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From Candle Flame to Light Bulb

4th grade nonfiction passage about lighting a home over time: 178 words, six questions, an answer key and vocabulary.

4th grade nonfiction lighting a home over time 178 words

From Candle Flame to Light Bulb

Think about what happens when the sun goes down. Today you flip a switch. Long ago, evenings looked very different.

For a very long time, the main light inside a home was a fire in the fireplace. It gave off light, but it also gave off smoke, and it could not be carried easily from room to room.

Later, people made candles. Candles were made from wax or from animal fat, and each one burned down and had to be replaced. A candle gave only a small, flickering glow, so families often went to bed soon after dark.

Then came oil lamps, which burned oil in a container with a wick. They were brighter than candles and could be carried. In some towns, gas lamps were later lit along city streets.

In the late 1800s, inventors made electric light bulbs that were safe and cheap enough to use at home. A bulb needed no flame to burn and no oil to pour. Once houses were wired for electricity, people could read, cook and play games long after dark.

Questions

  1. What was the main light inside a home for a very long time? in the text

  2. What were candles made from? in the text

  3. Why did families often go to bed soon after dark in candle times? in the text

  4. How was an oil lamp better than a candle? in the text

  5. Why did electric light change how people used their evenings? think about it

  6. What did a light bulb not need that older lights did? in the text

Words to know

flickering
shining in an unsteady way, going bright and dim
wick
the string in a candle or lamp that carries the flame
inventors
people who think up and make new things
electricity
a kind of energy that travels through wires and powers lights
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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 · 158 words · Flesch-Kincaid grade 2.8

Think about when the sun goes down. Today you flip a switch. Long ago, evenings were very different.

For a long time, the main light in a home was a fire in the fireplace. It gave light, but it gave smoke too. It was hard to carry to another room.

Later, people made candles. Candles were made of wax or animal fat. Each one burned down and had to be replaced. A candle gave only a small, flickering glow. So families often went to bed soon after dark.

Then came oil lamps. They burned oil in a pot with a wick. They were brighter than candles and could be carried. In some towns, gas lamps were lit along the streets.

In the late 1800s, inventors made electric light bulbs that were safe and cheap for homes. A bulb needed no flame and no oil. Once homes had electricity, people could read, cook and play games late at night.

▲ This passage · 178 words · Flesch-Kincaid grade 4.8

Think about what happens when the sun goes down. Today you flip a switch. Long ago, evenings looked very different.

For a very long time, the main light inside a home was a fire in the fireplace. It gave off light, but it also gave off smoke, and it could not be carried easily from room to room.

Later, people made candles. Candles were made from wax or from animal fat, and each one burned down and had to be replaced. A candle gave only a small, flickering glow, so families often went to bed soon after dark.

Then came oil lamps, which burned oil in a container with a wick. They were brighter than candles and could be carried. In some towns, gas lamps were later lit along city streets.

In the late 1800s, inventors made electric light bulbs that were safe and cheap enough to use at home. A bulb needed no flame to burn and no oil to pour. Once houses were wired for electricity, people could read, cook and play games long after dark.

■ Harder · 178 words · Flesch-Kincaid grade 8.1

Consider what happens when the sun sets. Today you simply flip a switch. Centuries ago, evenings looked dramatically different.

For an extremely long time, the principal source of light inside a home was a fire burning in the fireplace. It provided illumination, but it also produced smoke, and it could not easily be carried from one room to another.

Eventually, people began making candles from wax or from animal fat, and each candle burned down and had to be replaced. Because a candle produced only a small, flickering glow, families frequently went to bed shortly after dark.

Oil lamps followed, burning oil in a container fitted with a wick. They shone more brightly than candles and could be carried around the house. In some towns, gas lamps were later lit along the streets.

During the late 1800s, inventors developed electric light bulbs that were safe and inexpensive enough for ordinary homes. A bulb required no open flame and no oil to pour. Once houses were wired for electricity, people could read, cook and play games long after nightfall.

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 flickering, wick, inventors and electricity 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 "From Candle Flame to Light Bulb"?

It was written for 4th grade. It has 178 words and works out to a Flesch-Kincaid grade level of about 4.8. 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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