps take nitrogen from the air and make it into food for plants. When the bean plants die, some nitrogen stays in the soil. Next year the corn has more to eat.

Rotation helps in another way. Pests that like one crop may not like the next. They have less to eat.

A farm with rotation looks like a patchwork quilt. Each patch is growing something new.

▲ This passage · 186 words · Flesch-Kincaid grade 4.6

Plants take their food out of the ground. Corn is hungry for nitrogen, a nutrient that is easy to use up. A farmer who grows corn on one field season after season will find that the soil runs low, and each crop comes in smaller.

The fix is a plan called crop rotation. Instead of repeating a crop, the farmer grows something new in each field every year and moves the crops around in a set order.

Beans and peas are the stars of a rotation. Their roots have tiny lumps, and living things inside the lumps pull nitrogen out of the air and turn it into plant food. After the bean plants die and rot, some of that nitrogen stays behind. The next year, corn planted there has more to eat.

Rotation helps in another way. Pests and diseases that like one crop may not like the next. If the crop changes, the pests that were waiting in the soil have less to eat.

A farm that rotates its crops may look like a patchwork quilt. Each patch is growing something different from last year.

■ Harder · 196 words · Flesch-Kincaid grade 9.5

Every plant depends on nutrients from the soil, and corn requires an especially large amount of one nutrient called nitrogen. If a farmer plants corn in the same field year after year, the soil gradually becomes depleted of nitrogen, and the corn grows smaller and weaker.

Farmers solved this problem with a method known as crop rotation. Instead of repeating the same crop, they plant something different in each field every year and shift the order in a regular pattern.

Beans and peas are particularly valuable in a rotation. Their roots carry tiny lumps, and living organisms inside those lumps capture nitrogen from the air and convert it into a form that plants are able to use. When the bean plants die and decay, some of that nitrogen remains in the soil, so corn planted the following year has more to feed on.

Rotation offers another advantage. Pests and diseases that favor one crop may ignore the next, so when the crop changes, the pests waiting in the soil find much less to eat.

A farm that rotates its crops may resemble a patchwork quilt, since each patch is growing something different from the year before.

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 nutrients, nitrogen, rotation, pests and patchwork 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 "Beans Feed the Soil: A Farmer's Crop Rotation"?

It was written for 4th grade. It has 186 words and works out to a Flesch-Kincaid grade level of about 4.6. 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 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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