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How the Wood Frog Freezes and Thaws

4th grade nonfiction passage about frogs in winter: 200 words, six questions, an answer key and vocabulary.

4th grade nonfiction frogs in winter 200 words

How the Wood Frog Freezes and Thaws

When winter comes, many frogs bury themselves in mud at the bottom of a pond, where it stays unfrozen. The wood frog does something stranger. It stays on land and lets itself freeze.

In the fall, a wood frog crawls under fallen leaves in the forest. As the weather gets colder, ice slowly forms in the spaces around its body. Soon the frog is stiff and hard. Its heart stops beating, and it does not breathe. To a person, it looks like a frozen frog.

But the frog is not harmed. Its body makes a lot of sugar before the freeze begins, and the sugar fills its cells. This keeps the insides of the cells from turning to ice, which could damage them. Ice forms only in the spaces outside the cells.

The frog may stay frozen for days or weeks. Then, on a warm spring day, the ice melts. The frog's heart starts to beat again, and it begins to breathe. Before long, it hops off to find a pond and a mate.

Each part of this is part of the frog's survival plan. Few animals can freeze in winter and wake up as well as the wood frog.

Questions

  1. Where do many frogs spend the winter? in the text

  2. Where does a wood frog spend the winter? in the text

  3. What happens to a wood frog's heart when it freezes? in the text

  4. How does the sugar protect the frog? in the text

  5. What does the frog do when spring comes? in the text

  6. Why does the writer say the frog's body is not harmed by freezing? think about it

Words to know

thaws
warms up and melts after being frozen
cells
the tiny building blocks that make up a living thing
stiff
hard and not easy to bend
survival
staying alive
mate
a partner that an animal has young with
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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 · 146 words · Flesch-Kincaid grade 1.2

In winter, many frogs bury themselves in mud at the bottom of a pond. The mud stays unfrozen. The wood frog does something stranger. It stays on land and lets itself freeze.

In fall, a wood frog crawls under leaves in the forest. When the weather gets cold, ice forms around its body. Soon the frog is stiff and hard. Its heart stops. It does not breathe. It looks like a frozen frog.

But the frog is fine. Before the freeze, its body makes a lot of sugar. The sugar fills its cells. It keeps the insides of the cells from turning to ice. Ice forms only outside the cells.

The frog may stay frozen for days or weeks. Then, on a warm spring day, the ice melts. The frog's heart beats again. It breathes. Soon it hops off to find a pond and a mate.

▲ This passage · 200 words · Flesch-Kincaid grade 3.1

When winter comes, many frogs bury themselves in mud at the bottom of a pond, where it stays unfrozen. The wood frog does something stranger. It stays on land and lets itself freeze.

In the fall, a wood frog crawls under fallen leaves in the forest. As the weather gets colder, ice slowly forms in the spaces around its body. Soon the frog is stiff and hard. Its heart stops beating, and it does not breathe. To a person, it looks like a frozen frog.

But the frog is not harmed. Its body makes a lot of sugar before the freeze begins, and the sugar fills its cells. This keeps the insides of the cells from turning to ice, which could damage them. Ice forms only in the spaces outside the cells.

The frog may stay frozen for days or weeks. Then, on a warm spring day, the ice melts. The frog's heart starts to beat again, and it begins to breathe. Before long, it hops off to find a pond and a mate.

Each part of this is part of the frog's survival plan. Few animals can freeze in winter and wake up as well as the wood frog.

■ Harder · 199 words · Flesch-Kincaid grade 6

When winter arrives, many frogs bury themselves in the mud at the bottom of a pond, where the water remains unfrozen. The wood frog, however, follows a far stranger strategy. It remains on land and permits itself to freeze solid.

In the fall, a wood frog crawls beneath the fallen leaves of the forest floor. As the weather grows colder, ice gradually forms in the spaces surrounding its body. Before long the frog is rigid, its heart has stopped beating and it no longer breathes. To a casual observer, it appears to be nothing more than a frozen frog.

Yet the frog is not harmed. Before the freeze begins, its body produces a large amount of sugar, which fills its cells and prevents their insides from turning to ice, a change that could damage them. Ice forms only in the spaces outside the cells.

The frog may remain frozen for days or even weeks. Then, on a warm spring day, the ice melts, its heart resumes beating and it begins to breathe again. Soon it hops away to find a pond and a mate. Few animals can freeze through the winter and wake as successfully as the wood frog.

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 thaws, cells, stiff, survival and mate 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 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 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 the Wood Frog Freezes and Thaws"?

It was written for 4th grade. It has 200 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. 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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