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Catching Drinking Water With Fog Nets

6th grade nonfiction passage about collecting water from fog: 240 words, six questions, an answer key and vocabulary.

6th grade nonfiction collecting water from fog 240 words

Catching Drinking Water With Fog Nets

Some villages sit in places where it almost never rains, yet the air is often wet with fog. People have found a clever way to use it. They hang huge nets in the path of the fog and collect the water that drips from them.

Fog is a cloud that touches the ground. It is made of tiny droplets of water so light that they float in the air. When a breeze pushes the fog, the droplets are carried along with it. A fog net is a fine mesh stretched tight between two tall posts. As the fog drifts through, the droplets bump into the threads and stick. Slowly many small drops join together into bigger drops. When a drop grows heavy enough, it rolls down the mesh.

A gutter along the bottom of the net catches the water. From there, it flows through pipes into a tank, where it can be stored until someone needs it. People use the water for drinking, for washing and for watering small gardens and trees.

Fog nets have been tried on mountain slopes and along dry coasts in several countries. They work best where fog arrives often and the wind blows steadily. The amount of water depends on the weather, so it changes from day to day.

Fog nets will not solve every water problem, but they cost little to run, need no electricity and give communities a dependable new source of water.

Questions

  1. What is fog? in the text

  2. How does a fog net catch water? in the text

  3. What happens to the drops once they grow heavy? in the text

  4. Where does the water go after the gutter? in the text

  5. Why do fog nets work best where the wind blows steadily? think about it

  6. Why is the amount of water different from day to day? think about it

Words to know

droplets
very small drops of liquid
mesh
a net made of crossing threads or wires
gutter
a narrow channel that carries water away
tank
a large container for holding water
steadily
in a way that stays about the same
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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 · 231 words · Flesch-Kincaid grade 3.9

Some villages sit in places where it almost never rains, but the air is often wet with fog. People found a clever way to use it. They hang huge nets in the path of the fog and collect the water that drips from them.

Fog is a cloud that touches the ground. It is made of tiny drops of water that are so light they float. When a breeze pushes the fog, the drops move with it. A fog net is a fine mesh stretched between two tall posts. The fog drifts through. The drops bump into the threads and stick. Many small drops join into bigger drops. When a drop gets heavy, it rolls down the mesh.

A gutter along the bottom of the net catches the water. The water flows through pipes into a tank. It can be stored there until someone needs it. People use it for drinking, for washing and for watering small gardens and trees.

Fog nets have been tried on mountain slopes and dry coasts in several countries. They work best where fog comes often and the wind blows steadily. The amount of water depends on the weather, so it is different from day to day.

Fog nets will not fix every water problem. But they cost little to run, need no electricity, and give people a new source of water they can count on.

▲ This passage · 240 words · Flesch-Kincaid grade 5.5

Some villages sit in places where it almost never rains, yet the air is often wet with fog. People have found a clever way to use it. They hang huge nets in the path of the fog and collect the water that drips from them.

Fog is a cloud that touches the ground. It is made of tiny droplets of water so light that they float in the air. When a breeze pushes the fog, the droplets are carried along with it. A fog net is a fine mesh stretched tight between two tall posts. As the fog drifts through, the droplets bump into the threads and stick. Slowly many small drops join together into bigger drops. When a drop grows heavy enough, it rolls down the mesh.

A gutter along the bottom of the net catches the water. From there, it flows through pipes into a tank, where it can be stored until someone needs it. People use the water for drinking, for washing and for watering small gardens and trees.

Fog nets have been tried on mountain slopes and along dry coasts in several countries. They work best where fog arrives often and the wind blows steadily. The amount of water depends on the weather, so it changes from day to day.

Fog nets will not solve every water problem, but they cost little to run, need no electricity and give communities a dependable new source of water.

■ Harder · 247 words · Flesch-Kincaid grade 7.7

Certain villages are situated in places where it almost never rains, yet the air is frequently saturated with fog. People have devised an ingenious way of putting that fog to use. They suspend enormous nets in the path of the drifting fog and collect the water that drips from them.

Fog is a cloud that touches the ground. It consists of minuscule droplets of water so light that they float in the air. When a breeze pushes the fog along, the droplets are carried with it. A fog net is a fine mesh stretched tightly between two tall posts. As the fog drifts through, the droplets collide with the threads and cling to them. Gradually many small drops merge into larger ones, and when a drop becomes heavy enough, it rolls down the mesh.

A gutter along the bottom of the net catches the water, which then flows through pipes into a tank where it can be stored until someone needs it. People use the water for drinking, for washing and for watering small gardens and trees.

Fog nets have been tried on mountain slopes and along dry coasts in several countries. They work best where fog arrives frequently and the wind blows steadily. The quantity of water depends on the weather, so it varies from one day to the next.

Fog nets will not solve every water problem, but they are inexpensive to operate, require no electricity, and give communities a dependable new source of water.

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 droplets, mesh, gutter, tank and steadily 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 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 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 "Catching Drinking Water With Fog Nets"?

It was written for 6th grade. It has 240 words and works out to a Flesch-Kincaid grade level of about 5.5. 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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