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How Paper Is Made

4th grade nonfiction passage about how things are made: 169 words, six questions, an answer key and vocabulary.

4th grade nonfiction how things are made 169 words

How Paper Is Made

Most paper starts as wood from trees. Many of the trees are grown on tree farms. Trucks carry the logs to a paper mill, where machines strip off the bark and chop the wood into small chips.

Next, the chips are cooked in water with chemicals until they break down into soft fibers. The mixture is called pulp. It looks like thick, lumpy oatmeal. The pulp is washed, and if the paper will be white, it is also cleaned to make it brighter.

Then the pulp is sprayed onto a moving screen. Most of the water drains away through tiny holes, and the fibers tangle together into a thin, wet sheet. Heavy rollers squeeze the sheet to press out more water, and hot rollers dry it. At the end, the paper is wound onto giant rolls and cut into sheets.

Paper can be recycled. Old paper is mixed with water and broken into pulp again, so it can be made into new sheets. Recycling helps save trees and energy.

Questions

  1. What is most paper made from? in the text

  2. What happens to the wood at the paper mill before it is cooked? in the text

  3. What is pulp? in the text

  4. What do the heavy rollers do? in the text

  5. Why does the pulp get sprayed onto a screen with tiny holes? think about it

  6. How can old paper become new paper? in the text

Words to know

mill
a factory where a material is made or processed
fibers
thin threads that make up a material
pulp
a soft, wet mixture made from wood fibers and water
recycled
used again to make something new
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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 · 160 words · Flesch-Kincaid grade 2.8

Most paper starts as wood from trees. Many of the trees grow on tree farms. Trucks bring the logs to a paper mill. There, machines strip off the bark and chop the wood into small chips.

Next, the chips are cooked in water with chemicals. They break down into soft fibers. The mixture is called pulp. It looks like thick, lumpy oatmeal. The pulp is washed. If the paper will be white, it is also cleaned to make it brighter.

Then the pulp is sprayed onto a moving screen. Most of the water drains out through tiny holes. The fibers tangle together into a thin, wet sheet. Heavy rollers squeeze out more water, and hot rollers dry the sheet. At the end, the paper is wound onto giant rolls and cut into sheets.

Paper can be recycled. Old paper is mixed with water and made into pulp again. Then it can become new sheets. Recycling helps save trees and energy.

▲ This passage · 169 words · Flesch-Kincaid grade 4.3

Most paper starts as wood from trees. Many of the trees are grown on tree farms. Trucks carry the logs to a paper mill, where machines strip off the bark and chop the wood into small chips.

Next, the chips are cooked in water with chemicals until they break down into soft fibers. The mixture is called pulp. It looks like thick, lumpy oatmeal. The pulp is washed, and if the paper will be white, it is also cleaned to make it brighter.

Then the pulp is sprayed onto a moving screen. Most of the water drains away through tiny holes, and the fibers tangle together into a thin, wet sheet. Heavy rollers squeeze the sheet to press out more water, and hot rollers dry it. At the end, the paper is wound onto giant rolls and cut into sheets.

Paper can be recycled. Old paper is mixed with water and broken into pulp again, so it can be made into new sheets. Recycling helps save trees and energy.

■ Harder · 181 words · Flesch-Kincaid grade 6.7

Most paper begins as wood from trees, and many of those trees are cultivated on tree farms. Trucks transport the logs to a paper mill, where enormous machines strip off the bark and chop the wood into small chips.

Next, the chips are cooked in water with chemicals until they break down into soft fibers. This mixture is called pulp, and it resembles thick, lumpy oatmeal. The pulp is washed, and if the paper is meant to be white, it is also treated to make it brighter.

Then the pulp is sprayed onto a moving screen. Most of the water drains away through tiny holes while the fibers tangle together into a thin, wet sheet. Heavy rollers squeeze the sheet to press out additional water, and hot rollers dry it completely. At the end of the process, the paper is wound onto giant rolls and cut into sheets.

Paper can also be recycled. Old paper is mixed with water and broken down into pulp once again, so that it can be transformed into new sheets. Recycling helps conserve trees and energy.

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 mill, fibers, pulp and recycled 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 "How Paper Is Made"?

It was written for 4th grade. It has 169 words and works out to a Flesch-Kincaid grade level of about 4.3. 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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