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One Fence, Three Gardens

4th grade nonfiction passage about perimeter and area: 202 words, six questions, an answer key and vocabulary.

4th grade nonfiction perimeter and area 202 words

One Fence, Three Gardens

A gardener buys 12 feet of fence. She wants to fence in a rectangle of soil for her tomato plants. The question is, what shape of rectangle gives the plants the most room?

First, two words. The perimeter is the distance around the outside of a shape. For her garden, the perimeter is the 12 feet of fence. The area is the space inside the shape. It is measured in square feet, and you find it by multiplying the length by the width.

She can make three different rectangles with whole-number sides. One is 1 foot wide and 5 feet long. Add 1, 5, 1, and 5 to check the fence, and you get 12. Its area is 1 times 5, which is 5 square feet.

Another is 2 feet wide and 4 feet long. Again 2 plus 4 plus 2 plus 4 makes 12 feet of fence. Its area is 2 times 4, or 8 square feet.

The third is 3 feet wide and 3 feet long, a square. The fence is still 12 feet. Its area is 3 times 3, which is 9 square feet.

The same fence made three gardens, and the gardens were not the same size. The square held the most. The long, skinny garden held the least. A shape that is closer to a square usually fits more room inside the same fence.

Questions

  1. How much fence does the gardener buy? in the text

  2. What is perimeter? in the text

  3. How do you find the area of a rectangle? in the text

  4. What is the area of the garden that is 2 feet wide and 4 feet long? in the text

  5. Which of the three gardens holds the most room? in the text

  6. If the gardener wants the most room for her tomatoes, which shape should she choose and why? think about it

Words to know

perimeter
the distance all the way around a shape
area
the amount of flat space inside a shape
rectangle
a shape with four sides and four square corners
width
how wide something is from one side to the other
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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 · 156 words · Flesch-Kincaid grade 1.5

A gardener buys 12 feet of fence. She wants a rectangle of soil for her tomato plants. Which rectangle gives the plants the most room?

First, two words. The perimeter is the distance around a shape. Here, the perimeter is the 12 feet of fence. The area is the space inside the shape. It is in square feet. You find it by multiplying the length by the width.

She can make three rectangles with whole-number sides. One is 1 foot wide and 5 feet long. Add 1, 5, 1, and 5 to check the fence. It makes 12. Its area is 1 times 5, which is 5 square feet.

Another is 2 feet wide and 4 feet long. The fence is 12 feet. Its area is 2 times 4, or 8 square feet.

The third is 3 feet wide and 3 feet long. It is a square. The fence is 12 feet. Its area is 3 times 3, or 9 square feet.

The same fence made three gardens. The square held the most. The skinny one held the least.

▲ This passage · 202 words · Flesch-Kincaid grade 2.8

A gardener buys 12 feet of fence. She wants to fence in a rectangle of soil for her tomato plants. The question is, what shape of rectangle gives the plants the most room?

First, two words. The perimeter is the distance around the outside of a shape. For her garden, the perimeter is the 12 feet of fence. The area is the space inside the shape. It is measured in square feet, and you find it by multiplying the length by the width.

She can make three different rectangles with whole-number sides. One is 1 foot wide and 5 feet long. Add 1, 5, 1, and 5 to check the fence, and you get 12. Its area is 1 times 5, which is 5 square feet.

Another is 2 feet wide and 4 feet long. Again 2 plus 4 plus 2 plus 4 makes 12 feet of fence. Its area is 2 times 4, or 8 square feet.

The third is 3 feet wide and 3 feet long, a square. The fence is still 12 feet. Its area is 3 times 3, which is 9 square feet.

The same fence made three gardens, and the gardens were not the same size. The square held the most. The long, skinny garden held the least. A shape that is closer to a square usually fits more room inside the same fence.

■ Harder · 223 words · Flesch-Kincaid grade 6.3

A gardener purchases exactly 12 feet of fence, and she wants to enclose a rectangle of soil for her tomato plants. The puzzle she faces is deciding which rectangle will give the plants the greatest amount of room.

First, two important words. The perimeter is the distance around the outside of a shape, and for her garden the perimeter is simply the 12 feet of fence. The area is the amount of space inside the shape. It is measured in square feet, and you calculate it by multiplying the length by the width.

She is able to build three different rectangles with whole-number sides. The first is 1 foot wide and 5 feet long. Adding 1, 5, 1, and 5 confirms that it uses 12 feet of fence, and its area is 1 times 5, which equals 5 square feet.

The second is 2 feet wide and 4 feet long. Again 2 plus 4 plus 2 plus 4 totals 12 feet of fence, and its area is 2 times 4, which equals 8 square feet.

The third is 3 feet wide and 3 feet long, which makes it a square. The fence remains 12 feet, and its area is 3 times 3, or 9 square feet.

Although the fence never changed, it produced three gardens of different sizes. The square enclosed the most space, while the long, skinny rectangle enclosed the least. A shape that is closer to a square generally fits more room inside the same length of fence.

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 perimeter, area, rectangle and width 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 "One Fence, Three Gardens"?

It was written for 4th grade. It has 202 words and works out to a Flesch-Kincaid grade level of about 2.8. 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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