This cloze passage for 4th grade science asks students to fill 12 blanks from a 15-word bank, so three words stay unused. It is built on NGSS 4-PS3-1. Across three pages, the passage moves from a baseball thrown at 60 miles per hour to a bike splashing through a puddle, a bowling ball hitting pins, and a marble released from different heights on a ramp. The answer key lists all 12 words in order, from speed to explanation.
4-PS3-1
“Use evidence to construct an explanation relating the speed of an object to the energy of that object.”
All 12 blanks, and most of all the marble and ramp paragraph, where a greater release height gives more speed and pushes the cup farther.
Fifteen words sit in the box. Three of them (temperature, color, and light) have no blank, so students cannot fill the last gaps by elimination.
Three paragraphs carry the 12 blanks. The bike splash covers a greater distance when the rider goes fast, the bowling ball makes a louder crash, and the marble pushes a paper cup far away or only a few inches.
The 12 answers run in passage order, starting with speed and energy and ending with less and explanation.
Science center
Set a marble, a ramp, and a paper cup next to the sheet. Students test the third paragraph with the real objects before they fill its blanks.
Reading block
Use the passage as a science text during reading time. The three extra words force students to reread each sentence rather than guess.
Quiz review
Give it the day before an energy quiz. The bowling ball paragraph checks whether students accept a louder crash as evidence of extra energy.
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