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From Cotton Boll to T-Shirt

5th grade nonfiction passage about how cotton becomes cloth: 208 words, six questions, an answer key and vocabulary.

5th grade nonfiction how cotton becomes cloth 208 words

From Cotton Boll to T-Shirt

The soft T-shirt in your drawer began as a plant. Cotton grows best in warm places with plenty of sunshine. A farmer plants the seeds in spring, and the plants grow into bushes covered in pale flowers.

When a flower fades, a green pod called a boll takes its place. Inside the boll, the seeds are wrapped in fluffy white fibers. As the boll ripens, it dries and splits open, and the fluff puffs out like a tiny cloud. Machines harvest the cotton once the bolls have opened.

Next, the cotton goes to a factory called a gin. The gin pulls the fibers away from the seeds, which are saved for planting or other uses. The fibers are pressed into large bundles and shipped to a mill.

At the mill, machines comb the fibers until they lie in neat, parallel lines. Then they twist the fibers together into long, strong thread. This twisting is called spinning.

The thread is woven or knitted into cloth. Knitted cloth stretches more, and that is what most T-shirts are made from. Finally, the cloth may be dyed, cut into pieces, and sewn into shirts.

Many steps and many workers were needed to turn a fluffy boll into something you wear.

Questions

  1. What is a boll? in the text

  2. What does a gin do? in the text

  3. What happens to the fibers at the mill? in the text

  4. What is spinning? in the text

  5. Why are most T-shirts made from knitted cloth? think about it

  6. Why does the writer say many workers were needed? think about it

Words to know

boll
the seed pod of a cotton plant
fibers
thin threads that can be twisted together
ripens
becomes fully grown and ready
parallel
lying side by side in the same direction
woven
made by crossing threads over and under each 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 · 183 words · Flesch-Kincaid grade 2.5

Your soft T-shirt began as a plant. Cotton grows best in warm places with lots of sun. A farmer plants the seeds in spring. The plants grow into bushes with pale flowers.

When a flower fades, a green pod called a boll grows in its place. Inside the boll, the seeds are wrapped in fluffy white fibers. The boll dries and splits open. The fluff puffs out like a tiny cloud. Machines pick the cotton when the bolls are open.

Next, the cotton goes to a factory called a gin. The gin pulls the fibers off the seeds. The fibers are pressed into big bundles and sent to a mill.

At the mill, machines comb the fibers until they lie in neat lines. Then the machines twist the fibers into long, strong thread. This is called spinning.

The thread is woven or knitted into cloth. Knitted cloth stretches more. Most T-shirts are made from it. Last, the cloth may be dyed, cut, and sewn into shirts.

It takes many steps and many workers to turn a fluffy boll into a shirt.

▲ This passage · 208 words · Flesch-Kincaid grade 4.6

The soft T-shirt in your drawer began as a plant. Cotton grows best in warm places with plenty of sunshine. A farmer plants the seeds in spring, and the plants grow into bushes covered in pale flowers.

When a flower fades, a green pod called a boll takes its place. Inside the boll, the seeds are wrapped in fluffy white fibers. As the boll ripens, it dries and splits open, and the fluff puffs out like a tiny cloud. Machines harvest the cotton once the bolls have opened.

Next, the cotton goes to a factory called a gin. The gin pulls the fibers away from the seeds, which are saved for planting or other uses. The fibers are pressed into large bundles and shipped to a mill.

At the mill, machines comb the fibers until they lie in neat, parallel lines. Then they twist the fibers together into long, strong thread. This twisting is called spinning.

The thread is woven or knitted into cloth. Knitted cloth stretches more, and that is what most T-shirts are made from. Finally, the cloth may be dyed, cut into pieces, and sewn into shirts.

Many steps and many workers were needed to turn a fluffy boll into something you wear.

■ Harder · 218 words · Flesch-Kincaid grade 7.2

The soft T-shirt in your drawer originated as a plant. Cotton flourishes in warm regions with abundant sunshine, and a farmer sows the seeds in spring so that they can grow into bushes covered with pale flowers.

When a flower fades, a green pod called a boll develops in its place. Inside the boll, the seeds are wrapped in fluffy white fibers. As the boll ripens, it dries out and splits open, and the fluff billows outward like a miniature cloud. Once the bolls have opened, machines gather the cotton from the fields.

The harvest then travels to a factory known as a gin, where the fibers are pulled away from the seeds, which are saved for planting or other purposes. The fibers are compressed into enormous bundles and shipped to a mill.

At the mill, machines comb the fibers until they lie in neat, parallel lines, and then twist them together into long, durable thread. This twisting process is called spinning.

The thread is subsequently woven or knitted into cloth. Knitted cloth stretches more readily, which is why most T-shirts are made from it. Finally, the cloth may be dyed, cut into pieces, and sewn into shirts.

Countless steps and many different workers are required to transform a fluffy boll into something you can wear.

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 boll, fibers, ripens, parallel and woven 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 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 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 "From Cotton Boll to T-Shirt"?

It was written for 5th grade. It has 208 words and works out to a Flesch-Kincaid grade level of about 4.6. 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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