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The Robot Who Counted Raindrops

4th grade fiction passage about a robot and an impossible counting job: 183 words, six questions, an answer key and vocabulary.

4th grade fiction a robot and an impossible counting job 183 words

The Robot Who Counted Raindrops

Juniper was a small gray robot who loved numbers. On the first rainy day of spring, she rolled out to the porch and decided to count every raindrop that fell on the garden. "One, two, three," she began.

By the time she reached forty, the rain came faster. By two hundred, her counting light was blinking so quickly that it looked like a firefly. Her friend Tobias came out with a yellow raincoat.

"How many so far?" he asked.

"I lost track," Juniper said sadly. "There are too many, and they keep landing all at once."

Tobias scratched his head. "What if you count just one thing? Put a bucket out. Then count how many cups of rain fill it."

Juniper set a bucket by the tomato plants. When the rain stopped, she measured it carefully with a cup. It held six cups of water.

"That is not every raindrop," she said, "but now I know how much the garden drank today."

She wrote the number in her notebook and smiled. It was a better answer than the one she had first wanted.

Questions

  1. What job did Juniper decide to do on the porch? in the text

  2. Why did Juniper's counting light blink so fast? in the text

  3. What did Tobias tell her to do instead? in the text

  4. How many cups of water were in the bucket? in the text

  5. Why did Juniper decide the bucket answer was better than her first plan? think about it

  6. Where did Juniper put the bucket? in the text

Words to know

porch
a covered space at the front of a house
firefly
a small insect that blinks with light at night
measured
found out the size or amount of something
bucket
a round open container with a handle
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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 · 137 words · Flesch-Kincaid grade 2.7

Juniper was a small gray robot who loved numbers. On a rainy spring day, she rolled out to the porch. She wanted to count every raindrop that fell on the garden. "One, two, three," she began.

Soon the rain came faster. Her counting light blinked like a firefly. Her friend Tobias came out in a yellow raincoat.

"How many so far?" he asked.

"I lost track," Juniper said sadly. "There are too many."

Tobias thought. "Put a bucket out. Then count how many cups of rain fill it."

Juniper put a bucket by the tomato plants. When the rain stopped, she measured the water with a cup. It held six cups.

"That is not every raindrop," she said. "But now I know how much the garden drank today."

She wrote the number in her notebook and smiled.

▲ This passage · 183 words · Flesch-Kincaid grade 3.5

Juniper was a small gray robot who loved numbers. On the first rainy day of spring, she rolled out to the porch and decided to count every raindrop that fell on the garden. "One, two, three," she began.

By the time she reached forty, the rain came faster. By two hundred, her counting light was blinking so quickly that it looked like a firefly. Her friend Tobias came out with a yellow raincoat.

"How many so far?" he asked.

"I lost track," Juniper said sadly. "There are too many, and they keep landing all at once."

Tobias scratched his head. "What if you count just one thing? Put a bucket out. Then count how many cups of rain fill it."

Juniper set a bucket by the tomato plants. When the rain stopped, she measured it carefully with a cup. It held six cups of water.

"That is not every raindrop," she said, "but now I know how much the garden drank today."

She wrote the number in her notebook and smiled. It was a better answer than the one she had first wanted.

■ Harder · 197 words · Flesch-Kincaid grade 5.6

Juniper was a small gray robot with a deep passion for numbers. On the first rainy day of spring, she rolled out onto the porch and announced that she would count every single raindrop falling on the garden. "One, two, three," she began.

By the time she reached forty, the rain was coming down faster. By two hundred, her counting light was flickering so rapidly that it resembled a firefly. Her friend Tobias stepped outside in a bright yellow raincoat.

"How many so far?" he asked.

"I lost track," Juniper admitted sadly. "There are far too many, and they keep landing all at once."

Tobias scratched his head thoughtfully. "What if you counted something you can actually measure? Set out a bucket, and afterward count how many cups of rain have filled it."

Juniper placed a bucket beside the tomato plants. When the storm ended, she carefully measured the water with a cup. It held six cups.

"That is not every raindrop," she said, "but now I know exactly how much the garden drank today."

She recorded the number in her notebook and smiled, because it was a better answer than the one she had first wanted.

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 porch, firefly, measured and bucket 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 Robot Who Counted Raindrops"?

It was written for 4th grade. It has 183 words and works out to a Flesch-Kincaid grade level of about 3.5. 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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