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Matter is all around us: solids, liquids, and gases. Matter is anything that takes up space. Did you know that matter can be changed? There are many ways to change the shape, size, texture, appearance, and state of matter.
Download the force and motion science reading comprehension activity below for your students to close read.
Plants start as seeds. Seeds need to have a safe place to grow. Usually plants need to be buried in soil before they can grow. The seed needs three things to grow into a plant. It needs food, water, and sunlight. At first, a plant has all the food it needs inside the seed.
Download the activity below and use with your students.
This is a reading comprehension task for the leveled books on the American Civil War by Joan Nichols. The books include:
The above books are great for demonstrating the text feature subheadings. These books would be most appropriate for guided reading in the elementary setting.
What is Fort Sumter?
Fort Sumter is an island installation that was built in 1817 as a system of coastal fortifications to help to protect America’s Southern coastline from potential attacks. The walls of Fort Sumter are between 5feet and 8 feet thick. Fort Sumter is located in the Charleston, South Carolina harbor. South Carolina was the first state to secede from the United States. South Carolina would eventually become the State that felt the brunt of Sherman’s March as he cut though Southern territory in a march that drove the nail of defeat through the coffin of the Confederacy, and destroyed the Confederates will to continue the fight. But most important of all, Fort Sumter is where the American Civil War (1861-1865) official started on April 12, 1861.
Lincoln’s Inauguration as President
After Abraham Lincoln was inaugurated as president of the United States on March 4, 1861, of a deeply divided Union; the “divided” States. On the day of his inauguration seven (7) states had seceded. Very soon after that four (4) other states followed bringing the total number of seceding states to eleven (11). Slave holding states seceded from the Union fairing that a Lincoln led Republican Party would bring about an eventual abolition of slavery across all of the United States of America. Earlier we saw that the rate of secession was directly related to the slave population. Therefore, the issue of slavery was a primary factor for the various states to secede.
Fort Sumter and the Civil War
When the Southern States seceded, they claimed ownership of all federal property and possession in the South. However, the major in charge of Fort Sumter, Major Robert Anderson, remained defiant. As an incomplete coastal installation, Fort Sumter was primarily of symbolic stature to the United States, and a position that made it an enviable possession for both parties; the Union and the Confederacy.
President Lincoln was determined to retain ownership of Fort Sumter. Therefore, failed attempts were made to send food and other re-enforcements to Fort Sumter by the United States government. In the meantime, the Confederate government made repeated attempts to get Major Anderson and the United States government to give up ownership of the fort. The Confederate Army eventually opened fire on Fort Sumter after a failed attempt by the United States Navy to bring in supplies to the soldiers now encircled on Fort Sumter by the Confederate Army.
The Confederates eventually opened fire on Fort Sumter on April 12, 1862. This bombardment lasted for 34 hours. After almost two days of taking fire from all angles, Major Robert Anderson eventually surrendered Fort Sumter to the Confederate Army. The Union Army’s only casualty on Fort Sumter was due to an accidental explosion on the Fort while departing. After the Union abandoned Fort Sumter, the Confederate Army took control and held the Fort for almost the entirety of the Civil War.
After the bombardment of Fort Sumter and the eventual abandonment by Major Anderson and his men, Abraham Lincoln declared war on the Confederacy and called for volunteers. After Lincoln’s call for volunteers, the South followed likewise and called up volunteers as well. The Civil War had officially begun. The Confederate Army abandoned Fort Sumter just before Robert E. Lee Surrendered to Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox Courthouse on April 9, 1865.
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This is a compare and contrast reading comprehension one pager that students can glue into their writer’s or reader’s notebooks. Included is a definition of compare and contrast, and the keywords, or signal words, that young readers and writers can utilize to create or identify compare and contrast situations.
ELACC5RL3: Compare and contrast two or more characters, settings, or events in a story or drama, drawing on specific details in the text (e.g., how characters interact).
ELACC5RI5/ RI.5.5: Compare and contrast the overall structure (e.g., chronology, comparison, cause/effect, problem/solution) of events, ideas, concepts, or information in two or more texts.
Imagine this for a moment: Of all the animals found on planet earth, more than 9 out of every ten are invertebrates. An invertebrate is an animal that lacks a backbone or spine. This simply means that the majority of the animals that are living between the deepest oceans and the tallest mountains are invertebrates. Invertebrates, like all other living things, act as very important members of the food web. They help the environment in many ways, such as controlling the population of other insect pests or by helping with the pollination of plants. Pollination is the process by which pollen is passed from one part of a plant flower to another part of a plant flower. The entire animal world would be at risk of starvation if all invertebrates disappeared overnight.
There are many different types of invertebrates. Invertebrates include sponges, Echinoderms, Cnidarians, Molluscs, segmented worms and Arthropods.
Sponges are the most basic of all invertebrates. Most sponges live in salt water and obtain food through the movement of water through their bodies. Sponges do not usually move around on their own; they can be found attached to the surfaces of other objects in the water, such as coral and rocks. When water passes through their bodies, nutrients and other minerals, mostly from plankton, are absorbed by the sponge to satisfy the sponge’s basic energy requirement.
Echinoderms are radially symmetrical. That means that from the center, no matter the direction that you turn, Echinoderms will be equal. Examples of Echinoderms include starfish, sea urchins, sea lilies, sea cucumbers, etc. Echinoderms can be easily identified through their spiny or prickly outer coating. This protective armor acts as a great defense against some predators.
Cnidarians are radially symmetrical sea creatures that have tentacles encircling their mouths. Some Cnidarians, such as jelly fish, have soft bodies and long, stinging, poisonous tentacles that they use to immobilize their prey before eating them. Other examples of Cnidarians include coral, sea anemones, and hydras.
Molluscs are the second largest group of invertebrate animals behind arthropods. Their bodies are not divided into segments. They have antennae, or tentacles, and no true legs. Molluscs include, but are not limited to, snails, octopus, and slugs. Molluscs all have soft bodies; however, some molluscs have a hard outer shell for security. Removal of the shells will uncover a soft bodied creature. Molluscs have been an important part of the human diet for thousands of years. Also, the shells of molluscs have been traditionally used for tools and jewelry. Due to their large numbers, molluscs can also be a bother depending on the environment in which they inhabit. For example, some molluscs are regarded as non-insect pests because of the amount of damage they can do to crops by feeding on the leaves, usually at night when it is damp and cool.
Segmented worms are invertebrates that do not possess legs or a hard outer coating. Highlighting a difference with molluscs, segmented worms, also called annelids, are divided into many little segments, like rings joined together. There are three main groups of annelids: earthworms, leeches and polychaetes.
Arthropods are the largest and most diverse group of invertebrates. Arthropods can be found in a wide range of ecosystems (oceans, freshwater bodies, deserts and even rainforests). Arthropods have jointed legs, a hard outer coating called an exoskeleton and a segmented body. Due to the fact that most arthropods’ bodies are covered with an exoskeleton, they periodically go through a process called molting to rid themselves of their now outgrown exoskeletons. This exoskeleton acts as a protective shield against other organisms and from the environment in which they live. This prevents their bodies from drying out and protects them from being another organism’s next meal.
Arthropods can be divided into two main groups, those with three (3) legs (insects) and those with more than three (3) legs. Examples of Arthropods include insects, centipedes, millipedes, spiders, mites, horseshoe crabs, scorpions and crustaceans. Arthropods are probably the most feared category of invertebrates around. Thus, the mere mention of their names will send shivers through the spines of entomophobes and arachnophobes. An entomophobe is a person who is afraid of insects, while an arachnophobe is a person who is scared of spiders.