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Peat Bogs: Wet Ground That Saves Old Plants

6th grade nonfiction passage about peat bogs and sphagnum moss: 241 words, six questions, an answer key and vocabulary.

6th grade nonfiction peat bogs and sphagnum moss 241 words

Peat Bogs: Wet Ground That Saves Old Plants

A peat bog is a soggy stretch of land where the ground feels like a wet sponge and little grows except moss, a few low shrubs and some specialized plants. It may seem like a dull place, but a bog stores a record of the past and does a surprising amount of work.

The most important plant in many bogs is sphagnum moss. It soaks up water like a sponge and releases acids that make the water sour. In a normal forest, fallen leaves and stems are broken down by tiny living things within a few years. In the cold, waterlogged, acidic bog, there is very little oxygen, and those decomposers work extremely slowly. Dead moss and plants pile up, layer on layer, and become a dark, spongy material called peat. Peat builds up only about a millimeter or so in a year, so a deep bog can be thousands of years old.

Because decay is so slow, bogs preserve things well. Scientists can study ancient pollen in peat to learn which plants grew nearby long ago, and they have found wooden tools and other old objects kept safe in the wet ground.

People have dried and burned peat as fuel, and gardeners have mixed it into potting soil. Bogs also hold huge amounts of carbon, and they soak up rainwater and release it slowly. Digging them up takes thousands of years to undo, so many places now protect their bogs.

Questions

  1. What is the most important plant in many bogs? in the text

  2. What does sphagnum moss do to the water? in the text

  3. What is peat? in the text

  4. What have people done with peat? in the text

  5. Why do decomposers work so slowly in a bog? think about it

  6. Why do many places now protect their bogs? think about it

Words to know

sphagnum
a kind of pale moss that holds a great deal of water
peat
dark material made of partly rotted plants in wet ground
decomposers
living things that break down dead plants and animals
waterlogged
soaked with so much water that it cannot drain
pollen
the fine yellow dust that flowers make for reproduction
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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 · 234 words · Flesch-Kincaid grade 2.8

A peat bog is a soggy place. The ground feels like a wet sponge. Little grows there but moss, a few low shrubs and some special plants. It may seem dull. But a bog keeps a record of the past and does a lot of work.

The key plant in many bogs is sphagnum moss. It soaks up water like a sponge. It also gives off acids that make the water sour. In a forest, fallen leaves and stems are broken down by tiny living things in a few years. A bog is cold, full of water and sour. It has very little oxygen. So the decomposers work very slowly. Dead moss and plants pile up in layers. They become a dark, spongy material called peat. Peat grows only about a millimeter in a year. A deep bog can be thousands of years old.

Decay is so slow that bogs keep things well. Scientists study old pollen in peat. It tells them which plants grew nearby long ago. They have found wooden tools and other old objects kept safe in the wet ground.

People have dried and burned peat as fuel. Gardeners have mixed it into potting soil. Bogs also hold a lot of carbon. They soak up rain and let it go slowly. A bog that is dug up takes thousands of years to come back. So many places now protect their bogs.

▲ This passage · 241 words · Flesch-Kincaid grade 7.6

A peat bog is a soggy stretch of land where the ground feels like a wet sponge and little grows except moss, a few low shrubs and some specialized plants. It may seem like a dull place, but a bog stores a record of the past and does a surprising amount of work.

The most important plant in many bogs is sphagnum moss. It soaks up water like a sponge and releases acids that make the water sour. In a normal forest, fallen leaves and stems are broken down by tiny living things within a few years. In the cold, waterlogged, acidic bog, there is very little oxygen, and those decomposers work extremely slowly. Dead moss and plants pile up, layer on layer, and become a dark, spongy material called peat. Peat builds up only about a millimeter or so in a year, so a deep bog can be thousands of years old.

Because decay is so slow, bogs preserve things well. Scientists can study ancient pollen in peat to learn which plants grew nearby long ago, and they have found wooden tools and other old objects kept safe in the wet ground.

People have dried and burned peat as fuel, and gardeners have mixed it into potting soil. Bogs also hold huge amounts of carbon, and they soak up rainwater and release it slowly. Digging them up takes thousands of years to undo, so many places now protect their bogs.

■ Harder · 249 words · Flesch-Kincaid grade 9.8

A peat bog is a saturated expanse of land where the ground feels like a damp sponge and little grows except moss, a few low shrubs and some highly specialized plants. It may seem like a dreary place, but a bog preserves a record of the distant past and performs a surprising amount of valuable work.

The most important plant in many bogs is sphagnum moss. It absorbs water like a sponge and releases acids that turn the water sour. In an ordinary forest, fallen leaves and stems are broken down by tiny living things within a few years. In the cold, waterlogged, acidic conditions of a bog, there is very little oxygen, and those decomposers labor extremely slowly. Dead moss and plants accumulate, layer upon layer, and gradually become a dark, spongy material called peat. Peat builds up at a rate of only about a millimeter in a year, so a deep bog can be many thousands of years old.

Because decay proceeds so slowly, bogs preserve objects remarkably well. Scientists can examine ancient pollen in peat to determine which plants grew nearby long ago, and they have discovered wooden tools and other old objects kept intact in the wet ground.

People have dried and burned peat as fuel, and gardeners have blended it into potting soil. Bogs also store enormous quantities of carbon, and they absorb rainwater and release it gradually. Digging them up takes thousands of years to undo, so many places now protect their bogs.

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 sphagnum, peat, decomposers, waterlogged and pollen 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 "Peat Bogs: Wet Ground That Saves Old Plants"?

It was written for 6th grade. It has 241 words and works out to a Flesch-Kincaid grade level of about 7.5. 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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