Reading passage Grade 1 English Language Arts
Too Much Bread at Kittiwake Park Pond: A Grade 1 Read-Aloud
An original grade 1 read-aloud about leftover duck bread turning a park pond green, with six comprehension questions and a closing opinion task about a sign.
Objectives
- Students will recall details from a read-aloud about a pond that turned green.
- Students will explain why leftover bread in a pond is a problem for fish.
- Students will state one opinion about a park sign and give a reason for it.
Vocabulary
Key words: pond, scum, rot, reeds, opinion
Teacher overview
This original story follows Mia, a first grader who feeds the ducks at the invented Kittiwake Park until a park worker explains what the leftover bread is doing to the pond. The passage is short enough to read aloud twice, and the science in it stays at the level a first grader can hold: food that no one eats sinks and rots, rotting food feeds green growth on the surface, and the green growth takes air that the fish need. Teachers assign it before a park visit or alongside a lesson on litter, and the closing opinion task gives students a decision to take a side on.
Passage
Too Much Bread at Kittiwake Park Pond
Mia went to Kittiwake Park every Sunday. She liked to feed the ducks. She brought a big bag of old bread.
Other kids fed the ducks too. Soon soggy bread floated all over the water. The ducks did not eat it all.
One Sunday the pond looked odd. Green scum sat on top. The water smelled bad. Mia could not see any fish.
A park worker named Blake came by with a net. Mia asked him what went wrong.
"Bread that no one eats sinks," Blake said. "It rots down there. Rotting food feeds tiny green plants. Those plants spread fast."
"Then the green scum takes the air the fish need," he said. "Fish need air in the water. We need air too."
Mia looked down at her bag of bread. She felt bad.
"Can I still come?" she asked.
"Come every week," said Blake. "Just leave the bread at home. Ducks find their own food in the reeds."
The next Sunday, Mia came with no bread. She sat on the bench and watched. Two ducks dove for weeds. A small fish jumped near the reeds. The scum had begun to fade.
Mia smiled. The pond was getting better.
Questions
- Where did Mia go every Sunday?
- What did Mia bring for the ducks at first?
- What three things did Mia notice on the odd Sunday?
- What did Blake say happens to bread the ducks do not eat?
- Why is green scum a problem for the fish in the pond?
- Why do you think Mia came back to the park with no bread?
Opinion task. Should Kittiwake Park put up a sign asking people not to feed the ducks? Write one sentence with your opinion and a reason. Use the word because.
From Water for Schools (waterforschools.org). This material is in the public domain (CC0) and may be copied, edited, and shared freely.
Answer Key
- Answer: Kittiwake Park. Mia went there every Sunday to feed the ducks at the pond.
- Answer: A big bag of old bread. Other kids brought bread as well, so soggy bread floated all over the water.
- Answer: Green scum on top, a bad smell, and no fish she could see. Any two of the three shows partial understanding and can be built on with one follow-up question.
- Answer: It sinks and rots. The rotting bread feeds tiny green plants, and those plants spread fast across the pond.
- Answer: The green scum takes the air the fish need. Blake explained that fish need air in the water the way people need air to breathe.
- Answer: Answers will vary. Accept any reasonable idea tied to the story, such as Mia still liking the ducks and the park, or wanting the pond to get better after what Blake told her.
Opinion task answer. Answers will vary. Accept any sentence that takes a side and gives a reason joined by because, such as "I think the park should put up a sign because the bread hurts the fish." A student who argues against the sign has met the standard if the reason is connected to the story.
Differentiation
Support
Read the passage aloud twice, stopping after Blake's two speeches to ask one question each. Give these students questions 1 through 4 with the matching paragraph marked in the margin, and let them answer questions 5 and 6 out loud. A simple three-picture strip of the pond before, during, and after helps students hold the order of events.
Extension
Ask students to write two more sentences telling what the pond might look like next spring if nobody fed the ducks bread. A second option is to write the words for the park sign and add one small drawing that would work for a reader who cannot yet read.
ELL supports
Pre-teach pond, scum, and reeds with pictures before reading, and act out the word rot with a slice of bread left in a cup of water for two days. Allow short phrases for questions 1 through 4. Provide the frame "I think the park should _____ because _____." for the opinion task.
Extensions
Set two cups of water on a windowsill and drop a small piece of bread into one of them. Students check both cups each day for a week and write one sentence describing the change, which gives them a slow, visible version of what Blake described at the pond. Cover both cups with clear plastic wrap, have an adult handle the bread and throw the cups away at the end, and remind students to look without touching or smelling, since moldy bread can bother children with allergies or asthma.