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Worms in the Compost Pile

5th grade nonfiction passage about compost and earthworms: 227 words, five questions, an answer key and vocabulary.

5th grade nonfiction compost and earthworms 227 words

Worms in the Compost Pile

Banana peels, apple cores, and dead leaves might look like trash. A gardener sees something valuable. When these scraps are piled together and left alone, they slowly turn into compost. Compost is a dark, crumbly material that looks like rich soil. It helps plants grow, and it keeps a great deal of waste out of the garbage.

Compost is made by many small living things working together. Tiny organisms called bacteria and fungi start breaking down the scraps. Then bigger creatures arrive, such as beetles, sowbugs, and earthworms. Earthworms are especially helpful. They eat bits of rotting plants. They leave behind droppings called castings, which are full of nutrients that plants need.

A worm moves by stretching and squeezing its long body, and as it wiggles through the pile, it makes tiny tunnels. These tunnels let air and water reach deeper layers. Air is important, because the helpful bacteria need it to do their work quickly.

To keep a compost pile healthy, a gardener mixes green scraps with brown material. Green scraps are things like fruit peels and grass clippings. Brown material is dry leaves and shredded paper. The pile should feel as damp as a wrung-out sponge. After a few months, the compost is ready. Spread on a garden bed, it feeds the soil, and the soil feeds the next crop of vegetables and flowers.

Questions

  1. What is compost? in the text

  2. Which tiny organisms start breaking down the scraps? in the text

  3. What are worm castings? in the text

  4. Why are the tunnels that worms make helpful? think about it

  5. Why might a gardener add dry leaves to a pile of fruit peels? think about it

Words to know

compost
rotted plant scraps that make soil richer
organisms
living things
castings
the droppings that earthworms leave behind
nutrients
substances that living things need to grow
tunnels
long passages under the ground
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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 · 225 words · Flesch-Kincaid grade 4.5

Banana peels, apple cores, and dead leaves may look like trash. But a gardener sees something valuable. Pile the scraps together and leave them alone. Slowly they turn into compost. Compost is a dark, crumbly material that looks like rich soil. It helps plants grow. It also keeps a lot of waste out of the garbage.

Many small living things work together to make compost. Tiny organisms called bacteria and fungi start to break down the scraps. Then bigger creatures come, such as beetles, sowbugs, and earthworms. Earthworms are very helpful. They eat bits of rotting plants. They leave behind droppings called castings. Castings are full of nutrients that plants need.

A worm moves by stretching and squeezing its long body. As it wiggles through the pile, it makes tiny tunnels. The tunnels let air and water reach deeper layers. Air is important, because the helpful bacteria need it to work fast.

To keep a pile healthy, a gardener mixes green scraps with brown material. Green scraps are things like fruit peels and grass clippings. Brown material is dry leaves and shredded paper. The pile should feel as damp as a wrung-out sponge. After a few months, the compost is ready. A gardener spreads it on a garden bed. It feeds the soil, and the soil feeds the next crop of vegetables and flowers.

▲ This passage · 227 words · Flesch-Kincaid grade 5.6

Banana peels, apple cores, and dead leaves might look like trash. A gardener sees something valuable. When these scraps are piled together and left alone, they slowly turn into compost. Compost is a dark, crumbly material that looks like rich soil. It helps plants grow, and it keeps a great deal of waste out of the garbage.

Compost is made by many small living things working together. Tiny organisms called bacteria and fungi start breaking down the scraps. Then bigger creatures arrive, such as beetles, sowbugs, and earthworms. Earthworms are especially helpful. They eat bits of rotting plants. They leave behind droppings called castings, which are full of nutrients that plants need.

A worm moves by stretching and squeezing its long body, and as it wiggles through the pile, it makes tiny tunnels. These tunnels let air and water reach deeper layers. Air is important, because the helpful bacteria need it to do their work quickly.

To keep a compost pile healthy, a gardener mixes green scraps with brown material. Green scraps are things like fruit peels and grass clippings. Brown material is dry leaves and shredded paper. The pile should feel as damp as a wrung-out sponge. After a few months, the compost is ready. Spread on a garden bed, it feeds the soil, and the soil feeds the next crop of vegetables and flowers.

■ Harder · 230 words · Flesch-Kincaid grade 9.2

Banana peels, apple cores, and fallen leaves might resemble garbage, but a gardener recognizes something valuable in them. When these scraps are heaped together and left undisturbed, they gradually decompose into compost, a dark, crumbly substance that resembles rich soil. Compost nourishes plants, and it also diverts an enormous amount of waste from the garbage.

Compost is produced by many small living things cooperating with one another. Microscopic organisms called bacteria and fungi begin breaking down the scraps. Larger creatures then arrive, including beetles, sowbugs, and earthworms. Earthworms are particularly helpful, because they consume bits of rotting plants and leave behind droppings called castings, which are packed with nutrients that plants need.

A worm moves by stretching and squeezing its long body, and as it wiggles through the pile, it creates tiny tunnels. These tunnels allow air and water to reach the deeper layers. Air is essential, since the helpful bacteria require it in order to work quickly.

To keep a compost pile healthy, a gardener combines green scraps, such as fruit peels and grass clippings, with brown material, such as dry leaves and shredded paper. The pile should feel as damp as a wrung-out sponge. After a few months, the compost is ready. When it is spread over a garden bed, it enriches the soil, and the soil in turn feeds the next crop of vegetables and flowers.

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 compost, organisms, castings, nutrients and tunnels 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 "Worms in the Compost Pile"?

It was written for 5th grade. It has 227 words and works out to a Flesch-Kincaid grade level of about 5.6. 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 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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