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The Left Mitten Mystery

4th grade fiction passage about a lost and found puzzle: 223 words, seven questions, an answer key and vocabulary.

4th grade fiction a lost and found puzzle 223 words

The Left Mitten Mystery

The lost-and-found box at Pine Hill School held forty-one things, and all of them had owners. All except one purple mitten with a white star on it.

Every day for a week, Nia held the mitten up in the hallway. "Does this belong to anyone?" she asked. Nobody said yes.

Nia was the box monitor that month, and she did not like leaving a puzzle unsolved. So she studied the mitten like a detective. It was small, so the owner was probably a younger child. It was damp near the thumb, so someone had been playing in the snow. And the star was stitched with uneven thread, as if someone had made it by hand.

"A grown-up made this," Nia said to herself. "Maybe a grandparent."

On Friday, she visited the kindergarten room and asked the teacher about a child with a grandmother who knits. The teacher thought for a moment. "Little Tobias," she said. "His grandmother knitted him mittens for his birthday."

Tobias was building a block tower in the corner. When he saw the mitten, his eyes went wide. He pulled its twin out of his coat pocket and held them side by side.

They matched perfectly. Nia put the mitten in his hand, and she crossed it off the list with a big green check mark.

Questions

  1. What was special about the purple mitten in the box? in the text

  2. What job did Nia have that month? in the text

  3. Why did Nia think the owner was a younger child? in the text

  4. What clue showed that someone had been playing in snow? in the text

  5. Why did Nia think a grandparent might have made the mitten? think about it

  6. Where did Nia go to find the owner? in the text

  7. How did Tobias prove the mitten was his? in the text

Words to know

monitor
a student who has a special job to look after something
detective
a person who looks for clues to solve a mystery
stitched
sewn with a needle and thread
uneven
not smooth or matching all the way along
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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 · 181 words · Flesch-Kincaid grade 2

The lost-and-found box at Pine Hill School held forty-one things. All of them had owners. All except one purple mitten with a white star.

Each day for a week, Nia held up the mitten. "Is this yours?" she asked. Nobody said yes.

Nia was the box monitor that month. She did not like a puzzle with no answer. So she looked at the mitten like a detective. It was small, so the owner was young. It was damp by the thumb, so someone had played in snow. The star was sewn with uneven thread. It was made by hand.

"A grown-up made this," Nia thought. "Maybe a grandparent."

On Friday, she went to the kindergarten room. She asked the teacher about a child whose grandmother knits. "Tobias," said the teacher. "His grandmother knitted him mittens."

Tobias was building a block tower. He saw the mitten and his eyes went wide. He took the twin mitten out of his coat pocket. They matched.

Nia gave him the mitten. She put a big green check mark on her list.

▲ This passage · 223 words · Flesch-Kincaid grade 3.8

The lost-and-found box at Pine Hill School held forty-one things, and all of them had owners. All except one purple mitten with a white star on it.

Every day for a week, Nia held the mitten up in the hallway. "Does this belong to anyone?" she asked. Nobody said yes.

Nia was the box monitor that month, and she did not like leaving a puzzle unsolved. So she studied the mitten like a detective. It was small, so the owner was probably a younger child. It was damp near the thumb, so someone had been playing in the snow. And the star was stitched with uneven thread, as if someone had made it by hand.

"A grown-up made this," Nia said to herself. "Maybe a grandparent."

On Friday, she visited the kindergarten room and asked the teacher about a child with a grandmother who knits. The teacher thought for a moment. "Little Tobias," she said. "His grandmother knitted him mittens for his birthday."

Tobias was building a block tower in the corner. When he saw the mitten, his eyes went wide. He pulled its twin out of his coat pocket and held them side by side.

They matched perfectly. Nia put the mitten in his hand, and she crossed it off the list with a big green check mark.

■ Harder · 244 words · Flesch-Kincaid grade 5.1

The lost-and-found box at Pine Hill School contained forty-one items, and every one of them had been traced back to its owner. Every one, that is, except a single purple mitten decorated with a white star.

Each day for a week, Nia held the mitten up in the crowded hallway. "Does this belong to anyone?" she called out. Nobody ever claimed it.

Nia was the box monitor that month, and she disliked leaving a puzzle unsolved. So she examined the mitten the way a detective would examine evidence. It was small, so the owner was probably a younger child. It was still damp near the thumb, which meant that someone had been playing in the snow. And the star was stitched with uneven thread, as though somebody had made it by hand.

"A grown-up made this," Nia reasoned. "Possibly a grandparent."

On Friday, she visited the kindergarten classroom and asked the teacher whether any child had a grandmother who knitted. The teacher thought for a moment. "That would be little Tobias," she replied. "His grandmother knitted him a pair of mittens for his birthday."

Tobias was constructing a tower of blocks in the corner. When he spotted the mitten, his eyes widened. He pulled its twin out of his coat pocket and held the two side by side.

They matched perfectly. Nia placed the mitten into his hand and crossed it off her list with a bold green check mark.

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 monitor, detective, stitched and uneven 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 "The Left Mitten Mystery"?

It was written for 4th grade. It has 223 words and works out to a Flesch-Kincaid grade level of about 3.8. 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 seven. 6 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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