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Jupiter, the Giant Planet

5th grade nonfiction passage about space: 221 words, five questions, an answer key and vocabulary.

5th grade nonfiction space 221 words

Jupiter, the Giant Planet

Jupiter is the biggest planet in our solar system. It is so big that all the other planets could fit inside it with room to spare. More than 1,300 Earths could fit inside Jupiter.

Unlike Earth, Jupiter is not a rocky planet. It is a gas giant, made mostly of hydrogen and helium, the same gases that make up the sun. If you tried to land a spaceship on Jupiter, you would find no solid ground to stand on. You would sink deeper and deeper through thick, swirling clouds.

Those clouds make colorful stripes across the planet. Jupiter also has a giant storm called the Great Red Spot. This storm is wider than Earth and has been watched by astronomers for almost two hundred years. Scientists have noticed that the Spot has been getting smaller over time.

Even though Jupiter is huge, it spins faster than any other planet. One day on Jupiter lasts only about ten hours. The planet also has almost a hundred known moons. In 1610, an astronomer named Galileo used one of the first telescopes to discover four of the largest ones. They are still called the Galilean moons.

Several spacecraft have visited Jupiter. Some flew past it, and some, like the Juno mission, have orbited the planet to study its clouds, its storms, and what lies deep inside.

Questions

  1. How many Earths could fit inside Jupiter? in the text

  2. What is Jupiter mostly made of? in the text

  3. What is the Great Red Spot? in the text

  4. Why couldn't a spaceship land on Jupiter? think about it

  5. What is surprising about how fast Jupiter spins, given its size? think about it

Words to know

solar system
the sun and all the planets and other objects that travel around it
gas giant
a large planet made mostly of gas, not rock
astronomer
a scientist who studies stars, planets, and space
orbit
to travel around a bigger object in space
mission
a special trip or job, such as a space trip to collect information

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 solar system, gas giant, astronomer, orbit and mission 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 "Jupiter, the Giant Planet"?

It was written for 5th grade. It has 221 words and works out to a Flesch-Kincaid grade level of about 5.9. 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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