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Penelope Pratt Whispers to Turnips

5th grade fiction passage about a tall tale about a giant turnip: 253 words, six questions, an answer key and vocabulary.

5th grade fiction a tall tale about a giant turnip 253 words

Penelope Pratt Whispers to Turnips

Penelope Pratt claimed she could whisper to turnips, and the strange part is that nobody could prove her wrong. Every evening she knelt in her garden and murmured, "Grow, my darlings, grow." By morning the turnips were always twice as big as the day before.

By midsummer, the turnips were the size of pumpkins. By the end of the summer they were the size of pianos. Penelope's neighbors peeked over the fence and shook their heads.

"Penelope," said Mr. Dibble, "you may be whispering too much."

But Penelope had one favorite turnip named Hubert. Hubert grew so large that his green leaves covered the roof of her barn, and his round purple top pushed up the roof tiles one by one. One Thursday, Hubert was so large that Penelope could not open her front door.

"Hubert," she said sternly, "that is quite enough." She whispered, "Stop growing now," and Hubert, being a polite turnip, finally stopped.

But now there was a problem. A turnip the size of a house cannot be pulled up, and it cannot be moved. It cannot even be eaten by one family. So Penelope rang the town bell, and everybody came running with spoons.

The town cooks dug a deep hole around the turnip and filled it with water and carrots. They lit a great ring of fires, and Hubert simmered into the biggest soup anyone had ever tasted. The whole town ate turnip soup for two weeks, and Penelope kept whispering only to the tiny radishes after that.

Questions

  1. What did Penelope whisper to her turnips? in the text

  2. What was the name of Penelope's favorite turnip? in the text

  3. What problem did Hubert's size cause? in the text

  4. Why was Hubert described as a polite turnip? think about it

  5. How did the town solve the problem of a giant turnip? in the text

  6. Why did Penelope whisper only to radishes at the end? think about it

Words to know

murmured
spoke in a low, soft voice
sternly
in a serious, strict way
simmered
cooked gently just below boiling
claimed
said that something was true
midsummer
the middle of the summer
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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 · 206 words · Flesch-Kincaid grade 3.5

Penelope Pratt said she could whisper to turnips. No one could prove she was wrong. Each evening she knelt in her garden. She said softly, "Grow, my darlings, grow." By morning the turnips were twice as big.

By midsummer, the turnips were as big as pumpkins. By the end of summer they were as big as pianos. The neighbors peeked over the fence.

"Penelope," said Mr. Dibble, "you may be whispering too much."

Penelope had a favorite turnip named Hubert. Hubert grew so big that his leaves covered her barn roof. One Thursday, Hubert was so big that Penelope could not open her front door.

"Hubert," she said, "that is enough." She whispered, "Stop growing now." Hubert was a polite turnip, so he stopped.

But now there was a problem. A turnip as big as a house cannot be pulled up. It cannot be moved. One family cannot eat it. So Penelope rang the town bell. Everyone came running with spoons.

The cooks dug a deep hole around the turnip. They filled it with water and carrots. They lit a ring of fires. Hubert simmered into the biggest soup ever. The town ate turnip soup for two weeks. After that, Penelope whispered only to tiny radishes.

▲ This passage · 253 words · Flesch-Kincaid grade 5.9

Penelope Pratt claimed she could whisper to turnips, and the strange part is that nobody could prove her wrong. Every evening she knelt in her garden and murmured, "Grow, my darlings, grow." By morning the turnips were always twice as big as the day before.

By midsummer, the turnips were the size of pumpkins. By the end of the summer they were the size of pianos. Penelope's neighbors peeked over the fence and shook their heads.

"Penelope," said Mr. Dibble, "you may be whispering too much."

But Penelope had one favorite turnip named Hubert. Hubert grew so large that his green leaves covered the roof of her barn, and his round purple top pushed up the roof tiles one by one. One Thursday, Hubert was so large that Penelope could not open her front door.

"Hubert," she said sternly, "that is quite enough." She whispered, "Stop growing now," and Hubert, being a polite turnip, finally stopped.

But now there was a problem. A turnip the size of a house cannot be pulled up, and it cannot be moved. It cannot even be eaten by one family. So Penelope rang the town bell, and everybody came running with spoons.

The town cooks dug a deep hole around the turnip and filled it with water and carrots. They lit a great ring of fires, and Hubert simmered into the biggest soup anyone had ever tasted. The whole town ate turnip soup for two weeks, and Penelope kept whispering only to the tiny radishes after that.

■ Harder · 277 words · Flesch-Kincaid grade 7.6

Penelope Pratt claimed that she could whisper to turnips, and the peculiar part is that nobody could ever prove her wrong. Every evening she knelt in her garden and murmured, "Grow, my darlings, grow." By morning, the turnips were invariably twice as big as they had been the day before.

By midsummer the turnips were the size of pumpkins, and by the end of the season they were the size of pianos. Penelope's neighbors peeked over the fence and shook their heads in amazement.

"Penelope," said Mr. Dibble, "I suspect that you may be whispering a bit too much."

But Penelope had one favorite turnip, whom she had named Hubert. Hubert grew so enormous that his green leaves blanketed the roof of her barn, and his round purple top pushed up the roof tiles one by one. One Thursday, Hubert became so large that Penelope could not even open her front door.

"Hubert," she said sternly, "that is quite enough." She whispered, "Stop growing now," and Hubert, being a remarkably polite turnip, finally stopped.

Yet a new problem had appeared. A turnip the size of a house cannot be pulled out of the ground, it cannot be moved, and it cannot possibly be eaten by a single family. So Penelope rang the town bell, and everybody came running with spoons.

The town cooks dug a deep trench around the turnip and filled it with water and carrots. They lit a great ring of fires, and Hubert slowly simmered into the largest soup anyone had ever tasted. The whole town feasted on turnip soup for two weeks, and from then on Penelope whispered only to the tiny radishes.

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 murmured, sternly, simmered, claimed and midsummer 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 3 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 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 "Penelope Pratt Whispers to Turnips"?

It was written for 5th grade. It has 253 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 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 3 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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