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Hitchhiking Burrs and the Idea Behind Velcro

6th grade nonfiction passage about burrs and seed spreading: 224 words, six questions, an answer key and vocabulary.

6th grade nonfiction burrs and seed spreading 224 words

Hitchhiking Burrs and the Idea Behind Velcro

After a walk through a field in late summer, you may find small, prickly balls stuck to your socks. They are burrs, and they are not trying to annoy you. They are a clever way for a plant to move its seeds.

A plant cannot walk, so each kind has found a way to send its seeds away from the parent. If seeds fell straight down, the young plants would crowd together and compete for light, water and soil. Some plants use wind, and some use water. Burr plants use passing animals. Each burr is covered with tiny hooks. When a deer, a dog or a hiker brushes past, the hooks catch on fur or fabric. The burr rides along, sometimes for miles, until it is scratched loose or falls off in a new spot.

Burrs gave a Swiss engineer a useful idea in the 1940s. After a hike, he noticed how stubbornly the burrs clung to his clothes and looked at them under a microscope. He saw hundreds of little hooks catching on loops of thread. He later made a fastener with one strip of tiny hooks and another of soft loops. It became hook-and-loop tape, which many people know by the brand name Velcro.

Inventors still copy designs from nature. The idea has a name: biomimicry, which means imitating life.

Questions

  1. What covers a burr and helps it catch on fur or cloth? in the text

  2. Why do plants need to send their seeds away from the parent? in the text

  3. What did the engineer see under the microscope? in the text

  4. What is biomimicry? in the text

  5. Why does the writer say burrs are not trying to annoy you? think about it

  6. How does a burr help a plant grow in a new place? think about it

Words to know

burrs
prickly seed cases that stick to fur and clothes
compete
to try to get the same thing that others need
engineer
a person who designs and builds useful things
fastener
something that joins two things together, such as a zipper
microscope
a tool that makes very small things look bigger
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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 · 211 words · Flesch-Kincaid grade 2.4

After a walk through a field in late summer, you may find prickly balls stuck to your socks. They are burrs. They are not trying to annoy you. They are a clever way for a plant to move its seeds.

A plant cannot walk. So each kind has a way to send its seeds away from the parent. If seeds fell straight down, the young plants would crowd together. They would compete for light, water and soil. Some plants use wind. Some use water. Burr plants use animals that pass by. A burr is covered with tiny hooks. A deer, a dog or a hiker brushes past. The hooks catch on fur or cloth. The burr rides along, sometimes for miles. Then it falls off in a new place.

Burrs gave a Swiss engineer an idea in the 1940s. After a hike, he saw how tightly burrs clung to his clothes. He looked at them under a microscope. He saw hundreds of little hooks catching on loops of thread. Later he made a fastener with one strip of tiny hooks and one of soft loops. It became hook-and-loop tape, known by the brand name Velcro.

Inventors still copy nature. The idea has a name: biomimicry. It means imitating life.

▲ This passage · 224 words · Flesch-Kincaid grade 4.8

After a walk through a field in late summer, you may find small, prickly balls stuck to your socks. They are burrs, and they are not trying to annoy you. They are a clever way for a plant to move its seeds.

A plant cannot walk, so each kind has found a way to send its seeds away from the parent. If seeds fell straight down, the young plants would crowd together and compete for light, water and soil. Some plants use wind, and some use water. Burr plants use passing animals. Each burr is covered with tiny hooks. When a deer, a dog or a hiker brushes past, the hooks catch on fur or fabric. The burr rides along, sometimes for miles, until it is scratched loose or falls off in a new spot.

Burrs gave a Swiss engineer a useful idea in the 1940s. After a hike, he noticed how stubbornly the burrs clung to his clothes and looked at them under a microscope. He saw hundreds of little hooks catching on loops of thread. He later made a fastener with one strip of tiny hooks and another of soft loops. It became hook-and-loop tape, which many people know by the brand name Velcro.

Inventors still copy designs from nature. The idea has a name: biomimicry, which means imitating life.

■ Harder · 231 words · Flesch-Kincaid grade 6.8

After an afternoon tramping through a field in late summer, you may discover small, prickly balls clinging to your socks. These are burrs, and they are not deliberately trying to irritate you. They represent a clever strategy that a plant uses to disperse its seeds.

A plant cannot walk, so each kind has evolved some method of sending its seeds away from the parent. If seeds simply dropped straight down, the young plants would crowd together and compete for light, water and soil. Some plants rely on wind, and others on water. Burr plants rely on passing animals. Every burr is covered with tiny hooks. When a deer, a dog or a hiker brushes past, the hooks catch on fur or fabric. The burr travels along, sometimes for miles, until it is scratched loose or drops off in a new location.

Burrs gave a Swiss engineer a valuable idea in the 1940s. After a hike, he noticed how stubbornly the burrs clung to his clothes and examined them under a microscope. He observed hundreds of tiny hooks snagging on loops of thread. He later designed a fastener consisting of one strip of minute hooks and another of soft loops. It became hook-and-loop tape, which many people know by the brand name Velcro.

Inventors continue to borrow designs from nature. The approach has a name: biomimicry, which means imitating life.

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 burrs, compete, engineer, fastener and microscope 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 "Hitchhiking Burrs and the Idea Behind Velcro"?

It was written for 6th grade. It has 224 words and works out to a Flesch-Kincaid grade level of about 4.8. 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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