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Leafcutter Ants Run a Fungus Farm

4th grade nonfiction passage about ants that farm: 202 words, six questions, an answer key and vocabulary.

4th grade nonfiction ants that farm 202 words

Leafcutter Ants Run a Fungus Farm

Walk through a tropical forest and you may see a long green line moving across the ground. It looks like a parade of tiny sails. Each sail is a piece of leaf, and each one is carried by a leafcutter ant.

Here is the strange part. The ants do not eat the leaves. They take them underground to a nest and use them as food for a garden.

The garden grows a kind of fungus. Workers chew the leaf pieces into a soft pulp and spread it out like a bed. They add bits of fungus, and the fungus grows. The ants eat the fungus, and it feeds the whole colony, including the young.

Every ant has a job. Larger workers cut leaves with sharp jaws. Smaller workers clean the garden and pick off anything that does not belong. Some of the tiniest ants even ride on the leaf pieces as they travel home.

The ants and the fungus need each other. The fungus gets fresh food and a safe place to grow. The ants get a meal that they could not make from leaves alone.

People were farming for thousands of years. Leafcutter ants have been doing it for much longer.

Questions

  1. What do leafcutter ants carry across the forest floor? in the text

  2. What do the ants use the leaves for? in the text

  3. What do the ants eat? in the text

  4. What jobs do the smaller workers do? in the text

  5. How do the fungus and the ants help each other? in the text

  6. Why does the writer say the ants have been farming longer than people? think about it

Words to know

fungus
a living thing, like a mushroom, that is not a plant or an animal
colony
a large group of animals that live and work together
pulp
a soft, wet mash
tropical
from the hot, wet parts of the world near the equator
jaws
the parts of the mouth used to bite and chew
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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 · 140 words · Flesch-Kincaid grade 1

Walk through a tropical forest. You may see a long green line on the ground. It looks like tiny sails. Each sail is a piece of leaf. An ant carries each one.

The ants do not eat the leaves. They take them to a nest under the ground. There, the leaves are food for a garden.

The garden grows a fungus. Workers chew the leaves into a soft mash. They spread it out like a bed. They add bits of fungus, and it grows. The ants eat the fungus. It feeds the whole colony.

Every ant has a job. Big workers cut leaves with sharp jaws. Small workers clean the garden. Some tiny ants ride on the leaf pieces.

The ants and the fungus need each other. The fungus gets food and a safe home. The ants get a meal.

▲ This passage · 202 words · Flesch-Kincaid grade 3.3

Walk through a tropical forest and you may see a long green line moving across the ground. It looks like a parade of tiny sails. Each sail is a piece of leaf, and each one is carried by a leafcutter ant.

Here is the strange part. The ants do not eat the leaves. They take them underground to a nest and use them as food for a garden.

The garden grows a kind of fungus. Workers chew the leaf pieces into a soft pulp and spread it out like a bed. They add bits of fungus, and the fungus grows. The ants eat the fungus, and it feeds the whole colony, including the young.

Every ant has a job. Larger workers cut leaves with sharp jaws. Smaller workers clean the garden and pick off anything that does not belong. Some of the tiniest ants even ride on the leaf pieces as they travel home.

The ants and the fungus need each other. The fungus gets fresh food and a safe place to grow. The ants get a meal that they could not make from leaves alone.

People were farming for thousands of years. Leafcutter ants have been doing it for much longer.

■ Harder · 201 words · Flesch-Kincaid grade 6.4

Walk through a tropical forest and you may notice a long green line winding across the ground, resembling a parade of miniature sails. Each sail is a fragment of leaf, and each is carried by a leafcutter ant.

Strangely, the ants do not eat these leaves. They carry them down into an underground nest and use them to feed a garden. The garden grows a kind of fungus. Workers chew the leaf fragments into a soft pulp and spread it out like a bed, then add bits of fungus, which spread and grow. The ants eat the fungus, and it nourishes the entire colony, including the young.

Every ant has a task. Larger workers slice the leaves with sharp jaws, while smaller workers tend the garden, cleaning it and removing anything that does not belong. Some of the tiniest ants even ride on the leaf pieces as they travel home.

The ants and the fungus depend on each other. The fungus receives fresh food and a protected place to grow, and the ants receive a meal that they could not make from leaves alone. Long before people began to farm, leafcutter ants had been doing it for a very long time.

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 fungus, colony, pulp, tropical and jaws 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 "Leafcutter Ants Run a Fungus Farm"?

It was written for 4th grade. It has 202 words and works out to a Flesch-Kincaid grade level of about 3.3. 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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