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The Jar of Orphan Screws

5th grade fiction passage about sorting a jar of loose screws: 228 words, six questions, an answer key and vocabulary.

5th grade fiction sorting a jar of loose screws 228 words

The Jar of Orphan Screws

On Saturday, Farid's father handed him a glass jar that rattled like a box of tiny bones. "Sort these," he said. "I am tired of digging through them every time I need one."

The jar held screws, bolts, washers, and nuts, all jumbled together. Farid groaned. It looked like the most boring job in the whole world. He set a muffin tin on the garage floor and began dropping pieces into the cups.

At first he sorted by size. Soon he noticed that two screws of the same length might not match at all. One had thin, tight threads, and the other had thick, coarse ones. He sorted again, this time by the shape of the head. Then he sorted by color, silver in one cup and brass in another.

By noon the muffin tin looked like a rainbow of metal. Farid had also found something else in the jar, a short brass screw with a flat, wide head that did not belong to anything in the garage.

Then he remembered Grandma's wooden chair. It had wobbled ever since one leg screw went missing. Farid carried the brass screw to the kitchen and turned it with a screwdriver. It slid in as if it had been waiting for years. The chair stood perfectly still.

His father laughed. "It looks like that jar of orphans finally found a home."

Questions

  1. What job did Farid's father give him? in the text

  2. What did Farid use to hold the sorted pieces? in the text

  3. What did Farid learn about two screws that were the same length? in the text

  4. What was wrong with Grandma's wooden chair? in the text

  5. Why did Farid's father call the jar a jar of orphans? think about it

  6. How did sorting the jar carefully help Farid solve the chair problem? think about it

Words to know

threads
the spiral ridges around a screw
coarse
rough and thick, not fine
jumbled
mixed up in a messy way
wobbled
rocked from side to side
brass
a shiny yellow metal
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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 2.3

On Saturday, Farid's father gave him a glass jar that rattled. "Sort these," he said. "I am tired of digging through them."

The jar held screws, bolts, washers, and nuts, all mixed up. Farid groaned. It looked like the most boring job ever. He put a muffin tin on the garage floor and began dropping pieces into the cups.

At first he sorted by size. Then he saw that two screws of the same length might not match. One had thin threads. The other had thick ones. So he sorted again by the shape of the head. Then he sorted by color, silver in one cup and brass in another.

By noon the tin looked like a rainbow of metal. Farid had also found a short brass screw with a flat, wide head. It did not belong to anything in the garage.

Then he thought of Grandma's wooden chair. It had wobbled ever since a leg screw went missing. Farid took the brass screw to the kitchen and turned it in with a screwdriver. It slid in as if it had been waiting for years. The chair stood still.

His father laughed. "That jar of orphans finally found a home."

▲ This passage · 228 words · Flesch-Kincaid grade 3.6

On Saturday, Farid's father handed him a glass jar that rattled like a box of tiny bones. "Sort these," he said. "I am tired of digging through them every time I need one."

The jar held screws, bolts, washers, and nuts, all jumbled together. Farid groaned. It looked like the most boring job in the whole world. He set a muffin tin on the garage floor and began dropping pieces into the cups.

At first he sorted by size. Soon he noticed that two screws of the same length might not match at all. One had thin, tight threads, and the other had thick, coarse ones. He sorted again, this time by the shape of the head. Then he sorted by color, silver in one cup and brass in another.

By noon the muffin tin looked like a rainbow of metal. Farid had also found something else in the jar, a short brass screw with a flat, wide head that did not belong to anything in the garage.

Then he remembered Grandma's wooden chair. It had wobbled ever since one leg screw went missing. Farid carried the brass screw to the kitchen and turned it with a screwdriver. It slid in as if it had been waiting for years. The chair stood perfectly still.

His father laughed. "It looks like that jar of orphans finally found a home."

■ Harder · 244 words · Flesch-Kincaid grade 6.2

On Saturday morning, Farid's father handed him a glass jar that rattled like a box of tiny bones. "Sort these," he said. "I am tired of digging through them every time I need a single screw."

The jar held screws, bolts, washers, and nuts, all jumbled together in a metallic heap. Farid groaned, because it looked like the most tedious job in the entire world. Nevertheless, he set a muffin tin on the garage floor and began dropping pieces into its cups.

At first he sorted by size. Before long he noticed that two screws of identical length might not match at all, since one had thin, tight threads while the other had thick, coarse ones. He sorted again, this time by the shape of the head, and then by color, with silver pieces in one cup and brass pieces in another.

By noon the muffin tin resembled a rainbow of metal. Farid had also discovered something unusual in the jar, a short brass screw with a flat, wide head that did not belong to anything in the garage.

Then he remembered Grandma's wooden chair, which had wobbled ever since one of its leg screws disappeared. Farid carried the brass screw into the kitchen and turned it with a screwdriver. It slid into place as though it had been waiting for years, and the chair stood perfectly still.

His father laughed. "It looks as if that jar of orphans has finally found a home."

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 threads, coarse, jumbled, wobbled and brass 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 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 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 "The Jar of Orphan Screws"?

It was written for 5th grade. It has 228 words and works out to a Flesch-Kincaid grade level of about 3.5. 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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