KG-K5 Reading (English Lessons, Hour 3)

Level 1 Reading

The Parade

Word count: 134

Flesch Reading Ease: 87.7

Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level: 4.3

My mother took my brother Bill and me to the fun parade on Monday. There were children who rode in cars in the parade and children who walked behind the cars. I saw three pretty white horses walking in the parade. I saw some big dogs running in the parade, too. I got lots of candy from the clowns in the parade. The clowns had on purple hats and big, orange pants. I saw a clown’s puppy with a purple hat and orange pants on it, too! After the parade, I ate my candy and I clapped and clapped. It was a fun parade to see with my brother and my mother. It was a fun parade to see the pretty horses, big dogs, clowns, and puppy with purple hats and orange pants, too!

Level 2 Reading

Rhyming Animals

L2 Word count: 377

Flesch Reading Ease: 87.9

Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level: 4.0

This is a poem about many animals that live in, by and around you. This is a poem about many animals you see. It repeats the sound of words, too. Poems that repeat the sounds of words are called rhymes. Can you try to see in your mind the images of the many animals that I talk about when you read the poem? Are they large or small, do they live inside or outside? These animals live in different places - the garden, a park, the zoo, the beach, the woods, a lake or an ocean.

Animals – A Rhyming Poem

Animals live in many places – in water, grass, and trees.

Some hop, some jump, some climb, while others run with ease.

Animals can swim in lakes or fly high in the sky.

Smaller ones’ crawl in the rocks for a shady place to lie.

Whales dive deep to look for food in an ocean or a sea.

And bees buzz among the flowers, gathering nectar happily.

If I could be an animal – perhaps a deer or bear,

I would live wild in the woods and run from here to there.

The End

This is a poem about many animals that live in, by and around you. It rhymes or repeats the sounds in the words at the end of the sentences. Can you tell which words rhyme or sound the same? Does “bear” and “there” rhyme? How about sky and lie? Have you seen some of animals that I talk about? Do the images of lions or tigers, worms or grasshoppers, butterflies or bees, snails or frogs, squirrels or deer, ducks or fish come to your mind when you hear the words? The animals are big and small and live in many places with other animals. Do you see that these animals are dependent on their environment (where they live) for food and shelter? The poem talks about bees needing flowers for nectar. Do you know what bees make with nectar? What do the whales want when they dive deep? Is there an animal you are certain likes to climb trees to live in for shelter? This poem is a rhyming poem about animals. It tells where some animals live and how they move and find food.

Level 3 Reading

The Sun and the Stars

Word count: 515

Flesch Reading Ease: 72.6

Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level: 6.1

Scientists know many things about the Sun. They know how old it is. The Sun is more than 4½ billion years old. That would be 109 times the Earth’s diameter. The Sun also weighs as much as 333,000 Earths. The Sun is made up of gases: 75% hydrogen and 25% helium. Hydrogen is the simplest and lightest of all of the known elements. When you combine hydrogen with oxygen, you get water. You probably know what helium is. It is the gas that can be put into balloons to make them stay in the air and float. Scientists also know the temperature of the Sun. The surface of the Sun is about 10,000 degrees Fahrenheit (5,600 degrees Celsius). That might sound hot, but the Sun’s core is even hotter. The core is the central region where the temperature reaches about 27 million degrees Fahrenheit (15 million Celsius). The Sun is the center of our Solar System. Besides the Sun, the Solar System is made up of the planets, moons, asteroid belt, comets, meteors, and other objects. The Earth and other planets revolve around the Sun. The Sun is very important. Without it, there would be only darkness and our planet would be very cold and be without liquid water. Our planet would also be without people, animals, and plants because these things need sunlight and water to live. The Sun also gives out dangerous ultraviolet light which causes sunburn and may cause cancer. That is why you need to be careful of the Sun and wear sunscreen and clothing to protect yourself from its rays. Scientists have learned many things about the Sun. They study the Sun using special tools or instruments such as telescopes. One thing they do is to look at the amount of light from the Sun and the effect of the Sun’s light on the Earth’s climate. The Sun is actually a star. It is the closest star to the Earth. Scientists also study other stars, huge balls of glowing gas in the sky. There are over 200 billion stars in the sky. Some are much larger than the Sun and others are smaller than the Earth. They all look tiny because they are so far away from the Earth. This distance is measured in light-years, not in miles or kilometers. (One light-year is equal to the distance that light travels in one year. This is about six trillion miles or ten trillion kilometers!) Stars look like they are twinkling because when we see them, we are looking at them through thick layers of turbulent (moving) air in the Earth’s atmosphere. That is why the words are written in the song: Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star. Stars have lifetimes of billions of years. They are held together by their own gravity. Over half of the stars in the sky are in groups of two. They orbit around the same center point and across from each other. There are also larger groups of stars called clusters. These clusters of stars make up galaxies. Our Solar System is located in the Milky Way Galaxy.

Level 4 Reading

Tara’s Terrarium

Word Count: 621

Flesch Reading Ease: 74.8

Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level: 6.4

Tara was looking forward to the science fair this Monday. Science was her favorite subject and someday Tara wanted to follow in her mother and grandmother’s footsteps to be a scientist for her future career. Tara had planned out her experiment about plants and followed the scientific rubric that her teacher, Mrs. Winston, had outlined. Last night Tara realized that her experiment would not work. The plants that were in the dark basement and were not watered seemed to be was going to happen and to hypothesize why something would happen. But how would Tara explain this? She needed to switch gears and come up with a different idea. Tara had stayed up through the night to do some research on plant experiments. With a little luck and some scientific insight, this might just work out. After a delicious breakfast of hot oatmeal sprinkled with brown sugar, Tara finished her freshly squeezed orange juice and was ready to go. The experiments needed to be set up Monday morning so she needed to hurry. Dusting off a large glass jar from the basement, Tara was headed in a new direction. “This will work out great!” Tara shouted as she ran up the stairs. Then she carefully placed a thin layer of sand followed by some black, rich dirt into the jar. She grabbed some of the plants that had grown well from her first experiment and tucked a few into the dirt. It took a little longer than she had thought because the top of the jar was quite narrow. Tara carefully placed the hermit crabs into the sand. They scrambled into their shells, a little frightened in their new environment. Tara filled a small container of water and placed it against some rocks. She made a mental note to refill the water daily so the crabs could have enough water if they needed some. Then she sprinkled some of the crab food powder near the shells. It was almost late afternoon and Tara needed to add notes to her scientific log. She copied the dates from the weekend into the log and wrote all of the details of how her first experiment did not quite work out. Then she wrote a summary of what her new experiment was all about. She was careful to follow the rubric that Mrs. Winston had reviewed. She was going to grade the experiments right before the science fair opened to the crowds of people who routinely came to view it. Tara almost forgot. She did not want anything to happen this time. There would be no excuse for her changing her experiment again. Tara placed the small section of screen she had found in the garage on top of the jar and tightly added a rubber band around the opening. The crabs would be sure to get enough air and they would be safe. She did not want anything to happen to the crabs. After all, they were her brother’s. She had hoped he wouldn’t care if she borrowed them for a few days. It was “in the name of science” and she thought that Ted would understand. Tara wrote about the terrarium she created: A terrarium is a container designed to hold small plants and animals in a controlled condition. (A “controlled” condition is a way of directing what is going to happen.) She wrote about the beach environment she created for the crabs. Luckily, she already knew a lot about crabs. When her log was completed, she placed it next to her terrarium. She was happy to be finished and quite pleased that her experiment worked out after all. Then she ran off to find Ted and to thank him for the crabs.

Level 5 Reading

Cesar Chavez “Si, Se Puede” (“Yes, it can be done”)

Word count: 533

Flesch Reading Ease: 60.5

Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level: 8.7

Cesar Estrada Chavez (1927-1993) was a Mexican American labor leader who use Chavez was born in Arizona. When he was ten-year-old, his parents lost the family farm because of the Great Depression. They were forced to become migrant workers themselves. Chavez worked part-time in the farm fields with his family in Arizona and later in California, when his family lived there. After graduating from 8th grade, Chavez worked full-time to help support his family. He served in the U.S. Navy during WWII, married Helen Fabela in 1948, and eventually helped raise a family of eight children. Chavez and his wife helped teach Mexican immigrants to read and helped them with voting registration. Chavez was concerned over the health and working conditions of the migrant population. He did not like the use of pesticides, the name of the chemicals used to kill bugs on the crops. He knew that pesticides could make human beings sick. He organized a group of people to help work for the rights of farm workers. They worked on many goals like increasing the wages for the workers, improving their working conditions, and improving the safety for the farm workers. Chavez helped organize strikes, whereby the workers chose to stop working to protest some important issues related to work. For example, the migrant workers went on strike to protest the poor wages, poor working conditions, and lack of safety on their jobs. They refused to work until something changed regarding their salary and these working conditions. The public, that is consumers like you, sometimes chooses to support the strike by not buying certain products or not buying from a certain store, etc. This is called a boycott. Boycotts put pressure on the people who make decisions regarding those who are protesting and striking. Chavez went on many hunger strikes, too, which is another type of strike to prove a point and draw attention to what his concerns were. In a hunger strike, you basically do not eat until the demands are met. Chavez was able to use the hunger strikes to move legislators to change the laws to improve the lives of farm workers. Because of Chavez’s actions, he was jailed many times. Despite this, he continued his goal of helping to fight for the migrant worker. Chavez, with aid from Dolores Huerta and Gilbert Padilla, started a union called the National Farm Workers Association (NFWA) to help fight for social justice. He organized a national boycott of lettuce and grapes. The name NFWA was changed to the United Farm Workers (UFW) in 1974. In 1978, some of the demands for better wages and working conditions were met, so the boycott for the lettuce and grapes was lifted. Throughout his life, Chavez’s motto was “Si, se puede”. This meant, “Yes, it can be done”. Chavez proved that it could be done. His work for fair treatment and better pay for migrant workers helped make the lives of millions of people better. After a lifetime of working to help these people, Chavez died in 1993. He received the Presidential Medal of Freedom after his death. Chavez’s children and grandchildren continue in his footsteps to help fight for the rights for migrant workers.

Level 6 Reading

Ice Age

Word count: 731

Flesch Reading Ease: 45.3

Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level: 11.0

What is an ice age? An ice age is a time period when the temperature of the Earth’s surface and atmosphere is greatly reduced so that there is a presence or expansion of continental ice sheets, polar ice sheets and alpine glaciers in the southern and northern hemispheres. Within this time period, individual pulses of cold climate are considered “glacial periods” and warm intermittent periods are called “interglacial periods”. Using the definition of glacial and interglacial periods, geologists classify the present condition of the world as an ice age that began 2.6 million years ago because the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets still exist.

What is the basis of an ice age? There are three main types of evidence to consider. These include geological, chemical and paleontological. Geological evidence includes rocks, glacial moraines, drumlins, valley cutting, and the deposits of sediments. The chemical evidence looks at the variations in the ratios of isotopes in fossils found in sediments, sedimentary rocks and ocean sediment cores. Paleontological evidence looks at the changes in the geographical distribution of fossils. During cold time periods, organisms spread into lower latitudes and organisms that preferred warmer climates became extinct. These types of evidence have shown there were glacial periods over the past few million years.

What is the history of ice ages? There have been five major ice ages that chronicle the Earth’s past: Huronian (over 2 million years ago), Cryogenian (about 850-630 million years ago), Andean-Saharan (about 460-420 million years ago), Karoo (360- 260 million years ago), and the Quaternary Ice ages (the current ice age starting about 2.58 million years ago).

What happens during glacial time periods? The climate is cooler and dryer over most of the Earth. Large land and sea ice masses extend outward from the poles. Mountain glaciers extend to lower elevations due to a lower snow line. Sea levels drop because large volumes of water above sea level are removed from the ice caps. Ocean circulation patterns are also disrupted.

What theories are there to explain the ice ages? There are many theories behind the ice ages.

• One theory is that the increase of ice and snow causes the earth to reflect more of the sun’s energy and absorb less energy. When air temperatures decrease, ice and snow fields grow.

• Another theory hypothesizes that an ice-free Arctic Ocean leads to increased snowfall at high latitudes.

• Yet, another theory surrounds the concentrations of carbon dioxide and methane.

• An additional theory deals with the changes in the Earth’s orbit around the sun and possibly the Sun’s orbit around the galaxy.

• Some scientists have noted that the motion of the tectonic plates has resulted in changes in the relative location and amount of continental and oceanic crust on the Earth’s surface, which in turn affects wind and ocean currents which may also be a cause of the ice age.

• There is a theory about the impact of relatively large meteorites and another theory that volcanism, eruptions of super volcanoes, was a cause.

• It is noted that several of these factors may influence each other. One example is when the atmospheric composition of the earth changes, then climate is altered. This can change the atmospheric composition which repeats the cycle.

Will the Earth continue to experience glacial periods? There are two known configurations of the continents (in existence today) that either block or reduce the warm water from the equator to the poles. For example, the continent of Antarctica sits on top of a pole and the polar Arctic Ocean is almost land-locked. These physical conditions lead geologists to believe that the Earth will continue to experience glacial periods in the near future. What are some of the effects of the most recent glacial period? The effects of the last glacial period are seen today. The moving ice impacted the landscape of Canada, Greenland, northern Eurasia and Antarctica. Typical features of erratic boulders, till, drumlins, eskers, fjords, kettle lakes, moraines, cirques, horns, etc. were left behind. The heavy weight of the ice deformed the Earth’s crust and mantle. Global sea levels dropped over 330 feet (100 meters) to expose continental shelves in some areas. This caused land bridges to be formed between land masses and allowed animals to migrate. This type of rapidly changing land has been thought to have caused the Baltic and Scandinavian regions, as well as much of the North American coastlines.