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Pancake Pete Paves Maple Lane

4th grade fiction passage about a tall tale about a giant pancake: 208 words, six questions, an answer key and vocabulary.

4th grade fiction a tall tale about a giant pancake 208 words

Pancake Pete Paves Maple Lane

They say Pancake Pete once made the biggest breakfast the world had ever seen. His griddle was as wide as a pond, and his spatula was a barn door on a stick.

One snowy winter, the road called Maple Lane was nothing but mud and puddles. Wagons got stuck up to their axles. Pete felt sorry for the milkman, who had been pulling his cart out of the muck for weeks.

"I can fix that," said Pete. "I'm hungry anyway."

He mixed a batter from a hundred sacks of flour and a river of milk. He poured it across the griddle, and it sizzled so loudly that three towns woke up. When it was golden on one side, Pete flipped it with a mighty heave. The pancake flew high, spun twice, and landed with a soft *flump* along the whole length of Maple Lane.

It was warm, flat, and perfectly smooth. The wagons rolled right over it. The milkman sang all the way to market.

The only trouble was the smell. Every squirrel and sparrow in the county came to nibble the road. So Pete poured a little syrup on top to keep it shiny, and then he went back to the griddle to make a second breakfast.

Questions

  1. Why was Maple Lane hard to travel on? in the text

  2. What was Pete's spatula like? in the text

  3. How did Pete cook the giant pancake on both sides? in the text

  4. What did Pete pour on the road to keep it shiny? in the text

  5. Why did squirrels and sparrows come to the road? think about it

  6. How can you tell this story is a tall tale? think about it

Words to know

griddle
a flat metal pan for cooking pancakes
batter
a thick mix of flour and milk before it is cooked
sizzled
made a hissing sound while frying
axles
the bars that the wheels of a wagon turn on
spatula
a flat tool used to flip food
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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 · 185 words · Flesch-Kincaid grade 2.2

They say Pancake Pete once made the biggest breakfast ever. His griddle was as wide as a pond. His spatula was a barn door on a stick.

One snowy winter, Maple Lane was just mud and puddles. Wagons got stuck. The milkman had been pulling his cart out of the muck for weeks. Pete felt sorry for him.

"I can fix that," said Pete. "I'm hungry anyway."

He mixed batter from a hundred sacks of flour and a river of milk. He poured it on the griddle. It sizzled so loudly that three towns woke up. When one side was golden, Pete flipped it with a mighty heave. The pancake flew high. It spun twice. It landed with a soft *flump* along the whole length of Maple Lane.

It was warm, flat, and smooth. The wagons rolled right over it. The milkman sang all the way to market.

The only trouble was the smell. Every squirrel and sparrow in the county came to nibble the road. So Pete poured syrup on top to keep it shiny. Then he went back to make a second breakfast.

▲ This passage · 208 words · Flesch-Kincaid grade 3.9

They say Pancake Pete once made the biggest breakfast the world had ever seen. His griddle was as wide as a pond, and his spatula was a barn door on a stick.

One snowy winter, the road called Maple Lane was nothing but mud and puddles. Wagons got stuck up to their axles. Pete felt sorry for the milkman, who had been pulling his cart out of the muck for weeks.

"I can fix that," said Pete. "I'm hungry anyway."

He mixed a batter from a hundred sacks of flour and a river of milk. He poured it across the griddle, and it sizzled so loudly that three towns woke up. When it was golden on one side, Pete flipped it with a mighty heave. The pancake flew high, spun twice, and landed with a soft *flump* along the whole length of Maple Lane.

It was warm, flat, and perfectly smooth. The wagons rolled right over it. The milkman sang all the way to market.

The only trouble was the smell. Every squirrel and sparrow in the county came to nibble the road. So Pete poured a little syrup on top to keep it shiny, and then he went back to the griddle to make a second breakfast.

■ Harder · 221 words · Flesch-Kincaid grade 5.3

They say that Pancake Pete once cooked the largest breakfast the world had ever seen. His griddle was as wide as a pond, and his spatula was a barn door attached to a pole.

One snowy winter, the road called Maple Lane was nothing but mud and puddles. Wagons sank up to their axles, and the poor milkman had spent weeks hauling his cart out of the muck. Pete felt genuinely sorry for him.

"I can fix that," announced Pete. "I'm hungry anyway."

He stirred together a batter made from a hundred sacks of flour and a river of milk. When he poured it across the griddle, it sizzled so thunderously that three towns woke up. Once it had turned golden on one side, Pete flipped it with a mighty heave. The pancake soared high into the air, spun twice, and landed with a soft *flump* along the entire length of Maple Lane.

It was warm, flat, and perfectly smooth. The wagons rolled over it without a bump, and the milkman sang all the way to market.

The only difficulty was the delicious smell. Every squirrel and sparrow in the county came to nibble at the road. So Pete drizzled syrup over the top to keep it glossy, and then he hurried back to the griddle to cook a second breakfast.

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 griddle, batter, sizzled, axles and spatula on the board with their meanings from the Words to know section and have students predict what the story 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 retell the story in three sentences: how it began, what the problem was, and how it ended.
  • Print the student copy for independent work and keep the answer-key copy for yourself.

Related

Questions

What reading level is "Pancake Pete Paves Maple Lane"?

It was written for 4th grade. It has 208 words and works out to a Flesch-Kincaid grade level of about 3.9. 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. 4 ask for something the text says directly and 2 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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