"From Pond to Lily Pad" is a five-paragraph nonfiction passage on the frog life cycle for 3rd grade readers. It follows frog spawn to tadpole, tadpole to froglet through metamorphosis, and froglet to adult frog with a long, sticky tongue. Eight questions follow, including a true or false item that needs text evidence and a four-stage sequencing task. The sheet supports NGSS 3-LS1-1. The answer key quotes the passage to back up the true or false and survival questions.
3-LS1-1
“Develop models to describe that organisms have unique and diverse life cycles but all have in common birth, growth, reproduction, and death.”
Question 7 orders eggs, tadpole, froglet, and adult frog, and question 8 has students describe the full cycle, ending with the adult laying eggs of its own.
Five short paragraphs start at a quiet pond in spring. They describe jelly-like eggs, a tadpole with gills and a long tail, a froglet that grows back legs and then front legs, and an adult that eats bugs.
Questions 1 to 6 ask for the name of frog spawn, what tadpoles eat, and whether a tadpole breathes with lungs. They also cover a multiple-choice definition of metamorphosis and two opinion or reasoning items backed by the text.
Question 7 asks students to number four stage descriptions from 1 to 4. Question 8 asks for a summary that uses first, next, then, and finally.
ELA and science crossover
Use it in your reading block as an informational text. Questions 3 and 5 both ask students to find evidence in the passage, which fits text-based answer practice.
Guided reading group
Read the passage aloud in a small group and stop after each paragraph to sketch the stage. Students then have a model to use for question 7.
Sequencing check
The question 7 descriptions are printed out of order, froglet first. Students who number them as printed have not read the details closely.
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