Water Bears: read-along
Water Bears as a read-along for the projector: 10 pages, 1602 words, level 18, beyond grade 8.
Page 1 of 10
A tardigrade is a microscopic animal with a plump, segmented body and eight stubby legs, and each leg ends in a set of tiny claws. Most adults measure only about half a millimeter at the very most, which is roughly the size of a grain of fine salt, so a person usually needs a microscope to see one properly. Because its slow, lumbering walk resembles that of a bear, a German scientist named Johann Goeze called it the little water bear in 1773, and a few years later an Italian scientist named Lazzaro Spallanzani gave it the name tardigrade, which means slow stepper. Tardigrades are not insects and they are not worms. They form a phylum of their own, which is one of the major branches of the animal kingdom, and their closest relatives include the arthropods and the velvet worms. Altogether, these relatives make up a gigantic group of animals that includes every insect, spider, and crab on Earth, which makes the tardigrade a distant cousin of an enormous number of familiar creatures.
Keys: ← → or Page Up and Page Down turn the page, Space starts and pauses the voice, Home and End jump, F fills the screen. Tapping the right side of a page goes on; the left side goes back.
How to use it
- Press Full screen (F) to put the book on the projector.
- Press Read to me (Space), or read it yourself and turn pages with the arrow keys or a tap. Pick the Pace that suits the class.
- After the last page, three questions come up to talk about.
About this book
- Level 18, beyond grade 8
- 10 pages, 1602 words, about 12 minutes aloud
- A true book, gentle
Related
About Water Bears
Meet the water bear, a tiny animal with eight legs that you can find in a clump of moss. It can dry up for years, then wake up, and some have even survived a trip into space.
Words to preview
- microscopic (my-kruh-SKOP-ik)
- very tiny
- species (SPEE-sheez)
- kind of animal
- cuticle (KYOO-tih-kul)
- outer skin layer
- cryptobiosis (krip-toh-by-OH-sis)
- hidden life
- radiation (ray-dee-AY-shun)
- harmful energy rays
Questions that fit any book
- What is one new thing you learned from this book?
- Which page told you the most? What did it say?
- What would you still like to find out about this?
Questions
How long does Water Bears take to read aloud?
It has 10 pages and 1602 words, so about 12 minutes at the Steady pace and a little less at Quick. If you stop to talk on the way, plan for more.
What reading level is Water Bears?
Level 18, beyond grade 8. The library numbers its levels from 0 to 18 and puts the level of a book on its cover; levels above 13 are beyond grade 8 and have no grade. A level is a guide for choosing, so look at the pages yourself.
Whose voice is it?
Your browser's own. Read to me uses a speaking voice already on the computer, so it sounds like that computer and works without a sign-in. Voices differ: some light each word as it is spoken, and some do not, in which case the highlight follows a steady pace instead. Some browsers use an online voice; if yours does, the browser, not us, sends the words of the page to its speech service. If no voice is installed, turn the pages and read it aloud yourself.
Do students need an account?
No. Nothing is asked of anyone and nothing is sent to us. Project the page, or share the link and let students open it on their own screens.
Where does this book come from?
It was written for Peabody's library as a true book. It is not copied from a textbook or another site.
Nothing you do here is sent to us. The voice is your browser's own. No sign-in, no ads.