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Vanilla Flowers and the Helping Human Hand

4th grade nonfiction passage about vanilla pods: 177 words, six questions, an answer key and vocabulary.

4th grade nonfiction vanilla pods 177 words

Vanilla Flowers and the Helping Human Hand

The flavor of vanilla comes from a long, thin pod. That pod grows on a vine, a kind of orchid. To get a pod, a flower must first be pollinated. Pollen has to move from one part of the flower to another.

In the place where vanilla first grew, a small native insect did this job. In many other places, that insect does not live. So farmers must pollinate each flower by hand.

Each vanilla flower opens for only a single morning. A worker has to find it and use a small stick to move the pollen at just the right time. If the worker misses the morning, there will be no pod. A farmer may check hundreds of vines each day.

When the pods are picked, they are green and have almost no smell. They are warmed, left to sweat, and dried in the sun over many weeks. Slowly they turn dark brown and wrinkled, and the rich smell grows stronger.

Hand work and long waiting are why real vanilla costs more than many other flavors.

Questions

  1. What part of the vanilla plant gives the flavor? in the text

  2. What kind of plant is vanilla? in the text

  3. Why must farmers pollinate vanilla flowers by hand in many places? in the text

  4. How long does each vanilla flower stay open? in the text

  5. What happens to the pods after they are picked? in the text

  6. Why does real vanilla cost more than many other flavors? think about it

Words to know

pod
a long case that holds seeds
orchid
a kind of flowering plant with unusual blooms
pollinated
given pollen so a flower can make seeds or fruit
wrinkled
covered with small folds or lines
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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 · 153 words · Flesch-Kincaid grade 2.7

The flavor of vanilla comes from a long, thin pod. The pod grows on a vine. The vine is a kind of orchid. A flower must be pollinated before it makes a pod. Pollen has to move from one part of the flower to another.

Where vanilla first grew, a small native insect did this job. In many other places, that insect does not live. So farmers pollinate each flower by hand.

Each flower opens for just one morning. A worker uses a small stick to move the pollen at the right time. If the worker misses the morning, there is no pod. A farmer may check hundreds of vines each day.

Picked pods are green. They have almost no smell. They are warmed and dried in the sun for many weeks. They turn dark brown and wrinkled. The rich smell grows strong.

Hand work and long waiting make real vanilla cost more.

▲ This passage · 177 words · Flesch-Kincaid grade 4.1

The flavor of vanilla comes from a long, thin pod. That pod grows on a vine, a kind of orchid. To get a pod, a flower must first be pollinated. Pollen has to move from one part of the flower to another.

In the place where vanilla first grew, a small native insect did this job. In many other places, that insect does not live. So farmers must pollinate each flower by hand.

Each vanilla flower opens for only a single morning. A worker has to find it and use a small stick to move the pollen at just the right time. If the worker misses the morning, there will be no pod. A farmer may check hundreds of vines each day.

When the pods are picked, they are green and have almost no smell. They are warmed, left to sweat, and dried in the sun over many weeks. Slowly they turn dark brown and wrinkled, and the rich smell grows stronger.

Hand work and long waiting are why real vanilla costs more than many other flavors.

■ Harder · 193 words · Flesch-Kincaid grade 8

The distinctive flavor of vanilla comes from a long, slender pod that grows on a climbing vine, which is a kind of orchid. Before a pod can form, however, the flower must first be pollinated, which means that pollen has to be carried from one part of the blossom to another.

In the region where vanilla originally grew, a small native insect performed this task. In many other places, that insect does not live, so farmers have to pollinate every flower by hand.

Each vanilla flower stays open for only a single morning. A worker must locate it and use a tiny stick to move the pollen at precisely the right moment. If the worker misses that morning, no pod will develop, and a farmer may have to check hundreds of vines every day.

When the pods are picked, they are green and have almost no scent. They are warmed, left to sweat, and then dried in the sun over many weeks. Gradually they turn dark brown and wrinkled while their rich smell grows stronger.

The careful hand work and the long waiting explain why real vanilla costs more than many other flavors.

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 pod, orchid, pollinated and wrinkled 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 "Vanilla Flowers and the Helping Human Hand"?

It was written for 4th grade. It has 177 words and works out to a Flesch-Kincaid grade level of about 4.1. 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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