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How Glass Is Made

5th grade nonfiction passage about glass: 219 words, five questions, an answer key and vocabulary.

5th grade nonfiction glass 219 words

How Glass Is Made

Look around the room and you will probably see glass in a window, a cup, or a bottle. Glass seems like a modern material, yet people have been making it for thousands of years. Its main ingredient is something you can find at any beach, which is sand.

To make glass, workers start by mixing sand with a few other materials, such as soda ash and limestone. These ingredients help the sand melt at a lower heat and keep the finished glass strong. The mixture is poured into a furnace that is hotter than 2,500 degrees Fahrenheit. At that heat, the sand turns into a glowing, thick liquid.

While the glass is still soft, it can be shaped. A glassblower gathers a blob of it on the end of a long metal tube and blows gently through the other end, which makes a bubble. Factories use machines to press or blow melted glass into molds, so that thousands of bottles can be made in a day. Window glass is often floated on a pool of melted metal so that it cools flat and smooth.

As the glass cools, it becomes hard. It must be cooled slowly, or it might crack. Glass is easy to recycle, and old bottles can be melted again to make new ones without losing any quality.

Questions

  1. What is the main ingredient of glass? in the text

  2. Why do workers mix soda ash and limestone with the sand? in the text

  3. How does a glassblower make a bubble? in the text

  4. Why is glass cooled slowly? think about it

  5. Why is recycling glass a good idea? think about it

Words to know

ingredient
one of the things that something is made from
furnace
a very hot oven used to melt materials
glassblower
a person who shapes melted glass by blowing into it
molds
hollow shapes that give soft material its form
recycle
to use something again to make something new
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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 · 200 words · Flesch-Kincaid grade 3.2

Look around the room. You will likely see glass in a window, a cup, or a bottle. Glass seems new, but people have made it for thousands of years. Its main ingredient is something you can find at any beach. It is sand.

To make glass, workers mix sand with a few other things, such as soda ash and limestone. These help the sand melt at a lower heat. They also keep the glass strong. The mix goes into a furnace that is hotter than 2,500 degrees Fahrenheit. At that heat, the sand turns into a glowing, thick liquid.

Soft glass can be shaped. A glassblower picks up a blob of it on the end of a long metal tube. Then the glassblower blows gently into the tube to make a bubble. Factories use machines to press or blow melted glass into molds. Thousands of bottles can be made in a day. Window glass is often floated on a pool of melted metal. It cools flat and smooth.

As glass cools, it gets hard. It must cool slowly, or it might crack. Glass is easy to recycle. Old bottles can be melted again to make new ones. No quality is lost.

▲ This passage · 219 words · Flesch-Kincaid grade 6.2

Look around the room and you will probably see glass in a window, a cup, or a bottle. Glass seems like a modern material, yet people have been making it for thousands of years. Its main ingredient is something you can find at any beach, which is sand.

To make glass, workers start by mixing sand with a few other materials, such as soda ash and limestone. These ingredients help the sand melt at a lower heat and keep the finished glass strong. The mixture is poured into a furnace that is hotter than 2,500 degrees Fahrenheit. At that heat, the sand turns into a glowing, thick liquid.

While the glass is still soft, it can be shaped. A glassblower gathers a blob of it on the end of a long metal tube and blows gently through the other end, which makes a bubble. Factories use machines to press or blow melted glass into molds, so that thousands of bottles can be made in a day. Window glass is often floated on a pool of melted metal so that it cools flat and smooth.

As the glass cools, it becomes hard. It must be cooled slowly, or it might crack. Glass is easy to recycle, and old bottles can be melted again to make new ones without losing any quality.

■ Harder · 227 words · Flesch-Kincaid grade 8.3

Glance around the room and you will probably spot glass in a window, a cup, or a bottle. Glass may seem like a modern material, yet people have been manufacturing it for thousands of years. Its principal ingredient is something you can find at any beach, namely sand.

To produce glass, workers begin by combining sand with a few additional materials, such as soda ash and limestone. These ingredients allow the sand to melt at a lower temperature and help the finished glass remain strong. The mixture is poured into a furnace that is hotter than 2,500 degrees Fahrenheit, and at that temperature the sand turns into a glowing, thick liquid.

While the glass is still soft, it can be shaped in many ways. A glassblower gathers a blob of it on the end of a long metal tube and blows gently through the opposite end, creating a bubble. Factories use machines to press or blow melted glass into molds, so that thousands of bottles can be produced in a single day. Window glass is often floated on a pool of melted metal so that it cools perfectly flat and smooth.

As the glass cools, it hardens. It must be cooled slowly, or it might crack. Glass is also easy to recycle, because old bottles can be melted again to make new ones without any loss of quality.

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 ingredient, furnace, glassblower, molds and recycle 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 4 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 "How Glass Is Made"?

It was written for 5th grade. It has 219 words and works out to a Flesch-Kincaid grade level of about 6.2. 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 five. 3 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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