HomeMy WebLinkAboutRead Aloud Book Gr. K-Lesson 23Did you know that ducks grow up a lot faster than humans do? They grow
from babies to adults in one year!
A mallard is a kind of duck. Mallards build nests. They build their nests in tall
grass near lakes or ponds. In the spring, the mother mallard lays eight or ten
eggs in her nest. She sits on the eggs to keep them warm. If she did not sit on
them, the eggs would get too cold and they wouldn’t hatch. One month after
she lays the eggs, the mother mallard can fi nally get up off them. They are
ready to hatch.
The baby ducks are called ducklings. Their mother is the fi rst thing the
ducklings see when they step outside their shells. They quickly learn to follow
their mother wherever she goes. This is important because she will teach them
how to fi nd food.
The ducklings make their fi rst trip away from the nest on the same day they
hatch! Their mother leads them into the water, and they begin to swim right
away. Then their mother shows them where to fi nd food. She shows them how
to dip their heads down under the water to eat the plants that grow on the
bottom of the lake or pond. She also teaches them how to pull tasty bugs and
grass seeds out of the ground to eat.
Mallard ducklings cannot fl y. The baby ducks need to grow adult feathers
fi rst, and this takes about two months. When they are three months old, the
young mallards can fl y. They can also fi nd their own food. Now they are ready
to leave their mother. This usually happens sometime during the summer or
early fall.
For the rest of the year, the young mallards continue to grow. By the next
spring, they are ready to have ducklings of their own.
COMPREHENSION Retell how mallard ducklings change and grow.
Which words in the selection tell you where the ducklings go?
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Sammy’s Uncle Lee had a big garden. Uncle Lee grew many different kinds
of vegetables in his garden.
“Uncle Lee, can you teach me how to grow vegetables?” Sammy asked one day.
“Sure,” said Uncle Lee. “I was just about to plant these bean seeds.” He
showed Sammy the seeds. They were white and about the size of his fi ngernail.
“We’ll begin by planting the seeds one inch deep in the soil.” Uncle Lee
showed Sammy what an inch looked like on a ruler. Then they planted the
seeds, covered them with earth, and poured water on them.
After many days, little beanstalks started to pop out of the ground. Sammy
watered the plants every day, and the beanstalks grew taller. Sammy wanted
to know what the height of one beanstalk was, so he took a measurement with
a ruler.
“This plant is already six inches tall!” said Sammy.
Weeks later, the beanstalks grew fl owers. Bees visited the fl owers. Then
the fl owers began to fall off, and little green beans began to grow where the
fl owers had been.
“Let’s measure one of the beans to see how long it is,” said Sammy. He got
the ruler and measured a bean. It was two inches long. Then he measured
another. It was also two inches long. “These two beans are equal in length.
They’re the same size!” said Sammy.
Then Sammy measured another. “This bean is not equal in length to the
others,” he said. “It’s four inches long!”
“That bean is big enough to eat,” said Uncle Lee.
Sammy picked the bean. Then Uncle Lee split the bean open. There were lots of
little seeds inside.
“Those look just like the bean seeds we planted!” exclaimed Sammy.
“That’s right,” said Uncle Lee. “Each bean makes new bean seeds. We can
save some of the seeds. That way, we can plant them next year to grow more
beans!”
COMPREHENSION What happens when you plant and care for a bean
seed? What words about size help you understand how a bean plant
grows?
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