Reading fluency passages. Read them aloud as they scroll.

# The Lost Mitten

Sam had one red mitten. The other one was gone. He looked under his bed. He looked in his coat. He looked by the door. Then he went out to the yard. The snow was soft and white. Sam saw something red on top of the snow. It was his mitten! A little bird was sitting on it. "You can keep it warm for me," said Sam with a smile.

# Our Class Garden

Our class has a garden by the playground. In the spring, we plant seeds in the dirt. We plant beans, carrots and big yellow sunflowers. Every day, two of us give the plants water. At first, we can't see anything. Then, one morning, little green leaves pop up. By the summer, the sunflowers are taller than our teacher! We pick the beans and share them at lunch.

# How Bees Make Honey

A honeybee visits hundreds of flowers in a single trip. At each one, it sips a sweet liquid called nectar and stores it in a special stomach. Back at the hive, the bee passes the nectar to other bees. They spread it into the small wax cells of the honeycomb. Nectar is mostly water, so the bees fan it with their wings. The moving air dries it out, and slowly it turns thick and sticky. When the honey is ready, the bees seal each cell with a lid of wax. It takes a lot of work. In its whole life, one bee makes only about a twelfth of a teaspoon of honey.

# The Night the Power Went Out

The storm started just after dinner. First the wind howled, then the rain hammered on the windows. Suddenly, every light in the house went dark. The fridge stopped humming. Even the clock on the oven went blank. Mom found a flashlight in the kitchen drawer, and Dad lit two candles on the table. At first, my little brother was scared. So we built a fort out of blankets and told stories by flashlight. We made shadow animals on the wall. My best one was a rabbit with very long ears. When the lights came back on, we were almost disappointed.

# Why Leaves Change Color

All summer long, leaves are green because they are full of chlorophyll. Chlorophyll helps a tree turn sunlight, water and air into the food it needs to grow. But chlorophyll isn't the only color in a leaf. Yellow and orange colors are there all year, hidden underneath the green. In the fall, the days get shorter and the nights get cooler. Many trees stop making chlorophyll, and as the green fades, the yellow and orange finally show through. The bright reds and purples are different. Some trees, like many maples, make those colors in the fall, using sugars trapped in their leaves. Soon the leaves drop, and the tree rests until spring.

# A Letter From Space

Dear Grandma, Greetings from the space station! I've been floating up here for three weeks now, and I still haven't gotten used to it. Every morning, I wake up in a sleeping bag strapped to the wall. Brushing my teeth is tricky, because the water forms little bubbles that drift away if I'm not careful. The best part is the view. We circle the Earth so fast that I see the sun rise and set many times every day. Last night, I watched a thunderstorm flash over the ocean, far below. I miss your cooking. Space food comes in pouches, and none of it tastes like your soup. Love, Maya

# The First Marathon

According to legend, in 490 BC a Greek messenger named Pheidippides ran from the town of Marathon all the way to Athens, about twenty-five miles, to announce that the Greeks had defeated the Persian army. He delivered his message, and then he collapsed. Historians aren't sure the story is true, but it inspired one of the world's most famous races. When the modern Olympic Games began in Athens in 1896, organizers added a long-distance race that followed the messenger's route. They called it the marathon. The distance varied for years. At the 1908 Olympics in London, the course was set at twenty-six point two miles, and in 1921 that became the official length. Today, cities all over the world hold marathons, and runners still cover that same distance.

# Why Teenagers Need More Sleep

Sleep isn't just rest. While you sleep, your brain sorts through the day, strengthening the memories you need and clearing away what you don't. That's why studying all night before a test often backfires. Without sleep, the brain has less chance to store what you learned. Teenagers need more sleep than most adults: sleep experts recommend eight to ten hours a night for people aged thirteen to eighteen. There's a catch, though. During the teenage years, the body clock shifts later, so many teens don't feel sleepy until late at night. Keeping a regular bedtime, and putting phones away an hour before it, are two of the simplest ways to get more rest.