Seeing a hummingbird in the wild can be a magical experience. Learn more about these delicate members of the animal kingdom with a short reading passage, complete with four short-answer questions.

Concepts

informational texts, reading comprehension, hummingbirds, context clues, making inferences

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Additional Tags

english language arts

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Instructional Ideas

• Attach to a language arts homework packet or reading assessment
• Have individuals conduct research about other birds or animals, and prompt them to write a short informational passage with questions using the hummingbird resource as a model
• Show a short video of a hummingbird before or after assigning the reading passage

Classroom Considerations

• Hummingbird is written as two separate words throughout the passage, but as one word in the questions
• The third paragraph contains a change of voice—becomes a narrative depiction of hummingbirds while the rest of the passage is informative—consider using the break as a teaching opportunity to emphasize the importance of a consistent voice
• Passage compares the size of a hummingbird egg to a small sugarplum, an image that may not be readily accessible to many class members

Pros

• Passage and questions all fit on one page, making it easy to copy and distribute
• Contains strong sensory language

Cons

• None

Common Core

RI.5.1